Internet Psychology Blog from Graham Jones

Poor Bill Gates exposes league table nonsense

2010-03-11T09:41:33Z

Shock horror..! Bill Gates is no longer the world's richest individual. Instead, the Mexican telecomms supremo, Carlos Slim, has overtaken Bill to become the richest person on the planet, at least according to Forbes Magazine. He is half a billion dollars richer than Bill and is the first non-American to top the Billionaires List in 18 years. They will be crying into their beers in Wall Street.

Bill Gates missed the top slot in the list of world's richest
Copyright World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by Andy Mettler

Every year when this list is published, people are eager to find out who has the most money. The media clamours for interviews with these stars of making money and Forbes Magazine, naturally enough, is delighted with the ensuing publicity. The richest Briton, the Duke of Westminster, has hardly had a look in this morning; after all he's merely the 45th richest in the world with a paltry $12bn. And pity poor James Dyson, he's 937th in the world with a mere $1bn. Gosh, he's so far behind that Slim chap with his $53.5bn; but at least he's in good company with J K Rowling, also with $1bn.

Do any of these people care? Perhaps when you have $1bn, what's another 50? You hardly notice the difference. After all, at today's interest rates if you put just $1bn in a standard savings account you'd be earning around $130,000 interest each day. Could you live on that?

This league table is - like almost all league tables - nonsense. If Forbes wanted, they could continue working out the list down and down and down, until they find the poorest person in, say, Somalia putting them in 6,807,782,628th place. And the same is true for everything you have ever thought about in terms of your online business. We could construct a list of income via websites - oh, they do that...! And yes, you can find that Google, Amazon, Ebay and so on, all dominate the list.

If you wanted you could construct a leage table of website traffic...oh, they do that as well do they? And you could look admiringly at the billions of hits that Google gets and become downhearted at your paltry hundreds of visitors.

Or, you could have a league table of Twitter followers, or LinkedIn connections...don't tell me, they do that as well...? So, you've got fewer followers than Stephen Fry? Oh my goodness.

Guess what? None of it matters.

Let's imagine you want to do business with a particular individual at, say, Microsoft. If they follow you on Twitter, or connect with you on LinkedIn and visit your web page, that's fantastic. The very person you want is engaging with you. Sure, your one hit on your website and your single follower at Twitter would put you at the very bottom of the league tables, but would you care? Nope - because you'd be engaging the very person you want.

And there's another factor - you'd be happy. You would have achieved what you wanted.

If all you do is focus on things like how much higher in the league tables your competitors and heroes are, you'll have much less mental energy to devote to connecting with the people that matter. And you will be less happy. There are people down at the level of six billionth in the Forbes list who are happy with their lot in life. Focusing on that, and not on phoney lists, is much more important. If your web business is bringing in the income you are happy with and you are doing business with the people you like then forget all those league tables of web traffic, Twitter followers or the income you generate. None of that matters a jot compared with a happy you and your happy customers.

Blogging is not enough

2010-03-09T17:37:24Z

Silence covered the room as the question was asked, but slowly one man at the back raised his hand to answer. "Ah good," I said, "someone here has been blogging in their business. Tell us your story please." The middle-aged, balding chap rose to his feet and stumbled out just one sentence: "I tried it once but it didn't work."

Blogging is so 20th Century

There I was, speaking at a business event on the power of blogging and the way that it can help companies attract online attention, even money. Only one person in this 50 strong audience had even attempted blogging and from his answer he was expecting it to have an overnight success. Oh dear.

Business Week magazine has proclaimed that "blogging is not a business elective, but a prerequisite". In other words, if you want to be in business much longer you need to have a blog. Many companies still think of a blog as some kind of diary, where you post company events like product launches and new services, as they happen, once in a while. But people who "get" blogging realise that it can fundamentally shift a business once a blog becomes central to that firm.

Here's what you can do with one blog post. You can bring attention to that post, automatically, on:

Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
Yahoo!
Plurk
Plaxo
LinkedIn

You can re-blog it, automatically on things like:

Blogger
Vox
WordPress
Tumblr

You can automatically bookmark it on:

Delicious
Digg
Posterous
...and more...

In other words, with just one blog article you can get massive coverage for your business throughout the web. Without blogging, you have to get all this coverage manually. So, if a blog is central to your business, you increase your visibility significantly - and gain more website traffic as a result.

However, all this is old news. This is the kind of thing that the hapless businessman should have been doing when I asked that question about who was blogging; I asked that question two years ago. Clearly, much of business is so far behind what is happening online, they are getting left behind. A blog, as Business Week magazine said, should be central to your business. But they said that almost five years ago, in May 2005.

Now, blogging is not enough. You need to do all the things with a blog listed above - you can do it easily with Ping - but you need to do more. You need to think about blogs from a localisation perspective. With geotagging and mobile use now becoming increasingly popular, your blog needs to be locally relevant. It needs to be dynamically changed according to the location of the reader. And even if you are not doing that yet - I admit I'm not - we all need to plan how we are going to do that, because come this time next year it will be the norm.

Video consumption online has hit record viewing figures, contributing to the billions of hours of video now being watched online. How much of your blog is video based? And that's to say nothing of the exponential rise in podcast downloads via iTunes and other audio providers.

Some businesses are still in the "thinking about" stage of adding a blog. They need to get real. Not only has blogging moved on, companies who made it central to their business have also changed the rules. Bblogging is central to many successful online businesses, it's now also the focus for them of a multimedia content production system. Blogging without localisation, video, audio and a host of other enhancements is so "old hat"; yet, sadly, most businesses are still in the pre-blogging phase (i.e. still stuck in the last 1990s).

If you are still thinking about a blog, it's time to wake up and realise that the train left the station several hours ago.

How to make more money on the internet - forget your website

2010-03-08T09:02:04Z

Women have a problem; there I've said it, I've got it out in the open at last - a bit risky for me on International Women's Day, but it's done. Their problem, of course, is men. Men have dominated society for thousands of years, resulting in a bias in thinking. For instance, it is popularly thought that men can navigate and that women can't read maps. The problem, actually, is that society has preferred activities for males which lead to better spatial awareness. Until relatively recently, for instance, women were discouraged from football, a game that requires considerable spatial awareness skills. It's not that women can't read maps, it's just that men have prevented them from gaining the psychological ability to do it

Have a brainwave to boost your website; a theta wave

So, what has all this to do with making money on the internet, I hear you ask. Well, it's about your brain. New research from the University of California shows that the production of brain waves known as a "theta rhythm" are fundamental to things like memory and the overall health of our brains. And guess what produces lots of theta rhythms? That's right, activities that involve spatial awareness. In other words, it seems that the bias of society has not been helping women make the best of their brain power.

And that's bad. It's bad because a study on the amount of money we earn shows it is linked to our brain power. Women continue to earn less than men, on average, often for equivalent jobs. These studies suggest that there may be a reason; the male dominated society we live in has been restricting the brains of women. But fear not, women know more than we think they do.

They do things which help keep their theta waves active and thereby boost their brains. It's not just spatial awareness that keeps your brain healthy. Relaxation, meditation and learning are all activities which have been shown to boost theta wave production. Go along to any relaxation classes, or meditation rooms and you'll find them full of women. Try looking in at your local adult education centre and the same is true, a preponderance of women. They are busy producing more and more theta waves, boosting their brains, while men carry on working, with little impact on their brain power.

We are now witnessing the impact of all this online. Women dominate the social web; only one social site, Digg, has more men than women using it. The others are either split 50-50, or have more women users than men. And where is real money being made online these days? You guessed it, via the social web. Perhaps the theta-induced female brain is more at home online than the male brain? Who knows?

What is clear is that there is a potential relationship between generating more theta waves and earning more money, particularly online. So, how can you make more money with your internet presence - especially if you are not female? Well, the first thing is learn to relax more. You can take up meditation as well. And, importantly, learn something. Go to evening classes and take up whatever takes your fancy - pottery, local history, or crochet - it doesn't matter. What is important is that you activate your brain into learning mode.

When you learn more, relax more and meditate you will produce more of those theta waves that boost your brain power. In turn, you develop greater clarity of thought, which inevitably means you will be able to solve all those online glitches and difficulties more easily. And that should translate into more money.

Often, too many people focus on their website and then can't really identify the issues causing things like poor conversion rates, or lack of traffic. Taking time away from your website, doing things which create all those extra theta waves in your brain could well be the solution. Spatial awareness activities like football, orienteering, or navigating in a car rally will help, but perhaps today of all days men should take a few tips from women by taking up relaxation, meditation and continuous learning. After all, women are increasingly in charge online. If you're a man and you want to catch up. do what women do to their brains. And don't worry you'll lose your map reading skills - there's SatNav these days...!

The Week Ahead: Your Web Business starting 8th March 2010

2010-03-07T07:38:02Z

Phew...last week went quickly....! Same for you? Sometimes, though, the week goes so quickly it seems hard to remember what we did in those 168 hours. Perhaps the reason is we are not taking a break mid-afternoon and going to sleep. Yes, new research from neuroscientists at the University of California at Berkeley shows that by taking a break from your work in the afternoon and getting some sleep you improve your ability to remember things. It appears that sleep plays a role in memory and the researchers found that you need about an hour and a half's proper sleep in the middle of the day, in order for the effect to really kick in. So, if you are finding it difficult to remember what you have done in the past seven days, the chances are you are not getting enough sleep. The problem is, if you want to be able to remember more you need to get that sleep just after lunch. It shows that those Mediterranean siestas are a fantastic idea after all.

Perhaps, this week, then it will be worth "giving it a go" and seeing if you can plan in a few mid-day sleeps. You've nothing to lose, other than spending more time Tweeting or Emailing, and you might have a lot to gain in terms of brain power. But what else should your business be doing this week?

Planning: The election is a couple of months away, providing a little more certainty for the financial sector, and now we know that growth next year will be around 2%. What that means, with inflation at just over 4%, is that you will probably have less money for marketing in the next 12 months than you had in the last year. This suggests it is time to think hard and plan now for using cheap - even free - methods of marketing that will be cost-effective and valuable to you. For a start, read marketing expert Nigel Temple's article on marketing on a limited budget. Also, consider ways in which you can gain free publicity for your business using the media through a public relations strategy. Whatever you do, it is time now to plan for a year or two of limited marketing money - even though marketing should be your number one priority in the months ahead. We all need to plan now to get more out of each marketing pound we spend.
Content: Website content is, of course, an excellent marketing tool; and other than your time, it is often a free activity. So what extra content can you add in the coming week? Well, looking ahead to next weekend it is Mother's Day next Sunday; perhaps the value of mothers, what you learnt from your mum, or being a mum could inspire you to write something topical next weekend. Before we get there, though, this week sees the 40th Anniversary of the voting age being reduced in the UK from 21 to 18. With discussions currently taking place to lower it still further to 16, it might be a good week to write something about generations and the value of youth to your business sector. It's not that many years either since women were allowed to vote and tomorrow is International Women's Day; that is bound to gain a lot of media coverage and there must be something you could write on women in your business sector. You could even celebrate the women in your own company who have helped you achieve your own success. On Wednesday it will be 10 years since the NASDAQ financial index reached its peak at the height of the Dot Com Boom and signalling the major crash that was to follow; how the race for money online has affected your industry might also be something to reflect on this week. If you are in the mood for dancing, you might want to link something you write about to the 45th Birthday of singer Coleen Nolan, this Friday. And if you want to add a bit of poetry to your website this week, why not link it to the 63rd birthday of Pam Ayres?
Tidying up: How up-to-date is your contacts list? Are you sure that all the numbers are correct and that the email addresses still work? There are several tools online that help you keep your contacts database current. But there is nothing to beat a manual check. You will find duplicates, out-of-date telephone numbers, incorrect email addresses and companies you no longer have any connection with. Time to spend a couple of hours keeping your contacts list organised...!
New features: Often you need a quick way of sorting particular data, or entering some information so that it can be sorted and analysed. You could do that with a spreadsheet, but to make it look nice takes a lot of work. You could set up a database application, but you probably need a degree in computer engineering to understand the insides of something like Microsoft Access. So, the easy way to enter, organise and analyse data is to go to Zoho Creator and set up a database. It takes a couple of minutes to design the entry form you need and then you can add the information and then view it, sort it, change it - in fact any data operation. If you only need to access the data yourself and you only have up to three databases, it is free of charge.
Reading: You are an expert; whatever business you are in, you have expertise. That is probably what you sell to others anyway, in one form or another. That means people would pay to read your expertise in the form of a book. It is said that we all have a book "inside us" but the problem for most people is getting that book "outside us"...! Luckily, Joe Gregory and Debbie Jenkins have produced a book that will show you exactly how to go about producing non-fiction books. Called "The Wealthy Author" this book is the best guide to writing and publishing I have read in many years. It is sub-titled "The Fast Profit Method for Writing, Publishing & Selling Your Non-Fiction Book" - and the book does exactly what it says. It is full of practical advice, there are various checklists and it is frank, open and honest about the world of writing and publishing. If you want to get that book inside you outside of you and making money, make no mistake, buy this book...!

Well, that's it for another week...I'm off to write my next book...!

Improve your website with teamwork

2010-03-06T07:06:31Z

John Witherow is hard at work today, but luckily most of his work will be done by other people - his team. For John is the long-standing Editor of The Sunday Times and will be beavering away today so that we can get the paper in the morning. Luckily, he doesn't have to write it all himself; we could be waiting several weeks otherwise for him to get it all done. The way The Sunday Times works - even if you don't like its politics or doubt its accuracy - is an important lesson for website owners. Indeed, new research on Wikipedia shows that the collaborative way in which content is produced is, in fact, the best way to go about it.

Working in a team will improve your website content

This research, from the University of Arizona, found that the highest quality entries on Wikipedia were those with most collaboration and in which the teams putting together the article had specific roles. Some people merely added content, others added content and justified it, and others re-wrote and edited material. The researchers found that when teams were working together, with individuals taking up specific kinds of writing and editing tasks, the quality of the resulting article was highest.

Strangely, this is the way newspapers work. Different people in the production process have specific writing and editing roles. Reporters merely write the articles. Sub-editors then seek to justify that what has been written is correct and that it fits the space. "Back Bench" editors, as they are called, then re-write and hone the article so that it fits the political viewpoint of the publication. The result is invariably a much better article than even the best reporters can produce. It is a system that goes back centuries and endures today, simply because it works.

With Wikipedia it appears that those articles which have been assembled rather on the newspaper production model are those which are the best ones. In other words, quality content comes from teamwork - but, importantly this research tells us - only when team members are assigned specific roles.

This is an important consideration for many website owners. Much website content is "home produced", especially in the small business sector. Even if you have a ghost writer, website content rarely goes through much of a review process. Usually what happens is somebody writes it and then someone else approves it. Often that's the same person - even in big business. The consequent quality of what appears online is therefore not as good as it might be.

So, assembling a website team - with specifically assigned roles - could well help boost engagement as a result of increased quality. Here's what you could do:

Appoint a website writer (that might be you, of course)
Get someome to be the "sub-editor" who checks the text only for accuracy and adds relevant links, pictures, charts and so on
Ask another person to review the article and re-write it if necessary for grammar, spelling, clarity and house style

Giving people these specific roles will, according to the University of Arizona research, boost your quality. At the moment you might have a couple of people writing and "approving", but it seems such roles are too generalised. Providing your staff with much more specific roles - just like a newspaper - means your quality will rise.

And what do you do if you are on your own? Easy. Use a three-step process:

Write the article or blog post, but don't worry about links and graphics
Check the article for accuracy and then add relevant links, images and so on
Come back to the article after a break and then re-read it, concentrating this time on grammar and spelling

Even the worst online writers can improve the quality of their work in this way. And just think, you only have to do it for a few hundred words each day - not the 250,000 words (five novels worth) that will appear in tomorrow's Sunday Times..!

Think social, not company

2010-03-03T09:05:25Z

Decision makers in small businesses are much more likely to look for information about your company in social networking sites, than on your own website or blog. That's the significant conclusion you can draw from the Business.com study of how you can engage small business decision makers through social media. This is a significant piece of research of almost 3,000 companies employing from 1 to 99 people, in a broad range of industry sectors. The findings should not be ignored.

Social media is now the most important online activity your business should concentrate on

What the study found was that across all industries, engagement using social media was very high. In fact, in all industries decision makers in small business look to social networking sites for information on suppliers, rather than look on the company's own blog. Around two-thirds of business people who use social media will look at your company's profile on a social networking site, such as LinkedIn or Facebook as their primary means of finding out about you. This implies that only one in three of your potential target customers are actually bothering to go to your website in the first instance.

That's important and should not be passed by lightly. So let's repeat what the study finds. More social media users will go to a social networking site to find out about your business than will look at your own blog. So, perhaps it is time to ask ourselves a question. How much time do we invest in our own websites, compared with our presence on social media? If your website gets most of your attention, it could be time to switch.

The Business.com study also found some interesting changes in the way people prefer their information. Although there are differences between sectors, on average the preferred method of gaining information online using social media is...wait for it....webinars and podcasts. That's right; people now prefer to watch presentations online, or to listen to audio recordings than anything else. In spite of all the hype, Twitter was the least preferred method of finding information on a company.

So, what areas should you be concentrating on, in order to get your company noticed using social media? Here is the list of methods you should adopt (according to the results of the study) in descending order:

Webinars
Podcasts
User reviews and ratings
Profiles on social networking sites
Company blog
Forums
Q&A sites, such as Yahoo! Answers and Business.com Answers
Content sharing sites, such as Scribd and Issuu
RSS Feeds
Discussions on social networking sites
Social bookmarking, such as Digg
Twitter

The list varies somewhat from sector to sector - for example, in the Advertising and Marketing industry Twitter moves up the list several places, whilst in the legal sector, taking part in forums becomes second on the list. However, broadly what this study shows is the significance of social media to every business.

Having a website is, of course, essential. It gets you people who don't use social media - around 40% of people on average. But the rest of the world is now so focused on the social aspect of the internet, you can no longer afford to ignore it. In fact, this study shows it should be your number one priority.

Just when you thought the BBC understood the Internet...

2010-03-02T17:15:24Z

Mark Thompson, the Director General of the BBC, will doubtless have several nasty things said about him today. In the pubs down the road from TV Centre in Shepherd's Bush, disgruntled staff will be slagging him off, no doubt. Newspapers tomorrow will be full of vitriol poured out against him. And Twitter and Facebook are already awash with people criticising his proposals to axe BBC Six Music and the BBC Asian Network.

Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC. Picture courtesy: Eirikso

Tucked away in his announcement today was the proposal to scrap 50% of the existing BBC web presence. The headlines shouted the notion that the web budget would be cut by 25%, but apparently one way of doing this would be to cut the size of the BBC website's presence in half. Just when you thought there was one organisation that understood the internet, in one swoop, the boss reveals that he - at least - doesn't seem to know much about the web.

For a start, even if they remove half the BBC's web presence, it won't save them much money, if any. True, there'll be a slight saving in storage costs, but that's pennies compared with the production costs. And even they are cheap in comparison to an hour of Strictly Come Dancing. The theory appears to be that if you "get rid" of half the website, it will enable us to save money. In fact it will cost money. Here's why. Firstly, if there are areas which the BBC removes from the web, other content producers will fill the gap. That will take audience away from the BBC Online to alternative websites. One of the benefits of the massive BBC presence on the web is the fact that people stick with their websites, moving from one page to another thanks to the massive amount of content. Slash that content and overnight the online audience will plummet.

And with it will go the cross-media promotional opportunities the BBC gets. They will find that their reduction in online audience fuels a reduction in TV and radio audience. They have forgotten that we now live in a multi-media world with people consuming information in multiple ways. They watch the TV show, go to the relevant web pages promoted on the programme and see, for instance, that one of the stars is on the radio next week. Cut your website and you reduce such promotional potential.

But that's not all. Slash and burn your website, as Mark Thompson is proposing, and you give the likes of The Guardian to further increase its production of podcasts - eating further into the BBC audience. Already, The Guardian is one of the world's biggest audio and video podcasting producers with millions of listeners and viewers worldwide. It only needs the "nod" from the BBC that there is now a bigger gap to fill and boy will they fill it.

Furthermore, the BBC website announcement comes the day after the publication of a report pointing out the ever increasing move to online consumption of news. You might call it bad timing or madness, but to suggest that you will halve your web presence, just after a study proves the increasing value of the Internet to an organisation like the BBC is, at the very least, unfortunate.

True, the BBC needs to save money and provide value to us, its audience. But the website proposal - whilst popular with politicians and competitors - is probably the single, most ludicrous suggestion that has been made by the Corporation. To cut the web presence so significantly will have serious, dramatic and possibly irreversible consequences for the BBC. Far from reducing its web presence, it should, like every organisation be seeking to increase it. Rather than spending less money on the web, the BBC should be spending more.

The world has changed; today's announcement reveals that the BBC either thinks it is immune to that change, or that it has to please politicians who are about as web savvy as my ginger tom cat.

And does this have an implication for your web business? Of course it does. It shows that changing your web presence will have implications for you, beyond your website. Any changes you make, in order to save costs online, will have consequences outside your control. For the BBC it is various Facebook groups damning the suggested changes. For you it could be negative Twitter comments. Changes to your web presence must not be taken lightly. The suggestions from the BBC today about their website shows they have not understood the web and the implications of their ideas. Don't let your business get caught in the same way. Invest more in your web presence - not less; online is the only future many businesses have. And it is the only future that traditional media outlets have. By cutting the website, it seems as though the BBC is struggling to get the "good old days" back. It looks like the BBC is going backwards, rather than forwards. By September we could be tuning in to the Light Programme or the Home Service. But at least we will be safe in the knowledge that they will be coming from spanking new £1bn offices and studios. What a good way to spend licence payers money that was...!

You should prepare now for the multimedia future

2010-03-01T14:50:34Z

Children up and down the country had to be cuddled to sleep last Wednesday night as they learned that their local cinema would not be showing Alice in Wonderland, the new Disney movie directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The Odeon chain of cinemas had thrown its toys out of the pram because Disney had decided to release the DVD just 12 weeks after the movie started its run in cinemas, instead of the usual 17 weeks. So, the Odeon banned the movie saying they couldn't afford to show it.

Within 24 hours, they appeared to realise the couldn't afford NOT to show it and so relented, agreeing to a "deal" which is rumoured to have the DVD out just 13 weeks after the film's release. Meanwhile, as the Odeon was locked in talks with Disney, hundreds of Tweets appeared on Twitter and over 20 "boycott" groups appeared on Facebook with over 3,000 members. People were not happy.

Yet, it seemed the Odeon chain was oblivious. How do I know? Well I teased them on Twitter. I wrote a couple of Tweets, mentioning the word "Odeon" - an easy one for them to pick up. As yet, they haven't been in touch. But Cineworld, their rival, has, wishing me a nice time when I go to see the movie. What Cineworld seem to realise, which the Odeon hasn't yet made apparent, is the fact that we all live in a multimedia world these days. We don't just go to the cinema to watch a movie; we discuss it on Twitter, on Facebook. We blog about it and we criticise it, openly.

In the past, that all happened behind closed doors as we trashed a movie over dinner with our friends, for instance. Nowadays, it's all open and in public. And so is your business. You might not know it if you're not on Twitter, but people could be talking about you online. They might even be saying nice things about you on Facebook, but if you never go there you'll never know. But what if they are saying nasty things about your business, your products or your services? Then what?

Gone are the days when everything was in "straight lines". In the past you could, for instance, run a local newspaper campaign to promote your business. That was great, because the people in your area only ever read your local newspaper for local information. Now, they go online, they chat to their friends and the have local searches set up in Twitter. If you run an "old fashioned" local paper campaign, you could be missing out on the impact of the online component - or you could also find your money is wasted as everyone online is telling each other how dreadful your company is.

New research published today shows how integral the internet now is in our lives. According to this study, 59% of people get their news from multiple sources - a mix of online, TV, radio and print. In fact, online news has now taken over print as a delivery mechanism for news. It is a further indiciation of the pervasive nature of the web and how we all live in a multimedia world.

That's something that appears to have eluded the Odeon group, as they seem to have ignored the Twitter discussions about them. Thousands of people probably now think negatively about them, when, perhaps, they could be the best cinema experience in the land. However, Cineworld, has demonstrated a clear understanding of the multiple media worlds in which we now exist. Their response to my Tweet about Alice in Wonderland, could well have won them many fans. In other words, with a single Tweet, Cineworld has won on points as far as online reputation is concerned.

But that in itself is a surprise. Cinemas - and this may be why the Odeon is slow on the Twitter uptake - appear not have realised we have lived in a multimedia world for years before the Internet. Why is it you can't buy "the book of the film" in the foyer of your local cinema? Why is it that I can't buy the DVD as I leave the cinema? They have a captive, positive audience who would buy books, DVDs, T-shirts and all sorts of memorabilia and merchandise. So why don't cinemas have a "film shop", instead of pic 'n mix and popcorn? Is it because they haven't realised that film goers also like reading, for instance? Or what about selling CDs of the soundtrack? Why on earth do cinemas make us walk down the High Street to get the soundtrack? They are effectively saying: "yes, it's OK, we're happy for you take your money elsewhere - we love HMV as well."

Cinemas haven't changed since I was a film reviewer back in 1979. They still think in old ways - in spite of the world having changed around them. Luckily, at least, Cineworld appears to be aware of the multimedia world we now inhabit. But are you? Is your business still stuck - or is it living in the new multiple media world? If you are not using social media AND other channels, you are certain to be missing out. And that means your business could suffer - and then it could then be your own children you have to cuddle to sleep as they worry you won't be able to afford a cinema ticket, even if they are showing the latest movie.

Get your message across - unlike John Denham on Radio 4

2010-03-01T09:44:19Z

Pundits are predicting today that 25,000 local council jobs are likely to be lost, thanks to the state of Government finances. So, the Cabinet has wheeled out its "big guns" to take on this report, produced by a BBC survey.

On BBC Radio 4 this morning, Communities Secretary John Denham gave what must go down as one of the worst interviews ever...though I suspect you know of others....! He was asked by the presenter (and economist with excellent connections), Evan Davies, what figures should local councils be thinking of when they produce their financial plans for 2011.

Posted: 2010-03-01 09:44:19

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The Week Ahead: Your Web Business starting 1st March 2010

2010-02-28T07:44:10Z

So, here we are, ready to start the third month of the year. And still the politicians can't decide when to go to the polls for the General Election. Is it going to be May or will it be March instead? Indecisiveness is one of the well one character traits of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, so we might have an election in March, we might have one in May. Who knows? Well, not even Gordon Brown it would seem. But decision making is important to any web business. New research shows that the decisions we take upon receiving an input into our eyes and then performing a subsequent muscular action takes as little as 30 milliseconds. So the input into our eyes of a rubbish website and the click of the mouse to get away from the garbage is potentially extremely rapid - certainly much more rapid than Gordon Brown's mental squabbling over the date we all vote. People clearly decide whether or not they like your website very quickly indeed. So if you do nothing else this week, have a think about the impact your website makes within 30ms - test it and see.

Of course, that's not the only thing you should be doing this week for your online business. Here are my suggestions of what is important in the next seven days.

Planning: If you are one of the many people who upgraded to Windows 7, then brace yourself, Microsoft has another major upgrade in the pipeline with Microsoft Office 2010. Furthermore, there are several other companies with upgrades to software in the wings - many so that they can integrate with the new Microsoft offering. So, it's time to plan any upgrade process you might go through. Often companies get bogged down in upgrades, find that their are incompatibilities with existing software or that they are unable to use the new features due to lack of training. Upgrading any software isn't something you can just "do". Whatever the size of your business, software upgrades need planning in to your existing operations. Will you need to take time out from normal operations? Will your staff need training? With Microsoft Office 2010 just around the corner, it's time to get some plans in place - even if your plan is not to upgrade at the moment - you need to think about it.
Content: Tomorrow, 1st March, of course is St David's Day - is there anything you can write about that links you to Wales? Or perhaps the daffodil? If that doesn't work for you, how about consumer confidence? The Nationwide Consumer Confidence Index is published on Wednesday and that will give us an indication as to whether the 0.3% rise in our economy is likely to stick. The continuing economic woes may be something you could write about. If that's too depressing, why not write something linked to Charlie Chaplin? He was given his Knighthood 35 years ago, on 4th March 1975. And talking of famous people, the singer Shakin Stevens is 62 this week - perhaps some reminiscing of the 1970s and 1980s might be appropriate on your site? Finally, expect lots of news this week about Zimbabwe as it is 40 years since Rhodesia was declared a republic. The changes to that nation in the past few decades may trigger some kind of article for your.
Tidying up: Old domain names are like ancient phone numbers. They can still be used, but you might not get what you want. How many old domain names do you have lurking in your system? Some domain names are bought on licence for up to 20 years. You may well have bought a domain name a few years back and forgotten all about it because you have never needed to pay any bills for it. Frequently people buy domain names because a good idea struck them, but they never put that idea into practise. So, take a look through your domain name list and see if there is anything there which is no longer required. And if you don't want it any more, put the name up for auction at Sedo.
New features: Explaining things to people online is often easier if your scribble things down, like on a flipchart. But that's not always easy to do. Writing with your mouse is, well, nigh-on impossible. And graphics tablets are mostly geared to drawing, rather than writing. Papershow is a completely different kind of product. It is, essentially, a flip chart on screen. Your write on a sheet of paper and what you write appears on screen. You can use Papershow in live events, to replace a flip chart, or you can use it in webinars or to record a "scribble video". Here's an example of a Papershow Video. There may well be several ways you can use Papershow on your website and in your business generally and at a mere £99 for the complete kit, it is well worth investigating.
Reading: This week's recommended book is "Get Content, Get Customers". This is a rather brilliant book which explains why traditional marketing has had its day and why "content marketing" is the way ahead for businesses. The book provides several solid case histories and examples of how content marketing has worked for businesses as diverse as major multinational brand names, right down to "solopreneurs", as the book calls owner-managed businesses. There are several practical tips, a clear plan on how to go about content marketing and plenty of ideas on how you can generate the right content for your marketplace.

So, that's it for this week; see you again next Sunday.

Your online self could help you in the real world

2010-02-26T16:13:37Z

James Cameron may have created the world's most successful movie with Avatar, but the merging of a real person with their "other world" fake, may not be as far fetched as it sounds. The notion in the film that a personality could exist in two different individuals - one real, the other an avatar - might seem the stuff of fiction, but as new research being conducted at Stanford University shows, those unreal, fake beings are affecting our behaviour. In other words, we are reacting to those non-real representations of people (avatars) as if they were real. They are projecting their "personalities" onto us in some way.

That might sound spooky - and actually makes the movie Avatar look rather out of date now - but it could have potentially brilliant applications. Indeed, your online business could already benefit.

According to research being conducted by communications expert Jesse Fox, people are responding to avatars and changing their behaviour as a result of what they see. In one study, individuals who saw an avatar on a treadmill led to them doing more exercise, if that avatar looked like them. Equally, when people saw an avatar that looked like themselves become thinner on screen, they subsequently exercised more - perhaps in some kind of bid to look like their avatar.

What this research suggests is two things. Firstly, there could be practical value in using avatars made in your own likeness. For instance, if you want to write more blogs, get an avatar that looks like you to do loads of blogging inside something like Second Life and the chances are you will become more motivated to blog yourself.

The second thing the research implies is the powerful impact of personal visualisation. One of the biggest differences between top athletes and very good athletes is in their ability to visualise. The Gold Medal winners can actually "see" themselves winning the race, for instance. Whereas, the not-so-good athlete merely hopes they can get through that tape. The same is true in business; the most successful entrepreneurs are those who have tremendous powers of visualisation such that they can actually see themselves looking at their product's sales graph in the future. The rest of us, merely predict that will happen - somewhat hopefully.

The avatar, when it looks like us, is clearly enhancing our powers of visualisation. Because the image we see on the computer screen is "us" we can then see ourselves performing in some way and it is therefore much easier for us to achieve that in the real world because we have already "seen ourselves" doing it. Without the avatar, many people are probably unable to complete the visualisation process for themselves.

So, it might well be worthwhile popping yourself onto Second Life, creating an avatar that looks like you and getting it doing the things you have always dreamed of. When you watch your online self doing that, there is a much greater chance you will do it here in the real world. And if you don't want to go that far, why not get someone to video you blogging at your computer? Then play back that video as you will then be able to see yourself blogging - and this new research implies that this could do the trick in getting you to blog more frequently as it will help your visualise yourself typing away more easily.

Most people do not have brilliant powers of personal visualisation. This Stanford research project shows that avatars can help us boost those powers - and alter oour real world behaviour as a result. It suggests that whatever improvements you want to make in your business, something that increases your ability to visualise your future behaviour is well worth trying.

You could be focusing your efforts on the wrong business competitors

2010-02-25T17:46:06Z

Business owners frequently worry about their competition; that's understandable. However, sometimes people focus on the wrong competition. After all, consider for a moment who the biggest competitor to, say Vodafone might be. Is it Orange, T-Mobile or, perhaps, O2? Wrong; it's Twitter. The obvious competitors are the other phone companies, but if you think about the main activity which happens on mobile phones - sending text messages - then Twitter becomes a real threat to that business.

Make sure you line up against the right competition

Often, businesses focus on the obvious competition, but don't focus on the real threat to their business. The Tesco boss, Sir Terry Leahy, is famous for saying that prior to its development as Europe's biggest retailer, the company was obsessed with defeating its competitors, such as Sainsbury's. Once the Tesco team realised the real competition was what customers were saying about the company, it transformed their fortunes. Now, new research conducted at Cornell University, New York, adds another interesting twist to the whole area of competitiveness and it may well be that businesses are handling competition incorrectly in many instances.

The study was looking at the competitiveness between student groups. And the results surprised the researchers. They originally thought that the students would work hard to defeat the serious competition. In fact, they worked harder at trying to out-do the less serious threat to them. What happened was that students invested more effort in competing against low-threat groups, rather than higher status competition.

Imagine, for a moment, that you are a software developer. Your greatest competitive threat is probably Microsoft which can marshall resources against you and defeat you easily. So, this new study suggests that what you do is concentrate your efforts on defeating a competitor who is not quite as good as you at writing software code. Here's why: if you go head-to-head against the higher status competitor your risk of gain is very, very small indeed. However, if you compete against the lower status company, the risk of loss is considerable. In other words, you realise that the chances of winning against the "big boys" is small, so you don't bother trying. But the risk of losing face, confidence and so on to the small fry is huge - you can't let a company worse than you defeat you...! We are more motivated to avoid loss than we are to gain things. Hence defeating a lower status competitor becomes a greater motivation to businesses than the comparatively small gain of winning against a better company.

Yet, if you think about this logically for a moment, investing your efforts in competing against lower status firms, who are not as good as you, is crazy. You are already better than them, probably have more market share and so on. It's another example of how we focus on the wrong competition.

If you think about Tesco again, in reality it was focusing on low status competition - other supermarkets. It's real competitor - negative word of mouth - was much higher status and huge in its impact. Yet, focusing on the real competition - no matter the enormity of the task - transformed Tesco from an also-ran to a major international retailing force.

It seems that we need to go against our instincts. Firstly, work out what the real competition to your business is. If you run a web company, or do business on the internet, your real competitor might not be an online business. Once you have found the real competition, consider which one is the higher status than you. That's really the one to go for - you are already beating the lower status company. Don't put all your efforts on defeating the wrong competition. It might make you feel good, but your bank balance might improve if you focus your activity elsewhere.

There are three types of internet marketer

2010-02-24T22:10:41Z

If you are a fan of Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) look away now; you are about to be offended. Good - notice the embedded command? OK, what I'm about to reveal shows that the entire basis of NLP could be false. The evidence that we are either "visual", "auditory" or "kinaesthetic" is scant, to say the least. True, there is some evidence that supports this notion, but equally there is psychological research which finds against it. Yet, you know, that you tend to think in particular ways; you might imagine things when you think - a visual process. Or you might like to fiddle with things or write notes to help you get your mind around things - a kinaesthetic process. So, at first sight there does seem to be "something" in it.

Choosing to innovate online means success is more likely

But like much popular psychology that "something" appears to be much more complex. A recent review of the literature suggests that these different styles of thinking might well exist, yet their practical value is, as yet, in doubt. In other words, there's plenty of room for more research on the topic, giving years of grants to university psychology departments; brilliant.

Whatever the NLP fanatics and the academic psychologists might debate about learning styles, you know what works for you. In spite of seemingly respectable studies which might suggest we learn in all the different "styles", choosing ones that are appropriate to specific circumstances, you know that you concentrate on one of them - whether it is visual, or otherwise.

The same is true for marketing. Whatever the marketing "experts" might tell you in terms of research as to what works, you still concentrate on one main type of marketing because it is what works for you in your specific circumstances. You might find that your abilities in creating "word of mouth" are substantial and so you focus on that. But someone else in the same industry sector might get just as much business by using, say, postcard marketing alone.

Much like learning style theory, there is no "right or wrong" in marketing; what works, works. Simple.

But online, things are different. Because internet marketing is in its infancy compared with "word of mouth" or public relations, online business owners are looking constantly to successful internet marketers to tell them what style of online marketing they should do.

So, you end up with three styles of internet marketing. There are the "copycats" - people who keep a close eye on other internet marketers and merely copy what they do. That's why the web is full of seemingly endless sales letters. Someone made it successful once and the copycat marketers have rushed on board.

Then there are the "chameleons" - these are people who keep trying to change, but end up going back to what they've always done. They try a bit of "social media" for a week or two, give that up, then try "pay per click", give that up and then return to networking marketing because "they know that works". They keep changing their colours, but always return to their natural state.

Finally there are the "innovators" - these are internet marketers who do something truly different and unique. They've tried copying and discovered that was limiting, they's tried the "old ways that work" but got bored and so they come up with new ideas. They invent. Amongst the innovators are the inventors of Google, for instance, or the programmers of some of the more unusual iPhone Apps.

So what kind of internet marketer are you? Are you a copycat, a chameleon or an innovator? What's clear is that the most successful and most profitable internet marketers are the innovators. The copycats might like to tell you they earn millions and show you their PayPal account summary to impress you, but it is all short-lived. They have to find someone else to copy when their bubble is burst. And the chameleons may as well not bother with the internet anyway because they just want things the way they always worked before this internet stuff got in the way. If you want real, significant online success, you need to throw away those old-fashioned ways of thinking - doing the same as always, or just copying - and truly innovate. And you can do that no matter what your supposed learning style is.

This may be "pop psychology", suggesting there are just three kinds of internet marketers, but the chances are you can fit yourself into one of the styles - just like you can fit yourself into one of the so-called learning styles suggesteed by NLP. So, rather like NLP, it doesn't matter much whether this three-fold style of internet marketing exists. What matters is that we all think about what we are doing in termsof internet marketing. Because once we think about the way we are doing it, the chances are we can improve it. But if we don't think, the chances of improving are zilch.

Don't try to grow your online business rapidly

2010-02-23T21:01:39Z

Popstar Cheryl Cole has more in common with Toyota boss Akio Toyoda than she might think. Today, the 26-year-old X Factor judge revealed that her marriage to Chelsea footballer Ashley is on the rocks. At the same time, reports surfaced that the 53-year-old Toyota President admitted that safety problems within his company could have arisen because of rapid growth in the firm. Both of these situations have remarkable similarities, which present a warning to anyone running an internet business.

To afford this old Toyota you'd need to be as rich as Cheryl Cole

Relatively sudden fame and wealth, a rapid change from an "ordinary lass" into an international star is difficult to take. Frequently, people with a rapid rise to fame and fortune find it difficult to cope. Indeed, lottery winners often don't enjoy their instant fortune and many of them subsquently lose their cash. The goldfish bowl existence of Ashley and Cheryl cannot have been easy for either of them. Equally, the meteoric rise of Toyota from a Japanese manufacturer, to a global force that become the worlds' Number One vehicle manufacturer was very fast. It took 62 years for the company to establish itself as the leader in Japan, but then less than a decade to become the world's top car maker. Such a sudden change in fortune could well have been difficult for the company to take.

Whether it's a business or a relationship, rapid change is something we cannot easily cope with. Even today, Apple has revealed it has a flaw with iTunes. The company changed its policy and removed 6,000 Apps which it deemed unsuitable for youngsters who use iPods and iPhones. You could argue that the dramatic rise in popularity of the iPhone and the exponential increase in Apps, caught Apple "on the hop". A slower rise in fame and fortune would have enabled them to deal with this issue with less of a sledgehammer approach. It is the sudden and massive availability of nudity in iPhone Apps that caused the issue - together with a clear weakness in iTunes itself (the lack of age restrictions on the "front end").

Sudden growth is clearly difficult to handle. If it's the fame and fortune of pop stardom or a footballer's wage, or a significant rise in market share of a company, problems arise. Yet, everywhere you look on the internet there is advice on how you can grow your business "overnight". You can download ebooks that promise to help you double your conversion rate or steal market share. The attraction of large rises in your company fortunes or your personal wealth sound interesting. Yet, even if those hyped up promises can be achieved, what happens afterwards?

How will you cope with double the market share? What will you do if your conversion rate goes through the roof? What will your relationships be like if you have sudden wealth that you spend on worldly goods? People who grow rich slowly learn to cope with the pressure that the additional wealth brings. Companies that gradually increase their market share discover ways in which they can accommodate the new business.

When things happen quickly, mistakes are almost inevitable. So, your online business is most likely to fail in the long term if you seek rapid growth. Remember the Dot Com Crash? Companies that ballooned overnight are no longer with us. Companies that grew gradually online, including Google and Yahoo, are still around. The tortoise and the hare anyone? Don't try to be an instant success online - whether it's with visits to your website, readers for your blog, or clicks on your PPC campaigns. Instead, go slowly but surely - it's the best way of succeeding.

Rubbish websites are hugely successful

2010-02-22T06:13:35Z

The website of top author J. K. Rowling is "rubbish"; they are not my words, but those of Joanna Penn, the author and book marketing expert who said so in a recent podcast. In Joanna's view, the Harry Potter millionaire's website is not up to much. But, according to Joanna, that doesn't matter too much because J. K. Rowling is already well-known and established. The podcast also said that if you were as well known as someone like horror writer Stephen King, you too wouldn't need to worry about your website either.

The point being made by Joanna is a good one; websites do not have to be perfect if you already have a huge offline following and are already well-established. But, if your business is not that well-known, if you are trying to establish yourself, then your website needs to be pretty darn good to stand out amongst the competition. Is that right? Can you get away with a rubbish website if your business is so well-known?

Perhaps. Both J. K. Rowling and Stephen King enjoy roughly the same online success. They both appear at around the 100,000 level in the Alexa rankings and Compete.com shows that, apart from book or movie launches, the two authors run side-by-side in the internet stakes. In other words, the evidence suggests that they are both doing quite well online.

So what do their websites look like? Well, Joanna is right; J. K. Rowling's is poor. In fact so poor I can't access it. That's because when you go to the home page you have to choose your country by clicking on black and white flags which are all tinted green. So, picking out your preferred starting point is already difficult as flag recognition really only works in colour. But if you do manage to see your flag, you might not get any further because having then reached your second page you will almost certainly be presented with the message that the site requires you to switch off your pop-up blocker for it to work. I didn't venture any deeper into the site because I was already annoyed.

Stephen King's site, however, is well-made, clear and easy-to-use. But here's the problem for him. In spite of a well-made website, he doesn't really do any better than Harry Potter's inventor online. One rubbish website, one very good website - same results. In other words, the website itself is not related to the online effectiveness of these two authors. Something else is happening.

In Joanna Penn's Creative Penn podcast there was a clue; if your writing is not well-known you need a good website, she said. You can translate that into "if your business is not well-known you need a good website". Alternatively, you could say, "get well known first and then you don't have to have a good website".

In fact, the J. K. Rowling example is more evidence that even in the internet age, offline marketing is still much, much more important. Get yourself established offline and you can get away with being second-best online. Get an offline following and people will still flock to your website, forgiving your poor design or your technical inaccuracies, simply because they already like you. Penny Power's book "Know Me, Like Me, Follow Me" makes a similar point about social networking. In order to get people to connect with you online, they first need to know you and like you. It is the same for business websites, your customers and potential customers need to know about you first, then they need to like you and then they will engage with your internet offerings.

Online businesses owners are largely focused on search engine marketing. And when they are not worrying about that, they are concerned with either website design, or the new fashion for "widgets", or some other technological enhancement. And whilst these all have value, they pale into insignificance to simply "being known". The place you are most likely to start getting known is not the internet. The offline world is where you need to start.

Get an offline following and you too can have a rubbish website like Harry Potter's mum. But if you can't afford as much offline marketing as you need to get well-known, then you have no alternative but to have a brilliant online presence. In other words you have a choice; either spend your money on establishing your brand using good, old-fashioned, offline marketing and PR techniques - or put all your efforts into making your website much, much better than J. K. Rowling's. That would be a wizard move.

The Week Ahead: Your web business starting 22nd February 2010

2010-02-21T08:21:42Z

Another week and we're already 15% of the way through the year. Gosh doesn't time fly when you are enjoying yourself? Well, not as much, it seems, as when you are with other people. New research on a psychological concept called "flow" suggests that we are much better when we are working with groups of other people than when we are alone. A study conducted by psychologists in New York showed that we enjoy absorbing (time flying) tasks most when we are doing them with other people. In other words, if you really want to enjoy the week ahead, you'd better do it with other people, rather than on your own.

But what should you be doing in the coming week?

Planning: Get ready for Christmas 2010. What? Yes, retailers and booksellers are already getting geared up and so should you. The annual Spring Fair has just finished at Birmingham's NEC and the exhibitors there would have been showing products which will be "all the rage" this coming Christmas. Retailers will already be planning and thinking about what to buy, how much and so on. The London Book Fair is in a few weeks time and publishers will be highlighting books due out in the late Autumn that they want to be leading the best-sellers list in December. Booksellers - including Amazon - will be using the London Book Fair to make decisions about what to stock and highlight at Christmas. So, take a look at what is going on in the world of retailing and bookselling and you will get an idea of the themes that will be around in nine months time. That will then enable you to at least think about what your website might include; even if you need to do nothing about it now, you can schedule it in your diary and then when the time comes your web business will not have to play "catch up" later in the year.
Content: So, what are you going to be adding to your website in the coming week? Well, this week sees the 15th Anniversary of the collapse of Barings Bank, following the actions of rogue trader Nick Leeson. Given the current behaviour and reputation of international bankers, that might trigger some kind of blog post. Later in the week, next Sunday, the racing driver Mario Andretti will be 70; perhaps that could trigger an article about success or achievement. This week also sees the Annual "State of the Economy Conference" on the same day, Tuesday, that the EU publishes its economic forecast; those two events could lead to some interesting articles for your readers. And hold on to your hats for some fierce financial discussions this week as the two, mostly state-owned banks, RBS and Lloyds TSB, publish their interim results. Perhaps these could lead to blog posts or articles about fairness and reward in your industry sector. Finally, on Tuesday, it will be 47 years since farmer Peter Hicks evaded prosecution for rigging up an electric shock device to his car so that traffic wardens couldn't issue him with tickets. What kind of strange events have happened in the world of your business area which could cause a bit of amusement or wonder? They would make great blog posts.
Tidying up: How many images do you have on your web hosting server which are no longer used on your website? As you edit or delete content on your website or blog it is easy to forget that the images you use are still there, saved on your hosting server. That could be costing you money in terms of the amount of storage space you are using or the time taken to create and download backups. It's time to look at the list of images your current website uses and compare that with the list of images held on your server. Then delete the ones you no longer need.
New features: This new feature is not strictly for your website, but it will give you an idea of what you do with your website and help you understand how you work with it. Get a free account with Paymo. Together with the widget you download from the site, you can keep a record of every activity you do, sort it into particular projects - even associate costings with your activities. If you want to get the premium account, you can also use the system to record what you are doing and invoice clients accurately for the time you have spent working on their account. Often, your website activity can take up significant amounts of time. Paymo will help you analyse what you are doing and thereby help you plan more efficiently in the future. True, there are other online timesheet applications around, but almost all of them are comparatively expensive. For freelancers and small businesses the free version of Paymo is probably all you need anyway.
Reading: Another week, another book. In fact that's a good rhythm to get into. Otherwise you just buy new books, stack them in your office and never get round to reading them. Assigning half an hour each evening to reading your new book is probably all you need, assuming you can read quickly. Which is why I'm recommending the book that taught me speed reading. Teach Yourself Spead Reading is actually quick to read in itself. It is written in a style that makes it easy to absorb. Plus the practical exercises it suggests are all easy to do and learn from. The way we learn to read is great for people who have never read anything before - so it works for 5-year-olds...! But it appears that many of us persist with these child-like reading habits well into our adult years. When you can read, you should be using different techniques and this book shows you clearly what they are. Everyone can read much faster than they think they can; this book will certainly help you pack more reading into your life.

So, another week over; see you next Sunday when we head off into March...!

Email is alive and well on the social web

2010-02-19T07:10:37Z

Reports of the death of email have been grossly exaggerated. For quite some time now, various pundits have been suggesting that email will die quite soon. However, a comprehensive study of email has shown that we love it. Indeed, the very thing that was supposed to kill off email - social networking - has actually made us love email more. People who use social networks are more likely to repeatedly check their emails than people who don't use the likes of Facebook or Twitter.

Email marketing is alive and well

Furthermore, the research shows that the time spent on emails each week has not gone down; rather it has remained relatively static in the past year. So, what does this imply? It suggests that you shouldn't take your "eye off the ball". Even though social networking has considerable value to online businesses, email persists as an important communications vehicle. Many internet marketers report that their greatest conversion rates come from emails, rather than from web pages. Email marketing is the method most likely to bring results.

What this study actually reveals is that people now exist in a multi-communication world. It means you can no longer do web marketing OR email marketing OR social media marketing. Instead, it has to be completely integrated. Before the internet came along, marketing gurus would tell us that we needed a "marketing mix". Nowadays that mix needs to include more communications vehicles than ever before. And that means you have more "balls to juggle" than ever before. So how can you do it?

Well, because "integrated marketing" is such a hot topic you could head off to several major universities to do a Masters degree in the subject; who wants an MBA when you can do a Masters in Integrated Marketing. Soon, employers won't want those old MBA-ers, they'll be looking for those shiny new MIM-ers. But if you don't want to get extra letters after your name you could sign up for the online courses and research studies that abound on the whole subject. You could spend hours on end reading white papers, delving into the specialist websites and getting to grips with this new topic.

Or you could realise that "integrated marketing" is what successful businesses have been doing for donkeys years, even before the internet came along. When marketing is truly integrated it is the heartbeat of your business; everything is seen as marketing by you and your staff. It affects your strategic decisions, it impacts upon your choices of employees and it influences your every move within your business - often at a subconscious level.

The issue, really, is that too many businesses - particularly in the online world - see marketing as something that you "do" when you want new customers or when you have the time or the extra cash available. Companies set up marketing "campaigns" as though you can stop and start marketing at will. You can't; your business is being marketed every moment of the day in one way or another. Merely existing as a business is marketing.

So, rather than looking for fancy ideas or latching onto new trends, perhaps all that is needed for online business success is a change in mental attitude. Instead of seeing marketing as "email marketing", "pay per click", "list building" and so on, marketing ought to be perceived as the very essence of your corporate being. "I market, therefore I am."

Altruism is alive and well and living on Twitter

2010-02-18T07:17:39Z

The seemingly shady characters who inhabit the Israeli Secret Service lay accused of stealing the identities of six British citizens as part of a plot to murder a Palestinian militant. If true, that's not very nice behaviour is it? Tiger Woods is about to break his silence over his serial infidelity; whatever you think about his golfing prowess, he has hardly been a model husband has he? Meanwhile an 11-year-old boy has just ranked up his 50th criminal offence. Would you like him as a neighbour?

Wherever you look, there are people reaching out to help you

Wherever you look there are examples of negative and nasty behaviour. It might make you think that the human race is going down the pan. We're all doomed. Headlines are full of murder, thuggery and cheating, not to mention the overt selfishness of those mean and measly bankers. It's a harsh, cruel world out there isn't it?

Well, actually, no it is not. People are naturally more likely to be positive, supportive and helpful of other people. The media coverage we get is there because it is so rare to see this kind of behaviour. Most 11-year-olds aren't criminals; most golfers are faithful to their wives and most bankers are nice, decent people - many making significant donations to charity.

If you want proof that people are actually nice to each other, that they like helping one another and that they are decent, honest and truthful, go to Twitter. Just spend 10 minutes - you don't need any more - observing the "Twitter stream" and see what passes by. What you will witness is a large number of people helping each other. Questions will get answered. information will be shared, useful links will be posted and all manner of helpful, supportive and positive suggestions will appear before your eyes.

Twitter is an exhibition of altruistic behaviour and demonstrates that there are people "out there" willing to help you and your business. Indeed, only this week Twitter provided me with some real, practical help. I was asked by two media students to take part in their final year project. They needed to interview me on video in a quiet, office setting. The trouble was, I was travelling on the day of the interview and needed an office for around an hour, away from my base. I could, of course, have booked an hour or two with an office rental company. But that would have been £50 or more; I was already giving up my time to help these students (altruism) but should I also fork out my hard-earned cash for them?

So I posed a question on Twitter. I merely asked if anyone had a spare office they could lend me for an hour or two. Within moments I had a couple of helpful suggestions and then a few minutes later a direct offer from Dean Faulkner of Isogon Marketing, the telemarketing specialists. He offered me use of his meeting room without requesting anything in return from me. That is true altruism - thank you to him.

It also points out another important fact for many online business owners. Many struggle to get things to work - even understanding Twitter itself. They sit there, frustrated, annoyed - even angry, because something they are trying to do with their website, their shopping cart or their social network profile just will not work as they want. Late nights, loads of coffee - and hours wasted. Yet, if they only asked, there are good, kind and generous people "out there" who would be only too willing to help - simply because they want to, with nothing desired in return.

The fact is, your business could be improved if you asked for help. Similarly, your business could also be improved if you provide help. Indeed, altruistic behaviour makes us feel good about ourselves. When we help other people our "happy hormones" rise in our body. And when they are abundant it improves our overall health. That's one of the reasons why altruism is present in human beings - it makes for a healthier life.

So, don't get downhearted by all those negative headlines; instead ask for help on Twitter and you will get it. Provide help on Twitter and you will feel good about life as well. It just makes you think - perhaps the Israeli Secret Service didn't need to "steal" any identities at all - there would have been people willing to help them, if only they had asked.

Technorati is useful to your site

2010-02-17T18:35:59Z

Technorati is a good tool for bloggers. Once you have "claimed" your site by inserting a special code into your website, such as 5TWJWKRBE82K, you'll find that your blog is found by more and more people. So as an aid to traffic generation, you should not ignore Technorati.

Search experts create the search problem

2010-02-17T06:02:33Z

Fifteen hundred search engine fanatics are currently gathering in London in the midst of a three-day conference, Search Engine Strategies (SES). As the digital marketing expert, Guy Levine, put it on Twitter they are all in "Geek Heaven". They are devouring the nitty-gritty of search and how the finest changes to your website can bring about better ranking, more links and thereby more money.

People are looking for what you have to offer, so make sure you offer it to them

That's all noble stuff, of course. Many of the delegates at SES are businesses themselves; quite a few are in the search marketing world who sell their services to the rest of the business world who are not interested in the geeky stuff. SES performs a valuable service, of course, by sharing knowledge and updating the experts. But therein lies the problem.

When you gather together a group of experts and focus on a topic a psychological phenomenon called "social acceptance theory" comes in to play. What that means is that everyone will agree on the importance of their industry, the fundamental value of search and that the whole arena of search is just brilliant. Yes, they will argue and debate the tiny fragments of detail; but no-one will step out of line and say that search is nonsense.

So I'll do it for them; search is nonsense. There, I've said it. Of course, I'm using the word in its most literal sense, suggesting that the search industry has "no intelligible meaning". It all makes sense to those geeks in London this week, but to the rest of us it may as well be in Ancient Greek for the sense it makes. It's rather like a bunch of doctors getting together at a conference. They would be chatting away about the importance of "probiotics in the prevention of rhinoviral URTI". Got that? Er? OK, I'll get my doctor friend to translate...! What that means is if you give your kids a balanced diet they are less likely to get a cold.

It's the same at SES. Put a bunch of experts together, bung in some social acceptance theory and within minutes they are all talking in lingo the rest of the world doesn't understand. The point of doctors, for example, is to help us maintain our health. So talking in language that separates them fails to do that. The point of search is to enable people to find our online offering. The point of search is not to make it into some great big mystery. And that's what happens when you "expert-ize" it. The result is language that doesn't connect with the rest of us - "SSIs for information architecture" is up for grabs today at SES London, for instance.

What we need are search specialists who don't get too hung up on the nitty-gritty, but tell it to us like it is. In fact, search is so much simpler than the experts might like us to think it is. In just the same way, medicine is much more straightforward than people on £150,000 a year as a GP might like us to believe; most people who visit their doctor get better naturally, with no intervention by their GP other than "let's keep an eye on it and come back to me in a couple of weeks". Search is similar; do the right thing and people will find you.

But what is the "right thing"? What you need to find out are the terms people associate with your company or organisation. Then you create web content that matches exactly what they are looking for. That's it. Google, Bing and Yahoo! do the rest for you.

No doubt SES London will help the specialists find extra ways of helping you; but they will focus on the nitty gritty when all you need to do is concentrate on the big picture. And whatever happens at the Business Design Centre in Islington before the end of the week, one thing is for sure, if you were to produce a one-line summary of the whole event it would be "create exactly the right content for your users".The SES delegates will "dress that up" as "information architecture", "keyword analysis" and "analytics", but it all boils down to the simple fact - EXACTLY the right content is what you need to produce.

As the psychologist Edward de Bono said:

Sometimes the situation is only a problem because it is looked at in a certain way. Looked at in another way, the right course of action may be so obvious that the problem no longer exists.

Those nitty-gritty details being discussed in London are not the problem. The search engine "problem" of being ranked highly and found by potential customers only arises because so many businesses fail to create the content that people are actually looking for. Do that and the search "problem" disappears. Unless, of course, you're a search geek, influenced by social acceptance who uses language that separates you from the rest of us. To you it's much more complicated; personally, I prefer simplicity.

Social networking is not a marketing diversion

2010-02-16T07:23:25Z

Hands up if you are using social networking in some way in your business. Mmm...not as many of you as we thought. In fact, it's hardly any of you. In spite of all the brouhaha over Google Buzz, the fascination with Twitter and the constant media knocking of Facebook, the fact is most Internet users don't go anywhere near these things. There are 1.7bn users of the Internet worldwide; leaving aside the fact that's only a quarter of the planet, there are only 350m users of Facebook and around 80m on Twitter (most of whom don't appear to send any Tweets anyway).

The stark truth is that most people don't use social networks; so why all the fuss?

Most internet users do not go near social networking sites

At first sight it seems that all those business people clamouring to "make money on Facebook" or to use Twitter to create millions are looking in the wrong direction. After all, more than three quarters of internet users are, effectively, on the "other side of the room". To concentrate on those social networks would, it seems, be to ignore the vast majority. But that is a potentially mistaken view.

Consider this; around 2% of people in the UK do not own a television, yet it's almost certain they've heard of EastEnders or Coronation Street. Similarly, I was once told a story - it may or may not be true - but here goes....about a businessman on a "self-development" trip to a remote Tibetan monastery. As the monk led the group of people through the hillside to their place of meditation he heard one of the group speaking in English. The monk turned to the visitor and in faltering English said: "Ah....David Beckham". Even without access to the trappings of the West, this monk had heard of a footballer. And with much of sub-Saharan Africa having almost no TV ownership, you can bet your last fiver that a crowd of kids would assemble around David Beckham if he were to stroll around in Malawi. So how come they know him?

In the world outside the internet, people and things made popular by TV extend into the rest of our cultural experience. Radio and newspapers report what goes on in "TV land". Similarly, fans of Coronation Street talk about the program down the pub with their mates, some of whom have never watched an episode. The influence of TV extends beyond that screen in the corner of your lounge.

The same is true now of social networking. What happens on Facebook or Twitter is made apparent to the vast majority of internet users through word of mouth, other media and different websites. The vast majority of people online may not be social networking users, yet they are all influenced by it. In just the same way that TV advertising has the most significant influence on people (and that's why you pay so much for it), social networking is now the prime influencer in the online world.

What this means is, if you are not using social networking and social media in your business you are not operating in the sphere of influence. Chasing after the three quarters of internet users who shun social networking is actually one of the hardest tasks you can attempt. Influencing them through social media, is so much easier. True, most internet users do not go near social networking sites; but all of them are influenced by them in some way. It's therefore essential for your business to get engaged with social networking if you wish to have influence on your marketplace. It's either that, or stump up millions for those influential TV adverts. Or perhaps simply play football like David Beckham.

Business blogs could learn from mobile world

2010-02-15T11:29:08Z

Business blogs depend on an army of people who are tapping away into their keyboards each day in the hope that someone will read their ramblings; much of what is typed is ignored and never gets read beyond a mere handful of loyal fans. Yet these hapless bloggers carry on typing away because they have been sold on the benefits of blogging and the need to add content to their website for "search engine optimisation", or because their bosses demand "five a day" in terms of posting. Meanwhile, even if we do stumble upon their websites, we just click away, move on, disregard their musings.

Short of ideas for your blog too?
Cartoon courtesy http://www.weblogcartoons.com/

Not so for the world's leading mobile phone companies. Today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona they have announced a bold move in order to fight against the growing influence of the Apple iPhone. Twenty-four of the biggest mobile phone companies have joined together in a cooperative venture to develop "Apps" for every make and style of phone that's not an iPhone. Analysts, of course, will debate whether or not the cooperation will work and Apple fans will obviously say that nothing can beat the iPhone, no matter what this new venture achieves. But whichever way you look at it, the mobile phone companies have made an impact.

Indeed, the news world has gone rather crazy - within an hour of the announcement, Google was showing that over 1,200 news outlets had covered the story in one way or another. In other words, the announcement clearly had impact. In fact, the mobile world is rather good at that - the iPhone itself, the launch of Google Android phones, the first mobile phones with Skype - and so on. Frequently, the mobile industry presents us with stuff that has an impact.

Now compare that with the typical business blog. How much impact do they make? In fact, you could say that almost all business blogs are "low impact". For instance, how often are you interested in the changes to their office layout, or the fact that they have just had some new equipment installed? Or what about staff changes - do they have an impact on you? Probably, you couldn't care less about these things.

Many business blogs - perhaps most of the them - are "low impact"; they present us with trivia, simply because they are searching for something to write. Like the mobile phone industry, the best business blogs are those which have an impact. If your blog is full of low level stuff, trivia or minor internal happenings, your impact is going to be rather low.

So, rather than feel pressured to write something every day, or to fulfil some kind of target for blogging, only write things when they will have an impact. The problem is that like the mobile phone industry, you might only have something to say once a year and you need a huge forum, like the Mobile World Congress to be heard. Occasional impact has to be significant; the chances are that in your business, the level of significance of the impact you could make is less than Google introducing a new laptop, for instance.

What can you do about this dilemma? You clearly need to make an impact if you aren't to be viewed as trivial, or ignored altogether; yet what you can blog about is not that impactful. Here are some suggestions for things that you can write about that will inevitably have an impact on your audience:

Write about them Write about your audience, talk about them - not you - and you will connect with them and have an effect. The Sartorialist is a popular blog on fashion design that does just that by being full of photos of real people wearing "real clothes", rather than skinny models wearing goodness knows what...!
Include practical ideas Blog about things your audience can do, actions they can take that will directly affect them and help them in their life or business. Chris Garrett's blog on the business of blogging does exactly that by providing ideas and material you can use and put into practice.
Give the inside track Provide information that is of real interest to your audience, but which they can't easily get hold of. The Formula One blog, F1 Fanatic is a good example of this kind of material, giving motor racing fans the information they want, but can't easily or quickly get for themselves.
Talk about people If your blog provides all the gossip in your industry, you will get readers because gossip has impact, like it or not. We are fascinated by the "goings on" of other people which is why blogs like Heckler Spray do so well.
Provide resources When your blog has useful lists, white papers, downloads or links to relevant software and services, your blog will make an impact. The highly successful Mashable does this with hundreds of blog posts full of useful links and resources for the world of social media.
Be controversial Don't say the same as everyone else on a topic. Be different. Ben Goldacre's Bad Science blog is a great example of someone who is prepared to stand up to an established community and say something different.
Entertain Say something funny; amuse people or make them cry, even titillate them. In other words, induce an emotional response. The wacky Blame it on the Voices blog will usually raise a smile in its faithful audience.

These are just a few of the ways you can make an impact. If you have nothing to say, keep quiet; don't blog because you feel you ought to or because you "have to". However, your blog will only be read if it has an impact and if you can't make the same level impact as the mobile phone industry has done today, then you could use the ideas above to trigger some blog posts that will get you noticed.

The Week Ahead - Your web business starting 15th February 2010

2010-02-14T05:00:51Z

They just roll on, don't they? First one, week, then another..gosh time flies..! And with each week's passing there is more to explore online, more new things to look at and more ideas for your online business to explore. However, there is a chance you will get left behind in the race to keep up with all that is new online. According to psychologists at the University of California, whether or not you explore new things on the internet could depend on your level of depression. It seems that we only explore new things when we are positive and happy; when we are low and depressed we stick with the familiar.

So, in the development of your online business, tackling new things like getting the best out of Twitter for your business may only work for you if you are happy generally with life. In other words, in order to gain the most from online developments you might be better off if you get your mood sorted. If anything is depressing you, if you are upset with home life, if you have difficulties in relationships for instance, then you are less likely to explore new ideas online. Your online business development could be suffering because you are upset because your partner's new job takes them away from home for too long, for instance. That will lower your mood and make it less likely you will explore new things that can help your business. Sorting out your mood, or overcoming depression, could be the most important step in helping your business move forward.

Assuming you are fairly chipper and happy, then, what should you be doing in the coming week?

Planning: Many people are now thinking of their summer holidays...! This is the time of year when holiday bookings are at their peak. You may have already thought about your own holiday, perhaps even booked it already. But what is going to happen to your online business in your absence? What will be done on your website while your key workers are away? All too frequently businesses only think about this on the Friday before the holidays begin, resulting in a minor panic, or working late into the night with rushed packing afterwards...! Avoid that now by thinking about who will run your website while you are away; who will do your Tweets, or who will you do them when you are on your cruise, mid-Atlantic with only expensive web access available? You could, for instance, use the advance Tweet settings in HootSuite; you could get all your phone calls answered by AllDayPa, or you could get freelance help to plug any gaps. But whatever you do, start exploring the options now, rather than at midnight just before your holiday begins...!
Content: The coming week is half-term for schools in the UK, so what might that mean for your business sector and what ideas could that trigger to write about for your industry? Not only that, this week sees an important celebration in popular culture with the 25th Anniversary of BBC TV's EastEnders, culminating in a "live" episode on Friday. So, you could tie that into an article about how your company, or your industry has changed in the past 25 years. The Winter Olympics taking place in Vancouver might also stimulate an article or two about achievement. In the Church calendar, Lent begins on Wednesday - what could your industry do by giving something up or cleansing itself? That's another possible topic to write about. The Annual Mobile World Congress takes place in Barcelona this week, so could you link that to an article about the impact of mobiles on your industry? For birthdays this week, Prince Andrew is 50, as is Leslie Ash, the British actress.
Tidying up: Have you spell-checked your website lately? it's all to easy for errors to creep in and reduce the professional impression you give. True, you should have everything proof-read, but in the rush to get everything done online that's not always feasible. That doesn't mean, though, you should keep spelling errors permanently on your website..! Periodically you should check your site to make sure it is free of typos. Either get someone to read your site and mark up any errors, or use software to spell check your web pages. You could also use Inspyder Insite to spell check and correct broken links, often due to spelling errors in URLs.
New features: How about adding some guidance for new visitors? For many websites the proportion of new visitors is higher than the number of established users. That means for most people who visit your website it is their first time there. How about adding a short guide to using your website, so that newcomers can familiarise themselves with what your site provides? You can see my guidance on using this web site, which is also flagged at the top of the home page.
Reading: Your website needs to be redesigned constantly. As fashions come and go, so should the design of your website adapt to the new ways people use the internet. Nowadays, of course, everything is social. So how should you design for the social web? Luckily that is answered in Joshua Porter's book, Design for the Social Web. Even if you are not a web designer you need to read this book. That's because it provides an excellent overview of what your website should include and how it should look if your business is to take advantage of the social internet. It has plenty of solid advice, is easy-to-read and there are clear, helpful pictures to guide you around the process. If you are a web designer the book provides plenty of thought provoking ideas too.

So, that's it for this week, see you next Sunday..!

Three steps to selling more online

2010-02-12T07:38:56Z

Online shoppers do not base their buying decisions on single factors, such as price or whether or not they like your web design. Instead, much research is showing that buyers are using what might be called an "holistic" approach. In other words they are taking into account a range of different factors all at the same time. In psychology this is termed "Gestalt" and is based on ideas from the 19th Century Austrian philosopher, Christian von Ehrenfels. What he and his colleagues did was to suggest that we perceive the world around us by understanding things as a whole, rather than the individual parts.

What do you see in this image? Your website needs to take a similar approach, building up a complete image from individual parts.

A good way of seeing what is meant is to look at the black and white image on the right. Most people can see a Dalmatian dog sniffing the ground. However, no dog has actually been drawn. The drawing is merely a collection of black splodges. Our brain assembles those black splodges and attempts to make meaning from all of them, resulting in our brains convincing us there is a dog there. Now, it's true that there are criticisms of Gestalt theory, but there is clearly something in it.

And new information on the way people buy online from Strathclyde Business School suggests that we do indeed take a "whole" account of web shops. Online retailers provide us with an array of different cues to help us. There are categories, price tags, colour codes, pictures, shopping cart buttons, guarantees - the list goes on and on. Take a look at any reasonable online shop and you will see a plethora of signals to help us decide to buy.

But what this new study confirms is that we take all of these signals together - not as individual parts. We don't say "aha, that's good, there's the shopping cart button" and then move on to analyse whether or not the terms and conditions are acceptable. We do all of that assessment in one go.

What this implies is that we need to present our signals that encourage purchasing in a way that makes it quick and easy for the Gestalt process to work. In other words, if you complicate your online shop's signals, you make it less likely that people will buy anything because getting the whole picture is more difficult. Imagine the Dalmatian dog image with more dots and different coloured dots.

Research has confirmed there are three broad areas that online retailers need to concentrate on if the holistic impression is to get through to shoppers.

1. Ease of understanding: Your web site and the processes you offer must be easily understood. This means if your shopping process cannot be used by a child, you are not doing well enough. You might not be aiming at children, of course, but if they can understand the buying process or what you have to offer you will do well with adults. Far too many online shops are only usable by tech-savvy experts, often with a degree in engineering. Think of Amazon's One Click buying process - simple, one click and you've bought it.

2. Informativeness: People need all of the information that helps them make their buying decision in one place. Shops that only give cursory, brief details don't allow the "big picture" to be built up. Again, think of Amazon. Each product has an image, details of the book's contents, further information from the publishers and reviews from readers all in one place. No information from the publisher? Guess what, you can't build up the complete picture of what you might be buying. No reviews from the readers? Again you are not sure about things because you can't complete the information you need to create that overall view of things.

3. Involvement: We need to be involved in order to help us get everything. High Street stores do this by allowing us to pick things up and touch them, feel them, absorb their qualities. Even if a shop doesn't let us do that, like Argos, we get involved - there is actually no real need to pick up a little pen and fill in a tiny slip of paper and then take it to the counter, but it is involvement. Online, we like to be involved so we can feel part of the process. Once again, Amazon gets this - we can review books, create our own wish lists and so on. None of that is directly necessary in book purchasing, but it helps us feel involved and that aids the Gestalt process of completing the big picture.

So on your web site if you are selling stuff you need to consider these principles. How easy is your web site to understand and to use? How informative is your product information? How much involvement do your buyers get? If you can move towards ensuring your online shop is easy to use, is highly informative and has good levels of involvement you will find that people can more easily get the big picture about what you sell. And once they get that they are much more likely to buy. In the same way, if you see the Dalmatian dog, the picture is a complete whole that is easy to deal with; if you only see black splodges you get confused and stop looking. Don't let your online shop be an array of black splodges.

Study of political bloggers proves businesses should blog

2010-02-11T09:37:37Z

Political bloggers are a happy bunch of people. At long last the internet gives them a means of venting their spleen. Beforehand, they could only moan to their mates down the pub. Now, thanks to blogging software, they can get their ideas to a wider audience. Some, like Guido Fawkes, Iain Dale's Diary and Business & Politics have become widely read and influential. Others are just the rants of the disaffected.

You'll be much more motivated to blog when you have an audience behind you

New research has discovered what happens to political bloggers though. The study from the University of Wisconsin shows that political bloggers initially start their online writings because they have "something to say" and a passion to get off their chest their political viewpoint. Importantly, though, that all changes once they get a readership.

The research shows that the motivation for political bloggers is altered by the presence of an audience. The bloggers who get an audience begin to feel the impact they are making in terms of how that audience reacts. The result is that the bloggers start writing for the audience instead of writing for themselves. And once they do that, it seems, they get a bigger audience, providing a positive feedback loop that encourages them to blog even more.

This study has important implications for business. Most business bloggers give up in less than a month. They start a blog, write a few posts and then simply fade away. They have said what they have come to say, they've got off their chest their important stuff and then the motivation simply dries up. What the study on political bloggers shows is that your motivation will change once you get an audience. Suddenly you want to write for them, rather than just write for your business - or because some SEO expert or blogging consultant has told you that writing a blog is a good idea.

Take a look at the world's most successful blogs; all of them are "old". They are well established, have lasted for several years and keep going, day in, day out. Many of these blogs are businesses in their own right. According to Technorati's State of the Blogosphere almost one in five successful bloggers now describe themselves as "professional" bloggers - earning their income from blogging. And when you look at these people, such as ProBlogger or MarketingPilgrim you can see that what they do is write for their audience, not themselves.

The Wisconsin study of political bloggers reveals why that works. It shows that it changes your motivation. Once you write for an audience you want to continue writing for them. When you are writing for yourself, you give up.

So, if you start a blog and make sure you get an audience - do whatever it takes - you will find that your desire to write will increase. You will be more motivated to continue with your blog, you will become more audience or reader focused and you will be spurred on to do even more blogging. But importantly you will no longer be writing about your business, you will be providing material that is for your audience. That will then raise you up the ladder of business blogs, perhaps even getting into that Top 100 league table.

Getting an audience for your business blog will clearly change the way you think and will alter your motivation. You will become much more reader-centric and much less self-obsessed. And as anyone who knows anything about business will tell you, that's fundamental. So to achieve that, persevering with blogging is a good start because it will alter your thinking - once you get your audience.

Google Buzz will be a failure

2010-02-10T06:41:27Z

In a blaze of headlines Google has launched Buzz, its much-hyped "status" application. Let us set aside, for the moment, that Yahoo also has a service called Buzz and consider what the Google service is all about. It is no more than an "integrator". And it is only doing that if you have a Google Mail account. If you don't have a Google Mail account or don't want one, you can't use Google Buzz. And therein lies Google's first problem.

Corporates don't like Google Mail. For a start there are security issues. Then there are legal issues; companies need an auditable trail of emails and that's much easier when everything is on your own servers. Microsoft Exchange and other similar email platforms rule in the corporate world. If corporates want to use status updates or quickly share information they will continue to use either Twitter, or in-house status sharing applications, such as the market leader, Yammer.

In other businesses the simplicity of having computer-based email applications or CRM programs like ACT mean that Google Mail ends up being restricted to personal email, or other non-business stuff. Many Google Mail accounts are secondary accounts - there for backup or for use when dealing with online services your are not sure about when signing up. Google Mail is a perfect way of diverting those non-core emails away from busy inboxes. That means for many people they'll need to use Twitter to keep up-to-date with their business colleagues and then Google is hoping they will also use Buzz to keep up to date with their Google Mail contacts. It won't happen; simplicity is what people want.

Google, of course, is betting on the fact that its application is simple; that it puts in one place everything people will need - microblogging, email, link sharing and so on. That's a great idea, but fails to take into account the way people actually use Google Mail now and the way people are currently behaving online. Remember, the heaviest users of Google Mail are technophiles; they are online geeks who just love using the technology. The rest of the world - most of us- behave very differently. Don't judge the likely success of Google Buzz on the technophiles.

Google is admitting that they can't compete with Twitter anyway. Google search results now include the latest Tweets; and Google Buzz allows you to use Twitter as well. The result of Google Buzz will be that those people who are fans of Google Mail (and most internet users are not) will be Tweeting inside Google. Round one to Twitter.

On top of all this, Microsoft's webmail service, Windows Live, has twice as many visits as Gmail. Google's webmail system is not as popular as they would like you to believe. Indeed, Yahoo Mail gets almost five times as much traffic. Google may have created a lot of buzz about its service, but the reality is that it will only affect a small proportion of the online world. For it to truly succeed , Google will need millions of people to give up Yahoo Mail and Windows Live. It will also need corporate America to change policy and switch to external webmail applications instead of legally secure internal servers. And it will need millions of people to accept an increasingly complex online life - using Twitter for some things and Google Buzz for others.

There is no doubt that Google Buzz will be a success, but not as big as Google would like us to think. And even if it does achieve multimillion levels of usage, much of it will be Tweets anyway.

One other thing; how do you think Google will pay for it? Yes; that's right. It will load it with adverts. And that's precisely what people do not like in social networking sites. Ask Facebook, where almost no adverts get clicked on at all. Ask Twitter users who balk at the advertising Tweets in their droves. Google Buzz will undoubtedly be big, but that's simply because of Google's size and impact. In reality, Buzz will be an also-ran.

Shock Social Media Survey on trust is not surprising after all

2010-02-09T09:26:24Z

Top cop Ali Dizaei is now a disgraced officer languishing in jail. His conviction for perverting the course of justice has raised the whole issue of who can we trust. If we can't trust senior police officers, who can we trust? In short, of course, there are a few police officers who are untrustworthy, but there are also a few surgeons you can't trust and a few airline pilots who are not up to much either. In other words, most of us can be trusted but in every group there are individuals who breach the rules and cannot be trusted.

Social media is untrusted says this study from Edelman

The Dizaei imprisonment coincides with an interesting BBC experiment which also exposes the issue of trust. Reporter Stephen Chittenden is currently only receiving his news via places like Twitter or Facebook. He has shunned traditional media in a bid to see if it is possible to keep up-to-date with what is going on in the world. The experiment follows an article in the Huffington Post discussing the notion that we no longer need to go to newspapers, radio or TV for news because thanks to social media "if the news is that important it will find me". But, as Stephen Chittenden said in his update this morning on BBC Radio Five Live, he doesn't know if the news he gets (mostly via Twitter) is actually true. Can he trust the army of online reporters in the same way he can trust a traditional news organisation?

So, now we don't know if we can trust senior police officers and we don't know if we can trust the news snippets we get from Twitter. Is there any truth any more?

Well according to the latest annual survey of trust from the PR company, Edelman, we simply don't trust social networks for real information. According to their study, social media is on a par with advertising, which is thought to be biased. Overall - in almost every sector - trust has plummeted from the same survey done a year ago. In fact, according to this study, we even trust our friends only half as much as we did a year ago. But can you even trust this study?

It has been reported widely on several respected sites as though it were "fact". Other sites, like HubSpot, have tried to analyse the information and have come up with some good ideas as to why trust may have fallen in social media. And therein lies the truth about how we measure trust.

When you meet people in the flesh you analyse loads of information simultaneously - tone of voice, eye contact, facial expressions, appearance - and then add that to the databank of information you already have about that individual. This might include what other people have told you about them, or the stereotype you hold for such a person. You then make an assessment and you might find yourself saying "I'm not sure...there's something about him that's not quite right". The various sources of information don't combine in the right way to enable you to fully trust them.

The same is true online - except that we don't have the non-verbals to help us. So we need to use other analytical skills. That means, when we receive news via places like Twitter we may check a link or two to see where it is from; we may email people to find out what they think. What we are doing is trying to gather a set of data that helps us work out whether the material can be trusted. We analyse things more.

And if you analyse the Edelman data you find that it is based on a specific sample primed to talk about trust. The people in the study had to meet specific criteria and be relatively high earners, with high levels of education and high consumers of news. In other words, a non-representative sample. Then you take that educated, news-savvy bunch and you prime them by conducting a survey on trust. Now what results would you expect from that? The chances are they would question trust themselves, because they are likely to be analytical individuals themselves.

So, the Edelman study doesn't tell us that trust in social media is low and falling. What it tells us is that if you take a subset of people and prime them to talk about trust there is a chance they will question trust anyway. The results are unsurprising.

But do you see what I have done here? I have had to analyse the online information I have received. And that's what the BBC experiment on "social news" is likely to find; we can get all our news from Twitter and Facebook, but in order to be sure of it we will analyse it more, check it more and see what other people are saying about it. In other words we will be doing what we do "in the flesh" getting a brainload of information so we can work out what we trust. And if you don't check everything you read online - including this article - then there is a chance what you read is untrustworthy. Do you believe me?

Traffic is the wrong thing to chase for your web business

2010-02-08T09:10:18Z

How much do you like being called "traffic"? For that's what most website owners think you are. To them you are just a number. They can look at their analytics and go "wow, traffic is up year on year; excellent". You can find all sorts of information across the web about "how to increase your traffic", or "easy ways to get more traffic" - including from "big guns" like Microsoft. You can even buy website traffic.

It's not about traffic; it's about individuals

It's the same in the retail world for many shops; all they are interested in is "footfall". They want to know how many people are visiting their shop, in just the same way as online businesses want to know how many people visited their site. But focusing on traffic is nonsense; it's the wrong place to start your online business considerations.

In the 1960s British TV series, The Prisoner, "Number Six" tells us "I am not a number, I am a free man". We hate being numbers - just being part of "traffic", or "footfall". And when as a business you concentrate on traffic or footfall you begin to lose sight of one important fact: these are people, not numbers. Chasing traffic influences the way you think about your website visitors and then it affects what you do and how you treat them.

Consider shops that treat you as an individual; do you like those shops? Or do you prefer going into stores where you are clearly just another statistic? And what about websites that treat you personally? Do you prefer them to the sites that emblazon their statistics of the number of visitors they have in some little "badge of honour"? The sites that have their stats on show, or who don't connect with you as an individual have probably focused on numbers, on traffic. Whereas the sites that treat you as an individual probably start with the notion of connecting and making relationships.

The not so curious fact is that when you make relationships you will get the traffic simply because people like you. Whereas if you focus on traffic you are in a never-ending battle to win new people over all the time. The only way you can increase your traffic is to constantly focus on traffic, looking for tricks and techniques that get more people to your site. And true, you can get millions of people to your site using many of these techniques. But, rather like retail footfall, what's the point of all those visitors if they do nothing while there?

By focusing on website traffic, many businesses are not making as much money online as might be possible for them. That's because they need to generate even more traffic each year in order to make more money. But the people who create relationships are more easily able to make increased profits because the visitors who have relationships with them are likely to spend more because they like the company. In other words, going the traffic route is like being on a non-stop treadmill. You need to constantly keep battling away to stop your competitors stealing your traffic or to stop your traffic from diverting into other websites. But by building relationships you avoid all this.

Relationship marketing, of course, is nothing new. But when you focus your web efforts on traffic, you are relegating relationships to a lower level. Your traffic will become quality, money-making traffic when you concentrate on building relationships. And if you think that's a daft idea, take a look at what the likes of Dell and Starbucks do to build relationships, rather than traffic. It works for them.Oh, and it gets them traffic too. In other words these successful businesses get website traffic by focusing on relationships first and traffic second. If your concerns for your website are all about traffic, then try changing your stance. Start by focusing on the relationships and the traffic will follow. But by then you won't be calling these people "traffic", you'll be thinking of them entirely differently - customers, readers, people, community, call them what you will, but they'll no longer be "numbers" to you and that means you will treat them entirely differently.

The Week Ahead - Your web business starting 8th February 2010

2010-02-07T22:33:21Z

Well, here we are, another week gone and it's important to remember that you have only seven days in which to make sure you have bought that essential Valentine's Day card and present. If you want the love of your life to still be the love of your life this time next week, don't forget that pressie...! And if you think that forgetting is forgivable because you are getting older, think again. It appears that memory loss as you get older may not actually occur; it could be that it is just socially acceptable to forget. Research shows that if you do memory tests in older people who are told they could be forgetful, guess what, they are primed to forget. In other words, the more you tell yourself that it's OK to forget things as you age, the more likely it is you will forget. You are essentially instructing your brain to give up trying to remember things. So, no excuses, you can remember that Valentine's gift this week..! Of course there's plenty more you need to do with your online business as well. So what's on this week's agenda?

Planning: What are you doing to make sure that your website is going to work on mobiles and smartphones. You may already have a phone-firendly website, but the number of people accessing the web using mobiles is increasing day by day. If your online mobile presence is not good enough, you will lose potential custom. With new multi-tasking phones like the Nokia N900 and web-savvy phones like the iPhone people expect your website to operate well on a mobile interface. If you are not already ensuring your website appears OK on mobiles, you need to start organising that soon. Around one in every 20 of your web visitors will access you site using a mobile and that will grow solidly throughout this year. There are several options. You can plan to have a "subdomain" which is mobile friendly such as "m.yourdomain.com". Or you can set up an automatic mobile version of your site. My mobile site is at "grahamjones.mobi" and this is automatically generated each day. All you need is a ".mobi" domain name and "Instant Mobilizer" from Domain Monster. But whatever you do, it's time to get on planning your mobile presence.

Content: Well, clearly this week your content could feature love, dating, relationships and anything to do with Valentine's Day. If that's too sickly for you and your readers then something worth celebrating this week will be on the 11th when it is 20 years since Nelson Mandela was freed from jail. And if you're still worried about your memory, this event is probably carved in your brain as a "flashbulb moment" of episodic memory. So it might trigger another article for you on important things in your industry that "stick out" as major episodes. On Friday, the Winter Olympic Games begins in Vancouver, so that might be able to suggest some kind of topical connection for you too or perhaps an article linked to what's going on in your industry sector in Canada. Pop star Robbie Williams is 36 on Saturday, if you want something lighter to write about. And if you want to write about being "in the shadow" of someone more famous than you, Jamie Murray - older brother of Andy Murray - is 24 this week. And finally, Sunday sees the start of the Chinese New Year - the Year of the Tiger, a time supposedly associated with generosity, humanitarianism, but also with rebelliousness and impulsiveness. Plenty there to write about...!

Tidying up: Is your website operating properly with all the links connecting accurately? As we build and adapt our websites frequently these days it is easy for links to get broken. Time to check all those links and make sure they work, correcting any that are broken. A good way of starting this process is to use the W3 Link Checker, a free tool that will show you whether or not your links in your pages are working. You could also use Inspyder InSite; this program will check all your links and find any spelling errors as well as show your keyword density for each page. Not bad for less than $60. I've already found several link errors on this site which I'm in the midst of fixing...!

New features: Many people might not want to visit your site every day simply because they don't get the time. However, they could be interested in your content. So, why not offer them a "weekly digest"? Using Zinepal you can automate the production of a weekly round-up of your blog or web pages. People can then subscribe to this using RSS and get your content as a PDF, for the Amazon Kindle or simply as an email. If you want my weekly digest you can get it here.

Reading: Social media is growing significantly and is a surefire way to enhance your reputation. But you shouldn't forget the offline world of public relations either; you need to integrate the offline and the online worlds in order to fully promote your business. Ping, by Alan Stevens, is an excellent book that shows you exactly how to do this. Written by someone who has been on both sides of the media divide as a journalist and as a regular guest on radio and TV, Alan's book is a no-nonsense and clear guide to ensuring you benefit from promoting your business effectively in the "new world" that is dominated by social media. The book covers everything from press releases that will get you in the local paper to viral video that will get you noticed worldwide. There are also several useful case studies and a guide on how to measure the impact of your integrated PR approach.

So, another week over; see you next Sunday.

Happy online customers are more likely to help your business

2010-02-06T00:00:00Z

Customers can either help you or hinder you. They can, for instance, let other people know about how wonderful you are, merely because they want to do that. On the other hand they can write negative reviews or blog posts saying how appalling your customer service has become. Clearly you want more people to be positive and helpful towards your business - but how? And why would they help your business for no personal gain?

Happy online customers are more likely to help your business

Such behaviour - altruism - is commonplace. We like helping each other. But we only like helping people if we feel some kind of attachment or bond to them, or if we can understand their position. You recommend businesses to your friends and colleagues ever day; but they are businesses you like, admire, trust and so on. Have you ever altruistically helped someone find the right product using a company you detest? Every business depends on altruistic behaviour in the form of word of mouth. Or companies need altruistic people to help them with surveys, market research and so on. Goodwill is what keeps your business ticking over.

Generating that goodwill and the associated altruitsic behaviour does not happen easily, of course. You have to work at it. But new research conducted on both sides of the Atlantic shows that there is a "trick" you can employ to generate more altruistic behaviour. The study found that "mood elevation" triggered much more altruistic behaviour than when people were either neutral or somewhat depressed. "Mood elevation" means making people feel happy and positive.

In other words, it is rather simple. Make your customers happy and they will do more for you, out of the goodness of their heart. That might translate into increased uptake of upsells, more word of mouth, extra participation in market research. But whatever altruistic action you want customers to take, they are more likely to do what you want if you lighten their mood first. Depending on your type of business there could be several ways of doing this - humour, showing your charity work, doing something for them without prompting. In other words, if you think about the ways you can increase the mood of your customers - making them happy at specific connections with your business - then they are much more likely to help you do what you want (such as buy two instead of one, or complete an online survey).

Think about the companies you seem always prepared to help. It's a fair chance they make you feel happy. But think about the companies you just couldn't be bothered to assist; probably they just don't affect your mood at all - or even they may make you rather depressed. It's an old saying, but "keep your customers happy" seems to have some psychological backing now.

Three types of people who should give up Twitter

2010-02-05T17:25:08Z

Throughout the world there are people sitting right at this moment, scratching their heads and wondering "Should I use Twitter?". Every day people ponder over joining up with Twitter; yet each day people stop using Twitter as well. There is a never ending revolving door of people joining and then leaving (or at least leaving their accounts dormant). Importantly, though, there is a real pressure for business owners to join. And that in itself could be a problem.

If you are a loner, perhaps social networking on Twitter is not for you

For instance, research shows that in the past year the most profitable companies have been those who have engaged heavily with social media. In particular, the firms like Starbucks and Dell, who have used Twitter enormously, are the ones that have seen the best financial improvement. There appears to be a link between business results and use of social media. Cash-strapped chief executives and business owners must be looking at this success and asking "if they can do it, why can't we?".

Similarly, family members who engage with Twitter are likely to be enthusiasts for the network, trying to get the rest of the family to join up so they can all have fun together online, share images at TwitPic and keep up-to-date with what each other has been doing. It all sounds like a good idea and so brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles and aunts, all think "Mmmm, this might be a good idea".

But then they get online and rather like the CEO facing Twitter for the first time they ask "What on Earth is this all about?". Some people investigate and work out what they can do. Others download useful booklets on Twitter, and some struggle on and just hope they can "get it". But should you struggle on? Should you do all that research and find out how to use Twitter? Should you go to a workshop on Twitter?

Possibly; but possibly not. Some people are just not made for Twitter. They are not the kind of people who will be able to get on with Twitter, no matter how valuable they can see it might be from a logical perspective. If you have struggled with Twitter, you might be one of the people it's not aimed at - so stop using it...! Otherwise you will waste your time trying to understand it, work with it and use it. That will lead to frustration, even stress. And that will affect your business - and your relationships.

Give up Twitter if you are an Introvert
Twitter is a social environment. It's full of people who love being with other people. True there are probably more than a few narcissists there as well, but on the whole it is where people who love talking to other people congregate. Introverted individuals prefer solitary occupation and, importantly, they tend to be single-focus people. In other words they are less able to multi-task than extroverts. Twitter is a multi-tasker's dream - you have Twitter open in one window, while you busy yourself in another, every now and then looking at something your Followers are chatting about. Indeed, you have to use Twitter whilst doing something else, otherwise you'd probably never get any work done. As a result, Twitter is geared much more to the extrovert than the introvert.

Give up Twitter if you are a Perfectionist
If you dot the i's and cross the t's, Twitter is not for you either. You'll spend too long crafting Tweets and replies, when the "instant" conversational tone of Twitter doesn't work well with that kind of approach. You'll also get immensely frustrated with the poor spelling, the inaccuracies and the bad grammar. But spoken language is also grammatically poor when compared with written language - it's just that we don't see it. On screen, that spoken style so dominant on Twitter is exposed, warts and all. If you are a perfectionist, or someone who likes things "done right", then Twitter will frustrate and annoy you considerably.

Give up Twitter if you are Creative
Creative people are generally poor at time management. Studies show that the people who are good at managing time tend to be less creative than people who are pretty rubbish at time management. Twitter can eat into your plans easily. As you get hooked into a conversation, as you discover interesting things to read and as you find more fascinating people to Follow, you can spend hours and hours just Twittering away. If you are not a creative type you will be able to more easily manage these kinds of distraction which Twitter provides. But if you are a creative individual, there's a chance you'll while away the hours and not get any work done..!

So who should be using Twitter then? Well if we take away the introverts, the perfectionists and the creatives we are left with a careless, unimaginative, extrovert...! And do you really want to spend your time with lots of them...?

Having said this, you might not need to give up Twitter after all. If you are an Introvert you can listen - just read the Tweets that interest you and follow the links, but don't join in. In other words, do the same as you do down the pub - eavesdrop. If you are a Perfectionist you can get your own Tweets right, of course, but if you learn the Twitter lingo, you'll discover that the spelling isn't incorrect, it's just a new language you need to learn. And if you are a Creative person why not come up with an idea for earning your living via Twitter? Your creative brain could work that out and you'd then be able to while away those unplanned hours on Twitter and still pay the bills.

In other words, Twitter is for everyone - and we all use it in entirely different ways. So just because people in your company say there is a "right way" of using Twitter and just because your cousin tells you that you ought to share family photos using Twitter - don't believe them. Do what works for you and use Twitter the way you want to. That way it will work for your business or your family because you will be enjoying it. Much of the frustration about Twitter is because people feel forced to use it in particular ways. There is no right or wrong - unless you are a perfectionist of course..!

Teens give up blogging? No, they don't

2010-02-04T08:22:31Z

Teenagers are losing interest in blogging, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Media coverage of the report - released yesterday - suggests that teens are more interested in short items, such as texting, status updates and so on. However, like much of the discussion about blogging we are not necessarily being told the truth. There are some inconsistencies, which are not immediately obvious.

Teens love producing internet content; they might not call it blogging though

For instance, the report reveals that teenagers are not using Twitter very much; so how does that square with the supposed interest in short messages? If teens were mainly interested in writing short messages they would swarm to Twitter - and they haven't.

Furthermore, the study shows that the proportion of teenagers who blog has fallen in two years from 24% to 15%. At the same time, say the researchers, the over 30s blog more, with an increase in the numbers of bloggers from 7% to 11%. But take a look at the details of the study and you will see there is a margin of error of almost 4% in the statistics. That means the teens level of blogging could have stayed roughly the same, from 20% to 19% while the adult level of blogging could have gone down from 11% to 7%. In other words, far from teens giving up blogs, it may be the older generation.

As ever, headline statistics never tell us what is really going on. Indeed, many people may well say they don't blog; yet they write "notes" on Facebook (the same thing) or they post "messages" in Ecademy (the same thing) or they write "stuff" on MySpace (the same thing). To many people "blogging" may imply setting up their own blog as part of their own website, or over at Blogger or WordPress. The question you ask people has an impact on the results you get as well. Furthermore, the Pew study was based on familial data; it was interviews with parents and their teenage children. So, if your Dad is a blogger is that going to be a cool thing for you to do? Perhaps, but perhaps not. The relationship that exists between the participants in the study could also have an influence on the results.

The Pew researchers are careful to make clear the limitations of their study and provide full details of what they did and how they obtained their results. There is statistical information as you would expect with any professional research. The problem is, the results suggest that blogging is on its way out with younger generations. And that then could put off people from blogging in the first place.

Consider growing up in the Middle Ages. If you could write, you would have written on dried animal skins or on parchment perhaps. Then, when paper was introduced into Britain some people would have moved from writing on skin to using paper. If we'd done a study at the time we may well have said that writing on animal skins was getting less popular. But what we wouldn't have seen so easily was that writing itself was becoming more popular because more people were using paper. Today, we look at studies which show that blogging is losing its popularity; but what we fail to notice is that writing online is more popular than ever before because people are no longer "blogging" but "Facebooking". Teens may be "blogging" less (they may not) but they are certainly writing more than their parents' generation did when they were teenagers. Online content production is at an all time high; don't let anyone lead you into thinking that it is becoming less popular.

Why are you busy selling stuff online that people can buy anywhere?

2010-02-03T15:03:48Z

What does Amazon sell? OK, books, DVDs, shoes - in fact almost anything. But everything they sell you can also buy down your local High Street. And that's where most people go to get the stuff that Amazon sells. In spite of Amazon's significant online success, they are a minnow in comparison with the total sales in physical, "real world" stores. The same is true for almost all online retailers. What they sell online, sells in far larger amounts in the offline world.

Offer products that are exclusively digital and you will gain more sales

But what does Google sell? Sure, it sells advertising. But the kind of advertising it sells is unavailable anywhere else; it is only available online. You can't go down to your local corner shop and buy an AdWords campaign. You can only get it online. Apple is in a similar position with iTunes. Even though it is possible to buy music in physical form down at your local HMV, you can only get digital music online.

It's somewhat crazy, but the vast majority of businesses online are selling stuff that people can already get in the "real world". The massive successes online are those which sell things that you can ONLY buy online. So, it begs the question, are you trying to sell products and services online which people can already buy using offline methods? If they can, you are potentially missing out.

Even if you are a business consultant or an accountant selling your services, people don't need the internet to buy from you - they can pick up the phone or visit your office. So, whether you are in the business to business market or the business to consumer arena, the lack of "online exclusivity" could be hampering your sales.

Enter the digital era

Selling products and services online that can be bought in the "real world" increases your competition
Producing things which are digital and EXCLUSIVE to the online world will increase your market share

Here's what to do: create something that is ONLY available online. Produce something that people cannot buy from you in any other way. For instance, if you are a consultant of some kind offer an aspect of your consultancy only online, such as in webinars or by using a membership site. Equally, if you run a bookkeeping service you might be able to use something like Google Docs to set up all the client records and get them to upload their information directly to you; in other words the entire service is provided only online. Similarly, if you are an expert and you have some books you have authored, make some of them only available as ebooks, with no print versions at all. With a bit of creative thought you can probably come up with much better ideas.

The overall aim, however, is to produce an aspect of your business which is exclusively digital and solely available online. If what you provide is available, either from you or competitors, in the "real world", then you potentially lose custom as your prospects find alternative suppliers. If your product or service is ONLY available online, then you reduce the competition. After all, how many companies that compete with you actually offer something that is exclusively an internet service or product that can only be found online? The chances are most businesses are merely using the internet to market existing "real world" products. Perhaps it's time to think of things from a different perspective; find out what you can provide that will only be digital. You could clean up.

What are the three most profitable words in marketing?

2010-02-02T17:58:39Z

Go on, have a guess...what do you think the three most profitable words in the history of marketing are? These words allow companies to sell TWICE as much product as we actually want. And the words are used to sell product we don't even need in the first place. What a fantastic trick that is...! The companies are selling us unnecessary stuff - twice over...! Worldwide we buy $40bn of these products. That is a nice income for something that's not even vital...!

Most of the time people do as they are told..!

The three words you are looking for are "rinse and repeat". They are printed on the back of every shampoo bottle under the title "Directions" or "Instructions". And when we are provided with such authoritative words we behave; we do as we are told. So, we dutifully wash our hair...and then wash it again..! We end up using two lots of shampoo when one will do. Fantastic for the likes of Unilever and Proctor & Gamble who sell oceans of shampoo each year. In fact, we don't need shampoo at all. The natural oils in your scalp will clean your hair - washing your bonce actually removes much of the naturally occurring cleaning capability. Stop washing your hair and around six weeks later your head will be back to normal and your hair will become naturally cleansed. Of course for six weeks you'd have to hang around rather smelly and dirty - but hey, it will save you money.

The shampoo manufacturers are playing on a psychological phenomenon whereby we act in accordance with instructions if we perceive the person giving those directions to be in authority. We reckon the shampoo manufacturers must know what they are talking about and if they say we need to "rinse and repeat" there "must be a reason", so we do it - using up our bottles of shampoo twice as quickly. Ker-ching...goes the cash till over at Unilever or P&G again...and again. "Rinse and repeat" - probably worth more extra income than any other words in marketing.

But what lesson does it teach us online? After all, you can hardly force your web-based customers to buy twice as much of your products or services as they need. It's not as easy to do the "rinse and repeat" trick if you are, say, an accountant, or a restaurant. "You've eaten one meal, now eat another..." - it's not going to be that attractive to customers is it? Or, "I've checked your VAT, now you must ask me to do it again"...is not quite going to have the impact you want as an accountant is it?

However, by positioning yourself as being the authority figure you can get more business out of your customers by providing them with "directions" or "instructions". For example, if you are perceived by your customers to know what you are talking about, to have done research in your sector and to be an expert in the field they will then be amenable to being instructed what to do. So, imagine you are a lawyer who has helped draw up a standard contract and terms of business for a company. Job done. But if you are the lawyer and you say to the client "Now, having produced that contract you need to get it certified by the Institute of Contracts", guess what, the client will say "Ah, that will be helpful, thank you". Hey presto, another £250 for the lawyer for something that is a "nice to have" not a "need to have".

Notice that the lawyer in this example does not ask if the person would like it done. Nor do they say that they have another service for "contract certification" on offer. No, the lawyer merely instructs the client that this is the next thing to be done. In essence, our legal brain is no better than a bottle of shampoo. However, they can only do this if the client perceives the lawyer to be authoritative.

So, if you want to make more money from the internet, you can do so if you instruct or direct your clients. But they will only accept the "rinse and repeat" offer if you have established yourself as an authority in your field. And that requires time and effort. True, you can make money fast online - but a more sustainable income comes from being an authority who can then get people to buy even more from you. Set out to be an authority on your topic, to be an expert, to be the "go to person" on your subject. Then when people are your clients they will do as you say, without being asked. And that's how you can become even more profitable.

Your business blog needs to be written for children

2010-02-01T05:39:49Z

How quickly can you read? Do you actually read every word and savour it? Or do you just zip through the material, absorbing as much as you can? Reading is such an everyday skill, we tend to ignore it. However, it is fundamental to the success of your website or blog. Make your material difficult to read in any way and - bang - your readers disappear as fast as you can say the word "readability".

Don't make people struggle to read your blog

We do know something about reading, though. For a start we do not read every word in a sentence. In fact we don't read words at all - we capture entire phrases in a single glance at a line of text. Our eyes bob up and down - they don't travel in a straight line across the text. And we zig-zag around the page as we go. The muscles of your eyes get a real workout when you are reading...!

However, what gives us real eyestrain is having to re-read material because we didn't quite "get it". Our brain goes "hang on, didn't understand that" which provides an instruction to the muscles of our eyes to go back and start again. That then leads to the muscles that control the focus of our lenses to work harder and before you know it your eyes get tired. They are literally working hard. That makes us feel worn out as well. Anything that is difficult to read then becomes a chore. Remember those college text books?

Make your blog readable

People read quickly online so need simple text
Check the readability of your blog or website regularly
Complex text increases time spent on your site but could also raise annoyance levels.

You might complain about those airport novels, such as those from Jackie Collins, but you don't have to concentrate to read them. Just open the page and absorb it. True, it may not be intellectually stimulating, but these novels are very easy to read. Now compare their readability with the average business website. No contest.

Most business websites are unreadable - well, not without taking time, pausing, re-reading, concentrating and thinking about the material. You can actually test the readability of any website using the excellent tool at Read-Able. Just type in the domain name you want to check and it will tell you the age at which the text is understandable. Officially, reading ages in the UK go up to 16 - beyond that is considered complex material at the "text book" level. Many websites have reading ages of 18.

Popular websites and blogs, however, have much lower reading ages. The BBC News website, for instance, is understandable by 11-year-olds. The page you are reading is OK for those aged 12 (still too high in my view). The world's most read blog, The Huffington Post, is readable by 7-year-olds. However, you've got be 15 or older to understand travel advice from the Foreign Office.

With printed documents we are less distracted than when reading online documents. It means that if we find something hard to read online, we move our eyes away more, making it even more tiring to read complex text. That also reduces comprehension. If you look at the time people spend on a website, perhaps using a tool such as Alexa, you tend to find that people spend a long time on sites that are easy to read and a long time on sites that are difficult to read. But it's the reason behind those lengths of stay that are important.

With the easy-to-read sites, perhaps it is due to greater engagement. But with the hard-to-read sites, it could well be due to the increased time it takes to actually get the words inside your head in the first place. In other words, analytics information that tells you the length of time someone spends on your website might not be telling you they like your site. Instead it might be a signal that your text is too complex, that your material is difficult to read.

Online we tend to skim and read rapidly. That means the phrases that pop into our eyes need to be instantly absorbed. They need to be like an airport novel. You don't need to "dumb down", you just need to make your text readable. Using the Read-Able tool should help do that. If in doubt, imagine you are writing for a 7-year-old; it works for the world's top blog...!

The Sunday Times is biased against the Internet

2010-01-31T08:04:21Z

Today's Sunday Times suggests that children are spending too much time using technology. The article is completely biased and one-sided. How do I know? Well, on Thursday the Sunday Times reporter called me twice to discuss some American research and to check if it was applicable to the UK. The resulting article, however, fails to mention anything on the positive side.

If you look at the Sunday Times article you will see several quotes suggesting that children need to spend less time with technology. Only the final sentence of the story offers any glimmer of positivity.

I'm not bothered that I'm not quoted. What bothers me is that as a former Sunday Times writer myself, who was continually pressed to ensure my articles were balanced, this story is so obviously and completely one-sided. It is the kind of article the Daily Mail would be proud of.

Posted: 2010-01-31 08:04:21

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The Week Ahead: Your web business starting 1st February2010

2010-01-31T06:43:38Z

Have you noticed how time flies? If you have, the chances are that you are busy, have lots to do and probably enjoy most of it. But the busier we become and the more we do, the less sleep we tend to get. Taking a break from work and having a rest is one thing - but your brain needs sleep. Research shows that without enough sleep your brain does not function as well as it could. Furthermore, lack of sleep impairs your immune system making you more likely to get infections. So, this week - as the business year starts to get even busier - it's a good time to think about your sleep patterns. Try going to bed 30 minutes earlier than usual. Studies suggest that you will rapidly see the benefits in terms of more rapid decision making and an improved thinking ability.

Having said that - don't spend all your time in bed..! You'll never get any work done and as ever there's lots to do. So what could you be doing this coming week?

Planning: One month of 2010 has already gone, with most of December written off because of Christmas and with the country concentrating on winning the World Cup in June you only have around 9 months left to make any real money this year. It means you really need to crank up your marketing efforts right now. So, your marketing plan might need reviewing. Or if you haven't got a marketing plan, now is the time to write one...! Many businesses struggle on "roughly knowing" what to do in order to get business, but the ones that truly succeed are those who have written marketing plans with detailed targets to aim for. You haven't got time left in 2010 to leave it to chance; get that marketing plan down in detail this week - or at least review what you have already started on in 2010.

Content: The 1st February 2010 sees a decade of The London Eye. Perhaps that might trigger an article on a "bird's eye view" of your business world, or something relating to what's happened in your business in the past decade. Prince Charles is making a speech this week on the Green Economy and the Institute of Fiscal Studies publishes its Green Budget for the year. Could these trigger some kind of blog post about the environment and its impact on your business sector? On Friday, it will be 28 years since the first budget airline, Laker Airways, went bust. Yet since that time we have witnessed a revolution in air travel with budget operators leading the way. What's happened in your industry in those years? Or what can your business sector learn from the airline industry? They may be useful triggers for a blog post. And this week the rock musician Alice Cooper celebrates his 62nd Birthday, while Argentine footballer Carlos Tevez reaches 26. Their birthdays might trigger some kind of article for you as well.

Tidying up: How many emails are in your inbox? Do you really need them all? If you've got more than a few week's worth they are clogging up your system and slowing you down. On corporate networks that could lead to hours of reduced productivity. The problem is, you might often need to refer to an old email, so you keep it "just in case". Also, you may need to keep business emails for legal purposes or as an audit trail of your work. So, you carry on storing more and more emails, inevitably slowing down programs like Microsoft Outlook. So, this week, tidy up your emails. Consider free archiving solutions like MailStore or perhaps use Google's own email archiving solution, Postini.

New features: Take a look at the left side of your screen. You'll see a tab saying "Tweets". Press on it and you'll see my latest Twitter musings. You can add this feature to any website using Tweetboard. At the moment it is only available to website owners "by invitation". But you can get yourself invited if you follow the suggestions and make a request. Tweetboard is a handy way of presenting your Tweets to your audience with little impact on your overall website design.

Reading: I'm a great fan of mind maps and use them to plan, write speeches, write books and so on. The "father" of mind maps, Tony Buzan, has a new book out just now called "Mind Maps for Business". It's a great book bringing together several ways in which you can use mind maps to run a business. For instance, the book explains how to use mind maps for improving your thinking, doing SWOT analysis and even time management. You'll also discover how to use mind mapping software and its place in the whole arena of Web 2.0. If you want to improve your business on 2010, this book will make a dramatic difference.

So, that's it for another week. See you next Sunday...!

Apple's iPad proves being number one is a waste of time

2010-01-28T00:39:16Z

As predicted, Apple's Steve Jobs yesterday proudly announced the company's latest invention, the iPad. Whether or not you think this is a great idea, whether or not you want one and whether or not you think it's going to be too expensive, there is little doubt that Apple will eventually only have a tiny share of the marketplace for such devices. That's even if it can get the product off the ground - since the name "iPad" is actually a trademark belonging to Fujitsu. Plus, financial analysts have backed Amazon in the handheld computing war about to begin, since their stock rose on the announcement of the Apple device.

Probably, though, Apple doesn't care. The much-loved Macintosh has never had more than 5% of the world's computer market. Even the lauded iPhone only has a 2% share of the total mobile phone market, with analysts suggesting that Google's Android phone will push the iPhone into second from bottom place in the smartphone sector within a couple of years. The chances of the Apple iPad being the device we all have in our hands is negligible. Many people will buy it, but most will not. Once again, Apple will be sidelined in terms of market share. Even so, it will still make money; Apple has just reported its highest ever first-quarter financial results. So it must be doing something right.

Here's a clue; it is not trying to be "number one". Here's another clue; which company is "number one" in the search business? If you said "Google", you lose the prize. To check, just type the word "search" into Google's own search engine - OK, I've saved you the bother. Number One is "Bing", Number Two is "Search.com". Then comes AltaVista, Dogpile and then Yahoo. On Google.com, Google appears at the Number Six position for the word "search"; on Google.co.uk it doesn't even appear on the first page. Yet, there can be little doubt that with around 60% of the world's search market, Google is the dominant player.

Do you notice a coincidence? Google is not listed in the world's "Number One" search engine as being the Number One in search and at the same time, the world's most talked about computer company is actually a tiddly bit-part player in the whole technology game. Clearly for both of these companies being "Number One" is not that important.

The world over you can find consultants helping you to get to "Number One" on a Google search page. Companies are paying millions of pounds to "SEO Consultants" to get them to that coveted "Number One" position. Yet, the world's leading search engine provider isn't itself "Number One" for its core business. Equally, telephone companies like Nokia and computer firms like Dell are battling hard every day to retain their "Number One" market position. When was the last time the world's media jumped up and down for either of these companies? When was the last time pub conversations were dominated by their technologies?

The truth is, being "Number One" in market share or in search engine rankings is nowhere near as important as we like to think. For Apple there is a much greater currency they are being paid in, rather than cash. It is influence, legacy, power. The rest of the world's computer firms will now be chasing the iPad notion. But who led them there? Who will go down in history as the "leaders of the revolution"? Will it be Dell? Will it be Levono? Will it be Fujitsu? Come back in a hundred years and read the history books; my guess is the name Steve Jobs will feature on many pages.

Equally, in your business sector, whose name will dominate the history books? Will it be the people running the "Number One" - whether that's first on the Google ranking or having the biggest market share? Or will it be the company that has ideas, drive, energy and which everyone talks about?

Having money in the bank is one thing. Having a turnover the size of Dell may be what the Apple accountants aspire to, but to achieve that they would have to dispense with the other currency they trade in - influence. It's no good being the richest person in the graveyard; but being the most talked about individual....? You see, when you are long gone your money will just be accounted for and if there's any left over your sons will spend it on fast cars and loose women. But if you die with no money in the bank, but a pile of influence that will live on after your departure, that's very different.

Google is not bothered, apparently, at being Number One on its own search engine ranking, but its influence on the search business is enormous. Apple is nowhere near number one in the computer or phone market place, yet it is the most influential business in both those sectors. So, ask yourself this question: are you chasing being Number One on the search engines or in your market place at the expense of being the most influential? The chances are, unlike Google and Apple, we're all chasing the wrong thing.

Choose your online friends with care

2010-01-27T07:02:28Z

Friends are important; they support you, listen to you, laugh at your jokes and have fun with you. Online they share information with you, point you in the right direction to useful material and support you with their feedback. There is little doubt that both online and offline friends are important. Indeed, for many years doctors have known that those of us with plenty of good friends tend to be the healthiest; friendship boosts our positive biochemistry helping our immune systems and protecting us from disease.

Your friends may support you, but they also influence you

But your friends do more than this; they influence your thinking. Everyone you meet has some kind of influence upon you, but the people you have the most connection with are the ones who have the greatest power over you. New research on schoolchildren confirms that the attitude of those around us influences our feelings and our behaviour. The study from the University of Chicago showed that female teachers who believe that girls are no good at maths end up with girls in their class who - you guessed it - are not much cop at adding up. In other words they are passing on their anxiety to the children they teach, almost by a process of osmosis.

This research confirms many previous studies which show that our thoughts and feelings are often not of our own making. They arise as a result of the thoughts and feelings of the social groups which we inhabit. The whole notion of "group thinking" is an interesting one - how, for instance, do groups of people all think the same thing at the same time? They do. We seem capable of transmitting thoughts between us using all sorts of behaviours.

Online you can see this happening in places like Facebook groups. A thought, attitude or feeling takes hold and everyone in the group tends to think the same thing. It happens online with people who collectively support WordPress, for instance, all claiming that Blogger is garbage in comparison - and no amount of arguing can shift them. That's because unless the entire group changes its attitude, individuals are less likely to alter their opinion.

It all means that you are influenced heavily by the groups you get involved with online. Even in subtle ways they are affecting your thoughts, feelings, attitudes and online behaviour. This new research on schoolgirls shows us that we are open to influence not only in our thoughts but in the results of the way our thinking affects our behaviour. In other words, if you inhabit a group that suggests using a social network is tough, you will find it practically difficult. If we measured your knowledge and ability with social networks - and you have friends who tell you that social networking is difficult - then your results would be lower than people whose friends love social networking and say it is brilliant. In other words, your actual abilities in online technology are probably affected by the people who surround you.

It's the same with making money. The friends of millionaires tend to be millionaires. The friends of would-be millionaires are also millionaires. If you are poor and all your friends are poor - guess what? Yes, you remain poor. If you inhabit online networks that tell you blogging is a waste of time - guess what? You will find every excuse in the world not to do any blogging.

Your online friends influence you in many ways. Make sure you choose the right ones.

Tweeting your blog is not enough for traffic

2010-01-26T07:27:01Z

If you use a URL shortening script, such as Yourls, you can see "live" the people clicking on anything you add to Twitter. The statistical information reveals that within a second of posting your Tweet you get almost all of the click throughs from what you post on Twitter. A minute or so later, almost all of the clicks have dried up. You can measure the life of a Tweet in seconds; it doesn't last very long at all.

Getting people to follow your blog takes effort

So why all the fuss about Twitter? A Tweet is clearly a single blast of a blunderbuss - you get loads of impact all over the place, but the effect doesn't last long. Yet you can find all sorts of advice from so-called "gurus" telling you that Twitter gets you tons of traffic. If you want to get more readers to your blog, you need to Tweet, they say.

And these experts are right - and wrong...! True enough, you can get increased traffic from Tweeting your blog. But it's not smooth traffic; you'll get the occasional peak in traffic. Now that's not to be sniffed at, of course, but it's not going to achieve all you want for your blog.

Here's the problem: along comes another piece of technology (Twitter) which appears to solve the problem of getting more traffic to a blog. Whoopee everyone shouts and before you know it there is ebook after ebook explaining how you can get shedloads of traffic to your blog if you use Twitter. The result is millions of people go "Hurray, here's the answer" and off they trot to learn everything they can about Twitter and see those traffic numbers rise. Not.

Get more blog traffic

Tweeting your blog only provides traffic for a few seconds
Promote your blog constantly to get more readers
Treat your blog like a product that needs selling

Twitter does provide you with additional traffic; Twitter does get you a wider audience; and Twitter does boost your blog. But if, like many bloggers, you give up everything else you were doing to concentrate on Twitter you will see a fall in traffic to your blog - not an increase.

People are attracted, naturally, by the "easy way out". Instead of having to promote a blog, the automation of Tweets of blog posts is immensely attractive. It seems to make life so easy - just post a blog item and then let Twitter take care of getting your traffic. And your analytics account will show a significant number of clicks from your Tweets, so it all seems to be true. Except that your traffic from other sources is drying up. If your Tweets bring in the same numbers of clicks, all you see is a change in the source of your readers. But that's not always the case.

Here's why. Imagine you have bought 100 items from a wholesaler and you have to sell them this week. What would you do? Would you set up a stall for five minutes a day at the end of the High Street and then pack up and go home? Would you perhaps run some adverts in the local paper, hit the phones to tell all your friends, get some publicity in relevant magazines, go to networking events and push what you are selling, attend an exhibition and so on and so on? The people who are successful at selling are the ones who put in the effort.

Similarly, the people who are successful in getting traffic to their blogs are the people who work at it. The people who tell you that all you need to do is post your blog headlines on Twitter are like the person who sets up their stall at the end of the High Street for five minutes a day. Yes, they'll get some sales - but nowhere near as many as the person who does a plethora of things to promote their products.

Your blog is a product that needs promoting - so get out and promote it...! Don't just write it and hope (which is what most bloggers do). If you really want more traffic to your blog then, yes, post a Tweet each time you write something. Hootsuite can automate this for you. But do more than this. To get traffic to your blog don't consider Twitter as "the answer"; instead just think of it as an additional tool. You can also get more traffic to your blog if you:

Tell people about it
Email people about it
Include it in your email signatures
Link to it on all your online profiles
Have it on your business stationery (the latest post can go on the back of all your letters, for instance)
Send press releases about your blog
Get speaking engagements where you promote your blog
Put your blog address on all your product packaging
Mention it in voicemails
Place your blog address and some of your headlines on mugs, t-shirts, baseball caps, pens and so on
Advertise your blog in other websites
If you can afford it, advertise your blog in print, radio and TV
Get your blog mentioned by authors writing books about your subject
Set up a Squidoo Lens to promote your blog
List your blog in online and printed directories
Put up posters about your blog
Have flyers published about your blog and hand them out in the pub
Send out postcards to a mailing list to promote your blog
Write "guest posts" for on other blogs

In fact, do anything you can to promote your blog; the people who get the most traffic never lose an opportunity to promote what they write. Yes, they do Tweet their blog posts - but it's a minority sport compared with all the other stuff they do. Tweeting your blog will get you extra traffic - but only for a few seconds. If you really want to get more readers for your blog, get out there and promote it...!

People won't argue about your prices if they like you

2010-01-25T09:48:03Z

Partners at Goldman Sachs are going to have to "make do" with just £1m for the past year. Their pay has been capped at this seven-figure sum, reducing their take-home income by almost two-thirds. That's a big hit for a multi-millionaire. But compared with David Beckham, who'll earn an estimated £30m this year, those City bankers are paupers. And while the world is jumping up and down about the income of banking professionals, Larry Page and Sergey Brin - the founders of Google - are to cash in shares and earn a whopping £1.7bn each.

We like the people who run Google because they are doing it for us (Picture courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi)

The reaction to each of these financial revelations is different. In the case of Beckham it's largely jealousy - all that money for just kicking a football? Gosh - we can all do that. Well, actually, we can't - we don't have his talent. As far as the Google couple are concerned, the reaction has been somewhat muted - they deserve it, we say. After all they came up with this clever invention that now helps run the world. But the bankers? Goodness me - they still want a million? Who do they think they are?

Here's the difference - we like Sergey Brin, Larry Page and David Beckham. But we just hate bankers.

Wherever you look, if we like someone we don't mind them getting paid. If you like your boss, you don't mind them getting more than you. But if you think your boss is a waste of space you reckon they don't deserve their salary - even if it's not much more than yours. Similarly, if you like Tom Cruise you don't mind him getting £10m a movie, but if you think he's a wooden actor you reckon you could do better for half the money.

Being liked equals more money

We are less jealous of people we like
Your business will earn more income if your people are likeable
Bankers get a hard time because they appear selfish

So, what do your customers think of you or your sales staff? Do they like you or do they have you on their hate list? Perhaps they are just indifferent. Either way, if they dislike you or have no feelings either way it makes it much easier for them to challenge your prices and attempt to negotiate with you. The trick to being able to charge more and to have people simply accept your pricing is to be immensely likeable.

But how do you do that? How come Page and Brin are "likeable" when we don't even know them? How come many people like David Beckham - even if they don't support his team? And how come we simply dislike bankers? There is a significant difference between the likeable and the hateable. The people we like are doing whatever they do for us; the people we dislike appear to be doing it for themselves. That's it.

David Beckham is doing whatever he does to give football fans an enjoyable 90 minutes; when he fails at entertaining them, boy does he know it from the boos he gets from the crowd. Similarly, the Google founders have produced Google for us, not themselves. Now, who do you think the bankers are working for? That's right - themselves (or so it seems). And that's why we don't like them. And that's why we begrudge them a mere £1m.

If you want to be able to charge high prices, and not get them challenged, you need to be liked. And to be liked you need to prove, time and time again, that everything you do is for the benefit of your customers and is nothing to do with yourself. That way, they'll like you and pay you well. Any hint of selfishness on your part and they'll challenge your prices.

The Week Ahead: Your web business starting 25th January 2010

2010-01-24T06:48:44Z

Here we are, another week gone...! Did you manage to do all the things you needed to last week? If not, is it because you planned to do too much? Or did you get interrupted too many times? Or perhaps things just "didn't work out"...! Whatever the reason (or excuses..!) if you didn't manage everything last week don't worry. Part of the reason people don't get things done is because they get stressed and concerned about not getting things done. That simply reduces their effectiveness and makes it more likely they'll not do what they set out to do.

Another issue, according to recent research published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology shows that the time of day you get up has an influence on whether or not you'll achieve all you want to. It seems that people who wake up early are also the most "proactive". What this means is that early risers are much more able to get on and do things than those who get up later in the day. That old saying of "early to bed, early to rise, makes a person healthy, wealthy and wise" is true. So, if you're not getting everything in your weekly plan done, the one change that could ensure you do is to go to bed earlier each night. This will help you be more likely to wake earlier and in so doing you'll be more proactive - more likely to take action, resulting in your agenda being achieved.

And what's on your agenda this week? Here are some suggestions for your web business in the week beginning 25th January 2010:

Planning: The days are getting longer and people are beginning to go out more. The spring time is when people are socially more likely to want to be with other people. (It's all to do with the human mating season...honest..!) But from a business point of view it means we are a couple of months from the time of year when people are most likely to want to be involved with your offline activities - seminars, events, meetings of all kinds. So, what workshops, meetings, events are you planning for this spring time? You need to organise them this coming week in order to benefit in a few months time.
Content: This week sees Burns Night, where people celebrate the life and poetry of Robert Burns; perhaps that could form the basis of a blog post for you. Similarly, Tuesday is Australia Day which commemorates the arrival of the British in Sydney. Again, that might trigger some kind of blog post for you. And on Friday, pop star Phil Collins will reach the ripe old age of 59 - perhaps his career or his music might be something you could blog about. This week is also "Bowel Cancer Awareness Week" - perhaps that might be something you could trigger some kind of blog post. So too could the fact that the Parish Fashion Week starts this week and on Tuesday we see the Book of the Year Awards.
Tidying up: Are your RSS feeds still working? Do check them to make sure all is OK. That's a job worth doing this week. A good way of ensuring they work is to subscribe yourself to all your feeds, perhaps getting them in Outlook, or in Google's RSS Reader, or perhaps adding them to a Netvibes page.
New features: Your website readers are looking for great content. Perhaps consider ways of extending your content this week. One way you can do that automatically is by adding "Headup" to your website. This finds content related to your content and then underlines relevant words on your page. When people hover over those words a pop-up appears with extras like videos, Wikipedia entries and so on. And, importantly, people can engage with that content whilst remaining on your site.
Reading: You should try and read something new each week; it really helps stimulate your brain, keeps your cognitive faculties working and stimulates ideas for your web business. Recommended this week is "Inbound Marketing" by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. These are the guys behind HubSpot, one of the leading marketing sites on the web. This book provides a clear and practical guide to getting found online using Google, social media and blogs. For instance, in this book you'll find practical suggestions such as how you can use Wikipedia to get people to your website and how by setting up a group on LinkedIn you can get a considerable boost to your traffic. Well worth the £10.

So, that's it for another week. See you next Sunday for more ideas for your week ahead.

Website analytics are confusing

2010-01-23T08:23:02Z

People access your website through a variety of means. They might read your material directly on the site itself. Or they may get an RSS feed of your articles. Perhaps, they even receive your information via email. Your content might appear in other people's sites who load up your RSS feed. Some people might view your content in "aggregators" like iGoogle or NetVibes. In other words, there is a growing plethora of ways in which people can get hold of your material - many of which don't involve them actually going to your website.

Checking your analytics data is only partly helpful to your website

And that is a problem for many businesses. In order to know how well your company is doing you need some guide as to readership levels. Knowing the numbers of people who visit your site and what they access is important. But because there are now so many different ways in which your content can be found, any web analytics program only gives you part of the story.

Web analytics programs like Google Analytics or (the superior) Clicky, don't tell you as much as you need. Even though they can provide raw numbers, who accessed which page, the subscribers to your RSS feeds and so on, they don't tell you what you really need to know - the precise numbers of people who read your material. For instance, you might have just one subscriber to your RSS feed. But if that subscriber is posting your feed on their site which gets half a million viewers a day you think you have fewer people accessing your material than is actually the case.

This is the same problem that has beset print publishers for centuries. The Times, for instance, knows exactly how many copies of today's newspaper it has printed. It also knows how many get returned by the newsagents and therefore knows exactly how many copies were sold. But how many people read that newspaper? Some people buy the newspaper but then don't get time to read it. Others buy it and share it with members of the family. Some newspapers get left on the train where half a dozen people might read through it. Knowing how many copies are sold only tells newspaper publishers part of the story.

The same is true on the web; analytics programs can be confusing because they only tell you part of the story. They are very good at giving precise data about the visitors to your website. But how many people were sitting looking at that computer screen when your material was accessed? Sometimes you share content by showing it to people, perhaps members of the family look at the material together. Equally, in the office your web page may be up on a screen in the reception area where everyone walking past has a look at it. And your content may be viewed in a conference where a presenter is showing your material to 500 people in the audience. In each of these instances your web analytics program records one view, but it may be dozens or hundreds more. In the same way as a newspaper sale does not record actual readership, neither does a hit shown in an analytics program accurately reflect the real numbers of viewers your pages have.

Analytics software is not completely helpful

Analytics programs miss out important information
Technical issues reduce accuracy of analytics programs
More people read your content than your analytics program suggests

On top of this there are growing technical issues at play. Most analytics programs require the use of a piece of code called "JavaScript". Usually this is loaded last, so people don't have to wait to view your content. With some big pages, people may have read what they need to read and move on before the analytics program gets a chance to record that the page was accessed. Also, some big organisations switch off JavaScript as a security measure, resulting in the fact that access to your pages will not be recorded at all. And many web companies advise their clients to edit the "Hosts File" (a file on your computer that can be used to prevent access to certain websites). By editing this file, companies can prevent Google Analytics from recording their own access to their own website. That's important for big firms where their analytics could be confused with the numbers of all the people in the company accessing their own website. By editing the hosts file to prevent, say, Google Analytics from recording anything it means that the data they see in their Analytics account does not include the company's own access to the website. But in doing this it also prevents Google Analytics from recording access to any website, thus impacting on the statistics of every other website that uses the Google system.

What this all means is that the data from analytics programs is incomplete; it only presents part of the picture. And therein lies the problem. People focus on the pretty graphs, the statistical information and the array of tables as though it were fact. It isn't; it's a guide, that's all. Checking your analytics is an essential component of good website planning and improvement. But don't take it as gospel. Consider all the other information you have about your website and how people access your material. A good way of doing this is to get the SEOBook Toolbar. This allows you to check a range of data on your website - and your competitors. In this way you can see how well you are doing in comparison with your competition. Taken together with your own analytics information, this will help provide you with a more complete picture of what's going on with your website.

Analytics programs are valuable, but like newspaper sales they don't provide the complete picture over what's happening with your content.

Online shops need different approach

2010-01-22T08:27:10Z

Shoppers are never the same; anyone involved in retail knows that everyone is different. What appeals to one person, does not attract another. What some people see as a bargain, others find too expensive. What some people buy every week, others only get occasionally. It never ceases to amaze shop owners how different their customers can be.

Online retail takes wrong approach

Online shop categories could put off shoppers
Haphazard displays may sell more to some buyers
Need to provide two kinds of online shops to target different buyer groups

Traditional, High Street, retailers try to appeal to a particular "class" of shopper; the person who loves shopping at a giant, like Tesco, is probably not that happy with going to separate shops like a butcher, a greengrocer and a baker. But the person who loves their local butcher's shop, probably never even ventures down the meat aisle in Sainsbury. Traditional retailers know they can't appeal to everyone, so they plump for a sector or "market segment".

Online, though, things are different. You don't see online shops attempting to segment themselves in such obvious ways. In fact, most online retailing looks and feels the same. There's an array of products, perhaps separated by category, an add to shopping cart button and then a checkout. However, new research from the University of South Carolina suggests that online retailers could be taking the wrong approach in doing this.

Getting more people to buy online could mean you need a different approach

The study found that our shopping requirements are based around our level of "expertise" on a subject. So, for instance, someone who has good levels of knowledge about fresh fruit and vegetables is much happier to buy from a haphazard farmers market than the category-style display in a supermarket. The more you know about a subject, it seems, the less you want the shop to be in categories - and the more you want to be surprised by things.

Most online shops are geared, it seems, towards the uninitiated - the novice. Everything is in categories, grouped logically and presented in an obvious order. However, this new study suggests this could actually put off a considerable number of your potential purchasers - those who know and understand your subject area.

It's more evidence of the need to split what you provide online. Even if you have a niche website, it may well be that you need to divide the shop you provide into two - one presented for novices and one for your expert shoppers. Doing so could well provide increased sales from an online store. Categories may well help navigation, but they may put off the shoppers who know your subject area (and may therefore be more likely to spend anyway). Online retail needs a different approach.

Guess what....? We still need to talk to each other...!

2010-01-21T14:24:38Z

Your mouth is a fantastic tool. It enables you to stay alive as it gets fuel and water inside you. Your mouth lets you breathe when your nose has given up. And it lets you kiss the ones you love, helping form a bond between you. Not only that, it allows you to talk to other people and get your message across to them in ways that printed words simply cannot do. After all, it's difficult to convey true feelings in print, but your mouth lets you do that by helping you change the tone of your voice. All tolled, the human mouth is a brilliant, somewhat under-rated, multi-purpose tool.

Talk - don't email

Study shows talking achieves faster results
Email can slow down teamwork
Adjust working hours to enable international talking

So what have we stopped using it? We send more SMS text messages than voice calls on mobile phones, for instance. We are sending over 2m emails a minute in the UK alone - way more than phone calls. And now that Twitter has become mainstream, people are "chatting " away using their keyboards. It's all as though we've forgotten we have a mouth, that is a very useful communications device.

Don't stop yourself talking - it's often better than email

Well, new research with Intel employees has found that in spite of all these wonderful technological advances, talking to each other is still immensely useful...! The researchers found that teams worked best when members were able to speak with each other. Those teams which relied on "asynchronous" communication, such as email, had "co-ordination delays". Whereas teams that adjusted their working hours so they could talk to each other in real time using the telephone - in spite of being in different continents - were the ones that got on with the job more quickly.

Email, text messaging and Twitter all lull us into a false sense of security. We send a message and as far as we're concerned "job done". But of course, that's only true if the message, as we intended, is received. When we speak, even on the phone, we can tell from the immediate feedback whether we need to explain, provide more details or say it again. We can also immediately negotiate the next steps. With email that might take several messages over a period of days.

What this new study shows is that talking to people usually produces quicker results. So, perhaps we need to ask ourselves a question when we fire up our email program or grab our mobile phone to send a text message. That question is: "Would this be better and quicker if I made a phone call?" It's likely that much of what we do with written communication, would be more appropriate if we used our mouth instead of our fingers...!

How to make sure your prices sound right

2010-01-20T09:53:50Z

How do your prices sound to you? OK? When we read a price on a website, or in a brochure or magazine, your brain turns what it sees into sounds; it's part of the way we read. You may well be "hearing" some of the words you are reading right now, for instance. New research conducted by American Psychologists shows that the sound we hear of the price we read affects our likelihood of buying something.

Working out the best price takes some care

For instance, if something is on sale for £10, but you reduce it in order to grab some additional sales you will get more people buying at £8.66 instead of £8.22. Even though, mathematically, the discount is greater for the £8.22 price, people perceive the £8.66 to be cheaper. Crazy? Perhaps, but it's all to do with the value we attach to sounds, which is then confusing our brain.

We perceive long vowel sounds as in "twenty two" to be of higher value than short sounds as in "sixty six". The difference is between the "oo" and the "i" sounds. There is also some difference between the consonants. "Fricative consonants" such as the "x" in "sixty six" also indicate smallness to our brain and hence the shortness of the vowel sound combined with the special kind of consonant means we mistake the £8.66 as being cheaper than £8.22.

This explains why you see so many prices end in 97, rather than 99. The vowel sounds in 7 are shorter than in 9 - and even though the price difference is marginal at best, we perceive to be much cheaper because of the shorter vowel sounds. The "s" in 7 is also a fricative consonant, adding to the greater perception of cheapness.

What this means is that when you are displaying prices on your website - or in any printed documents - you need to show things which "sound" cheaper than they actually might be. So, if you are discounting, look for lower prices which have short vowel sounds, rather than long ones. Showing you are cutting your price by 6% instead of 9% will be more likely to get additional buyers (in spite of the lower discount).

Paying careful attention to the sound of your prices may well bring in additional sales, compared with just showing a lower price.

What is the best blogging software to use?

2010-01-19T08:41:36Z

Bloggers often worry as to whether or not they are using the best blogging software. You can see the question raised endlessly in places like LinkedIn and other social networks, including Twitter. People who are new to blogging also wonder which is the best system to use. So, they may go to review sites which list the best blogging programs and services to find out more. You'll also find that midway through their blogging career, people change blogging software in order to move to something "better".

The best blogging software for you might not be "the best"..!

Much of the discussion about the best blogging software centres around "Search Engine Optimisation" (SEO). What is the best blogging service to get you high search engine ranking, people ask. And they get answers...! You'll find plenty of people saying that WordPress is best because it has so many useful SEO plugins. Others will tell you that Blogger is bound to be the best for SEO as it is owned by Google and so they must "favour" it. And then there will be the fans of Movable Type who'll say that because it is commercial software it has solid development behind it.

You'll find all sorts of arguments from so-called "experts" who can explain in great detail why WordPress is better than Blogger, or why TypePad is superior to Joomla. You can even find plausible arguments for saying why you should ignore all kinds of blogging services and have bespoke software developed specifically for your needs.

And all of these arguments are wrong; plain wrong.

Every blogging service that is available enables you to write and publish blog posts. Each of the myriad of blogging programs allow you to control how your material will appear. And all of the blogging software you can find lets you arrange how the search engines will find your posts and use them. In other words, every blogging program does the job you want done.

You can forget the SEO arguments about blogging services and programs. Google and other search engines make no distinction between them. All search engines are interested in is your content. If you are producing good, relevant content, then it makes no difference as to which blogging program you use.

But what does make a difference is how often you blog. Search engines do take that into account. Frequency of publishing helps increase your ranking and also raises the amount of traffic you get. One of the most important aspects of having a successful blog is simply doing it...!

And therein lies the real problem in choosing blogging software. If you settle on a blogging program which is "great for SEO", but you find cumbersome and difficult, your motivation to write will decrease. The result will be that you blog less - not more. Similarly, if someone argues successfully that you should use a specific blogging service because of it's ability to be adapted to your circumstances, the additional functionality will be worthless if you don't use the service because you don't get on with it.

The best blogging software to choose is the one that you like and get on with - no matter what the blogging experts may tell you. If you like your blogging program and find it easy, you'll use it more often. And that will bring around the benefits you are truly looking for in terms of search engine ranking and readership.

So don't listen to the experts. Simply try out a handful of blogging services and blog programs and find the one you like the best. The one that "fits you" is the one to use.

Haiti earthquake exposes Twitter chasm

2010-01-18T11:43:13Z

At long last the poor people of Haiti are receiving international aid. It's taken almost a week for a significant response. Indeed, the UK Government initially promised aid which was about half the salary they agreed to pay the boss of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Millions of disadvantaged people were expected to share £6m, whereas Mr Hester got £10m to himself. But that's not the real issue. The real problem is that governments the world over were completely unaware of the true nature of this disaster - even though the rest of us knew.

News spreads more quickly these days thanks to Twitter

When the news broke in the UK, the 24-hour news channels broadcast it around 45 minutes after the first quake hit Port-au-prince. In that first hour the seismologists who monitor earthquakes 24/7 had analysed the information they received and said, with one voice, that this was a "big one" with potential for a huge impact, simply because of where it was. An hour later the first pictures of the damage were shown. Where had this pictures come from? The country was without communication systems and without electricity.

Those pictures, broadcast to the world, had arrived via Twitter. People using laptops and satellite phone technology had started to let the world know the reality of the situation. Just half an hour or so later the first videos were arriving on YouTube and broadcasters such as CNN and Sky News were showing them. Anyone watching these channels would have known the seriousness of the situation. The Twitter stream for haiti also revealed the extent of the damage and the enormity of what was going on.

Yet the British Government slept safely in their beds, not surfacing for comment for many hours. Similarly, all around the world, our so-called "leaders" failed to respond rapidly. This is in spite of the knowledge about the situation that was widely available on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and a plethora of forums. The people of Haiti were telling us exactly what had happened - yet for a couple of days the "international community" (whatever that is) twiddled its thumbs, it seems.

In reality, of course, they didn't do this. They were working in the background. In truth the governments of the world have been caught "behind the times". Nowadays news is spread within moments, right across the world, thanks to the likes of Twitter. In the past, we might not have known about this kind of disaster for several days anyway. By that time, the world's governments would have been able to get organised; their plans would have been in place and to the rest of us it would look like an "instant" response. We would have been proud of them. Even in the world of 24 hour news, much information was "old". After all, it was almost 24 hours before any TV crews arrived. As a result, without the presence of Twitter and YouTube we would have been none-the-wiser.

With Twitter, Facebook and YouTube we can now find out instantly the extent of any particular situation; the wool is no longer over our eyes. And that's the gap that Twitter has exposed. The world's governments were still working in the rules of the "old world", where diplomatic offices could report back before TV crews had arrived and then the leaders could have prepared their responses. In Haiti, that seems to be what has happened. The Government was apparently blissfully unaware of the information flowing around the world on Twitter and YouTube.

Clearly, for any future disaster they need to monitor such social networks constantly so they can respond appropriately and much more quickly. This time their slow response is largely borne out of the fact they relied on old-fashioned techniques. The world has moved on - governments clearly haven't.

But it also begs the question - have you moved on? Do you know what is going on in your industry or sector? Because you can bet your last farthing that it's being discussed right now on Twitter and Facebook. The situation being Tweeted right now about your business sector could have a direct impact on the future of your business or the potential you have for greater success. If you are not monitoring Twitter or Facebook, for instance, you are going to be in the same situation as the Government has been on Haiti - caught napping. That means there is a growing gap between businesses who monitor Twitter or Facebook or other social networks and those who do not.

The businesses that use social network information to monitor the news in their sector are the ones that can respond. The rest are using old-fashioned communications methods and may well be too late to take advantage of the news and information spread via the likes of Twitter. The horrors of Haiti have shown the chasm that exists in the communications departments of the world's Governments. There may come a time where your lack of use of Twitter or Facebook could expose a similar gap between you and your business sector.

The Week Ahead: Things to think about for your web business

2010-01-17T09:09:54Z

What are you planning to do on your website in the coming week? Or are you just going to leave it to "tick over"? If you don't have some kind of plan for your website in the next seven days, the chances are your competitors will - and as a result they could do better online. So, in order to ensure that your web business continues to thrive, you need to do something with your website over the next week.

This is the first in a regular series of articles in which you'll get some ideas and tips as to what you can do with your website in the next seven days to make a real improvement. If you already subscribe to my blog, you'll get this update automatically. However, if you want to get "The Week Ahead" as a separate, weekly email then simply sign up here. Or if you have an RSS reader, use this feed link.

So, what should you be doing this week, starting 18th January 2010?

Planning: Start planning your Easter operations online. Easter is now just 11 weeks away, being the first weekend in April. You might need to consider organising special web pages for Easter promotions, or how you are going to be "open" over the Easter break. Planning that now, will mean you will be able to get web pages developed, or temporary staff cover organised in plenty of time.
Content: This week it will be 60 years since the death of George Orwell. His novel 1984 was clearly a prediction of "Big Brother" and some would argue that much of this has come true...! But it could trigger some ideas for blog content. For instance, what kinds of surveillance happen in your industry and what impact do they have? Another anniversary this coming week is 45 years since the death of Winston Churchill. Perhaps one of his many quotes will provide stimulation for an article for your website. Thursday is a big day for financial information with the publication of the "Global Economic Prospects for 2010", the "UK Public Finance Statistics" and the "UK Property Transaction Figures". This clump of financial information might also be the basis of an article for your website. If you want something less serious to write about, you might want to link something you write about to The Spice Girls, as it is Emma Bunton's 34th Birthday on Wednesday.
Tidying-up: Take a look around the web and you'll still find sites with information about what they are doing "this Christmas"...! Make sure anything that is out-of-date, especially if it refers to immediate past events, is removed, or put into an archive. Material about Christmas is a big give-away that your site is out-of-date...!
New features: Social media is clearly "the way to go" online. So you could consider adding your own social network for your website visitors. Either set up a page within Facebook, or create your own social network using software such as Social Go.
Reading: It's always a good idea to read something new each week; it helps stimulate your mind and gives you new ideas you can use in your business. This week's recommended reading is "Guest Posting" which provides a fool-proof guide to ensuring that you can become a guest blogger, providing further publicity around the web for your business.

OK, some of these ideas might not work for your specific website - but hopefully they will have given you a bit of a "kick" to get on and do something, at least, with your website this week. One thing is for sure, the websites that are changed and updated constantly, are the winners online.

Liverpool woes reflect your search engine problems

2010-01-16T07:44:13Z

Rafael Benitez has apologised to the fans at Liverpool Football Club for the current poor performance of the team. They are 7th in the Premier League and apparently that's not good enough. To make matters worse they were beaten this week by Reading - who are near the bottom of the Championship (one league below Liverpool). But hang on a minute, shouldn't we put things in perspective?

Liverpool looks to the facts; you should look to the facts too about search engine ranking

The Premier League is the foremost football league in the world; it has the richest teams, the best players and the biggest TV audience worldwide, bar none. So, being 7th in the top league in the world is rather excellent, is it not? After all there are 13 teams worse than Liverpool in that top league in the world. There are thousands of professional soccer clubs around the world who are much, much worse than Liverpool. Fans of positive thinking would be encouraging Liverpool to "look on the bright side" and to see that being 7th is not negative at all - but something to be proud of. After all, are you 7th in the world in your profession? You'd love it if you were...!

Yet, in the world of the Premier League being 7th is nothing; it's not noticeable in Europe, the sponsors will pay you less and you'll even lose fans whose loyalty cannot be guaranteed if you are not in the top three or four of the league. Indeed, there is a chasm between the top four clubs in the UK Premier League and the rest of professional football. And in your business world it's exactly the same.

Over at Google, if you are not in the top four positions of the search results page for any given keyword search you are nowhere. Studies have consistently shown that 80% of all clicks on a Google search results page go to the top four results. So, rather like Liverpool Football Club, you are nowhere if you are not one of the Four Tops. So, how can you deal with that?

Some people may suggest that going for "pay per click" (advertising) is a short-term fix. Pay for attention, they say, while you sort out your website and get its ranking improved. But when you analyse the adverts on Google and other search engines you find similar data; if you are not in the Top Four adverts, you are nowhere. So, the PPC route could end up being very expensive.

Of course, you could try "search engine optimisation"; that's a fancy name for "doing the right thing". Many so-called SEO experts have made this a rather black art and brought the whole field into disrepute. All you have to do is find out for yourself the differences between the websites that get ranked at Number One for any search term and those that rank Number Five. If, for instance, you search for "Liverpool Football Club" you discover the usual mix of results. Top of the table here is the Premier League itself, closely followed by the Dallas Morning News, the Liverpool site itself and then the main fan site. Check out some of the data from these website and you'll find several common features shared by these sites, that are not the same for the sites lower down the Google results.

The sites high up search engine rankings tend to have large numbers of pages. Google "weighs things by the pound"; the more pages you have, the more valuable you are perceived to be.
The top results also have large numbers of links, with the greatest proportion of those links being "anchored" by the phrase that was searched for. Others, down the results page may have more links overall, but fewer of those links, in this example, will be for "Liverpool Football Club".
At the highest positions you also find sites that are updated most frequently; regular updates - and several of them - gets Google's attention.

You can repeat the exercise for any search phrase and you find a common theme. In order to get into the top four results - and be noticed - for your search terms you need:

A large site with hundreds, if not thousands, of pages - and more pages than your competitors;
A site that has as many links of possible where the link uses the keyword you want ranking for (not just "click here");
Regular updates of your website - add content more frequently than your competitors.

So, what does this mean in reality? It means you can win the search engine battle by adding to content to your website constantly and then share that content with social networking sites. In return you get a site that has loads of pages and which grows every week - and you'll get loads of keyword-related links.

The answer to your search engine woes is simple. The answer to Liverpool's woes is simple too - just play better than their competitors. And in reality that's all you have to do to get into the Top Four on Google.

It's the real thing...Coke says so...!

2010-01-15T16:18:52Z

Remember that 1970s advert for Coca-Cola, with youngsters on a hillside singing "I'd like to buy the world a Coke"? (See video below for a reminder.) OK, I'm showing my age, but yes, I remember it...! It was an iconic advert that actually lived on for many years afterwards. Advertising historians still talk about it, no doubt. Even back then, prior to all this stuff about "branding", it was an advert that stood head and shoulders above the other trash that passed for "advertising". It showed that the Coca-Cola company was prepared to be creative, forward thinking and professional in its approach to promoting its products.

So it is worthwhile sitting up and taking notice of the company's latest decision. Coca-Cola is dropping traditional websites in favour of using social networking sites to promote its brands. That's right - this giant in the world of advertising is scrapping ordinary campaign websites, instead focusing entirely on social media.

And they are not alone - the global food and household products giant, Unilever, is doing the same thing. In other words, two of the world's biggest businesses, with some of the most creative and forward-thinking people in their marketing teams, have realised that the day of the traditional website is over, kaput, nada.

For the past couple of years, with more and more people visiting social networking sites, using Twitter and so on, the days of "a website" are over. People interact and share information about products and services on Facebook, or Twitter, or similar services. Then they direct people to a single page, not a website, for further information.

In terms of size, Facebook is now the third largest "nation" in the world - with a population of over 350m its kicks the USA into fourth place; only China and India have more people than Facebook. So Coke and Unilever have realised that if they want to attract people to their products they need to go where the people are - rather than trying to get those people to visit them.

Imagine you have a product that would be really useful to the people of Uzbekistan. If you were to set up shop in Oxford Street, London, how many Uzbeks do you reckon you could sell to? A few, for sure, but as many as you would really like? And even though you may well be doing everything you can to get those people to leave their homes in Uzbekistan and travel all the way to London to your shop, the chances are most of them would stay at home.

If you set up a website these days, many people you want to attract are living in the "country" of Facebook. You, over on your website are expecting them to "leave home" and travel all the way over to you. Like the Uzbeks, they will not do it. They are quite happy where they are. If you want to attract people from the world's third biggest country you need to be IN their country. Coke and Unilever have realised that.

It signals the importance of Facebook - and other social networks - from a marketing perspective and it suggests if you are not marketing your business on Facebook you are missing out. If you want to get run over, go and stand in front of the traffic. If you want to work hard, struggle, have sleepless nights, sweat a lot due to stress, then carry on trying to build your website that intends to drag people away from where they are happiest - with their friends. The choice is yours - go where the people are, or try to attract them to you. Coca-Cola has realised that the easiest and most cost-effective method of marketing is to go where the people are - and nowadays that's in social networks.

How often should you post on social networks?

2010-01-14T21:45:38Z

Who is your best friend? Is it someone who you see fairly frequently or someone who you only bump into once in a blue moon? Whose opinion do you value most in your circle of friends? The person who you know well? Or the person who you have hardly any contact with? You get the picture - the people we tend to see as most friendly and most trusted are those we have the most frequent contact with.

Don't limit yourself socially online - do loads of it...!

True, you can maintain friendships "at a distance" and you can re-acquaint yourself with old friends who you haven't seen in ages as though there had been no gap at all. But mostly, the best friends we have are the ones we see regularly and when we see them the contact lasts more than just a few minutes. Yes, you might see your next door neighbours more regularly than your best friends, but how "deep" is that relationship? You see, in the offline social world we all inhabit there are two factors that are important to us - the frequency and the depth of contact.

So, if you take part in online social networks this is an important consideration. People often ask "how many blog posts should I write each month?" Or, "how many Tweets should you send?" Or, "what's the best frequency to write on someone's Facebook wall?" And all across the internet you'll find guidance telling you a "number" - such things as the "optimum number of blog posts", or that you should send a certain "number of Tweets per day". It's as though people are seeking a scientific answer; they want to be told something like "write four blog posts a week, Tweet ten times a day and write on a Facebook wall every other Saturday". But such "rules" are complete tosh. Ignore them.

After all, in the "real world" does anyone say "for best friends you should meet up every third day, for good friends you should phone every other Wednesday and for acquaintances makes sure you send a postcard from you holiday"..! "Rules" like this don't exist in real world social groups - so why are we seeking them online?

Partly it's because we don't fully perceive online social networks as truly social in the offline sense; we still see them as technology. There is another issue too; if we do conduct our online social networking activities in the same way as our offline ones it will mean we have to do much more online activity than we might be prepared for. Our subconscious is aware of this and hence we get the message that we ought to look for rules.

In the real world, we know that to get people to like us and trust us we have to have several, increasingly deep contacts. The same is true online. If you want to use social networks effectively in your business it is only going to work if you have several, repeated contacts with people in your network and - with some of the closest contacts - rather deep and lengthy online connection. In other words, in order to succeed with social media you need to do lots of it. And that puts off many business people who hope that the occasional blog, a Tweet or two and a sporadic dip into Facebook is all that is needed.

But look at it the other way. Would you be ready to trust or recommend someone who you only met a couple of times a year down the local pub? It means that if you only occasionally use social networks and social media that's how your audience perceives you - a mere acquaintance (and often sometimes it's difficult to remember exactly who you are anyway). The only way you get remembered, liked and trusted is with repeated, frequent and lengthy contact - just as it is in the "real world".

That means you need to post items in social networks frequently, regularly, often. Loads of stuff - not occasional tidbits. So instead of asking yourself things like "how many blog posts should I write" ask something such as "have I done enough for people to remember me, trust me, respect me and like me?". The chances are that the vast majority of business people using social networks are asking the first question - and that almost certainly means they are doing nowhere near enough social networking online. Rather than trying to limit and "tame" your social networking you should be doing more and more and more of it - just as you do in the real world to maintain those friendships.

Why we need to re-think URL shortening

2010-01-13T09:44:24Z

Everywhere you look these days online there are "shortened URLs". This is when a long and complicated website address such as "http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/blog/useful-tools/how-to-remember-everything-you-want-to-online.html" can become http://GJurl.com/remember. There is a real need for such shortening services on the internet because you might need to add a web site address to a Tweet on Twitter. With only 140 characters a long address doesn't give you much room for a message.

Will you confuse people with poorly constructed short URLs?

Plus, in emails a long website address (URL) can be broken up, which means only half the address becomes clickable, making it go nowhere. Equally, if you want a specific web page listed in a magazine, a newspaper or any kind of advertising, you'll find it difficult fitting it into a narrow column width. There are several obvious reasons to have URL shortening.

But there is a massive reason why we shouldn't have them. Do you know what http://tinyurl.com/ybtwsej will lead you to? Can you remember http://bit.ly/6hVYdb? It might be cumbersome, but at least we know what "http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/blog/social-networking/twitter-and-facebook-could-significantly-change-human-health.html" is about...! And therein lies the problem - ordinary URLs are readable by human beings (but not always memorable) and short URLs are only easy for technology.

Here's the issue - your short URLs cannot easily be passed on by word of mouth. You can't mention them in your publicity materials or on TV or radio because no-one will remember them and won't be able to pass them on. Short URLs are not human. They only work in places like Twitter or Facebook where people will actually click on your link. But take a long hard look at your web analytics and note the proportion of people who come "direct" to your web pages. These are the people who typed in your web page address. They didn't search for you, they didn't click on a link and they didn't find you in a social network. These people got your actual web page address from places like your business card, your offline publicity materials such as brochures and advertising or from hearing someone else mention your website address in the pub. The numbers of people who come direct to your website are significant.

This means if you use URL shortening you are missing out on a huge swathe of traffic that could be visiting those pages. But they are never going to be able to remember http://bit.ly/6hVYdb nor are they going to bother to pass it on "word of mouth" down the pub. Who do you think would have done best with word of mouth gocompare.com or alturl.com/j2dd? URL shortening is seriously affecting word of mouth promotion of your business (which is one of the best resources you have).

There is no denying the value of URL shortening if all you are after are clicks. But if you truly want more people to visit your web pages you need URLs that human beings can remember (and hopefully pass on). So, for instance, let's say you wanted to understand how you can manage a multiple website strategy for your business. I could direct you to my free report at http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/reports/internet-business/running-multiple-websites.html. But that's not terribly easy to remember (nor short enough for Twitter etc). So what about going to multiplewebsites.co.uk? It's easier to remember and short enough to use in Twitter. But if you have clicked on both these links you'll find they end up in the same place...! The "multiplewebsites.co.uk" domain merely gets forwarded to the web page on my main website. And it's a darnsite easier to remember and pass on than http://tinyurl.com/ybl3abd.

So we need a new strategy for shortened URLs that make them easy for human beings, rather than being OK for Twitter. In other words, don't let Twitter and Facebook be in charge of the way your business gets traffic. At the moment legions of business owners are acquiescing to technological solutions which miss out a vital source of traffic - human beings...!

In my business I have a double strategy. If a web page is important to me in terms of income I'll buy a domain name and forward it to the page necessary. So, in the example above it means I can say the phrase "go to multiplewebsites.co.uk" in talks I give; it's quick and easy to write down for the audience and relatively easy to recall if you were ever in a conversation about having several websites. Equally, it's short so I can use it in Twitter as well as other places like emails where short URLs are vital. Furthermore, it's also short enough to be able to be used in single newspaper columns, making it more likely that editors won't cross it out...!

For web pages that are not as important, but which I'd like people to remember I have my own URL shortening service. It's a script you simply add to a short domain name you own. In my case it's "GJurl.com". I obtained the script from YOURLS (a neat combination of Your and Urls..!). It means I can have URLs such as "GJurl.com/avoidspam" instead of http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=142133 or http://bit.ly/7zU4Yd. True, other web site address shortening services can help you produce specific names; but often the ones you want have already been claimed. Furthermore, you can't easily track the statistics for your shortened URLs that the script from YOURLS provides - and it also comes with a WordPress plug-in enabling you to automate URL shortening at your blog.

So what do you need to do to shorten your URLs? If the URL is not that important a conventional shortening service may be OK, such as using those embedded within things like Tweetdeck. If the page is relatively important to you then a script that generates short URLs specific to you and which are easily memorable by people is a good compromise. But if the page you are trying to promote is quite important for your business than nothing really beats having a specific domain name that is easy to remember by people.

How to improve your website by moving away from your computer

2010-01-12T08:04:20Z

The modern business person is often isolated, working in front of their computer for hours on end. Even if they work in an office, it's often in a "cubicle" where the communication to the person next to them is via email, text message or Twitter. And small business owners are spending more time sitting at their computer because they need to maintain their website, answer emails, check in to social networking sites and research their marketplace. We've all gone computer mad.

Spending hours on end at your computer does your business no good at all

And therein lies a problem. It is changing our brains. Two new research studies on people with dementia clearly show that exercise and physical activity help prevent "cognitive impairment". In other words, lack of physical activity stops your brain working effectively. Sitting for hours on end with little activity makes you less able to think your way through business problems and work out what to do in a particular situation.

Do you have trouble thinking of ideas for your blog? Could be you'd be more creative if you got regular physical activity. Stuck on which web site hosting company to really opt for? Again, more exercise could be the answer. And are you wondering, yet again, how Twitter can help your business? Yes, you've guessed it, your brain could work that out if you had more physical activity in your life.

There's another issue associated with long-term computer use as well - headaches. The muscular tension associated with focusing your eyes on a fairly fixed distance for hours on end produces head pain. Breaks away from your computer will solve that. Computers also produce positive ions in the atmosphere which reduce our cognitive performance as well, meaning when we sit at our computers running our web empires, we are doubly affecting our brains; lack of exercise and being surrounded by positive ions has a real impact on our mood and our ability to think. Is it any wonder so many people get annoyed and frustrated and confused by much of the internet? It's not the internet that's the problem, it's their stifled brains.

Here are some solutions you can use.

Get an air ioniser. Negative ion generators will improve the air quality on a room with computers (as long as the door and windows are shut - otherwise you will be trying to ionise the world...!).
Take regular breaks. If you need a reminder to move away from your computer, get a reminder alarm that will beep you every 45 minutes to go away...!
Plan more physical activity. Simple thinks like getting off the tube a stop early and walking the rest of the way, or cycling to the local shop instead of using the car, or using stairs instead of the lift, will all help.
Move your phone to another room. When it rings, you have to get up from your computer and you have to move; a double whammy.

Whatever you do, if you do something that breaks you free from your computer for even half an hour a day you will find your brain improves. Your thinking and your mood will alter. And that means your attitude to your online business and to blogging or social networking will also alter. You will find them much easier and much more interesting.

Clearly, the biggest improvement you can make to your online world is to become more active in the offline one you are currently sitting in. Get up..! Go Away...!

One step to more readers for your blog

2010-01-11T14:10:16Z

How many steps do you need for success with your blog? Take a quick look around the web and you'll be told its anything from 3 to 21 steps. You'll find advice that tells you if you have a blog post called "Seven Steps to..." you'll attract readers, all based on a myth that people are attracted to read something that is "seven steps". You can even find arguments in forums debating the right number of steps to blog about...! Should it be five steps or seven?

Make your blog so interesting everyone wants to read it

Who cares? Well, bloggers who want to be successful, for a start. Anyone with a blog or who uses article marketing to boost their website is looking for every possible trick or technique to get more readers. So they look for advice that helps them gain an edge. "Aha," they go, "I knew it, my article should have had seven steps, not five. Tomorrow I'll add another two...!"

Here's the truth of the matter - it doesn't matter. Whether you have one step, or a million of them, no-one cares. What matters is that whatever you write is interesting. The single step you need to take in order to get more readers for your blog, your articles or your website, is to write stuff that's more interesting. Simples..as the meerkats would say.

Millions of bloggers and probably as many business websites bemoan the fact that they don't get enough readers. But if you look at their sites you'd probably easily spot why - what they write is boring. No-one really wants to read it. If you are not getting as many readers as you want for your blog, take a good, long, dispassionate view of your material. The reason you are not getting readers could well be down to the fact that no-one really finds what you write terribly interesting.

It means that you may well need to take a different approach; write about something else, take on a different writing style - who knows? But whatever you do, writing material that is more interesting is guaranteed to get you more readers.

That's because the existing people who find it interesting will then tell their mates down the pub, they'll Tweet about it, bookmark it, add it to places like Digg or StumbleUpon. Word of mouth will kick in. New research published today on brand advocacy shows that "word of mouth" is the most important method of getting people to engage with your company. People will not talk about your articles or recommend your blog to other people if your text is boring.

So, the single step you need to take to get more readers is really very straightforward - write stuff that's more interesting. Don't let yourself be enveloped by the great mass of dreary stuff that is filling the World Wide Web. Most material online is boring trivia; make your blog and articles stand out by being really interesting instead.

Government-backed study misses the point - again..!

2010-01-10T00:00:00Z

Teenagers in the UK these days are amongst the best educated children anywhere in the world. Exam results continue to rise, showing that the current teenage generation is also the cleverest we have had - ever - in Britain. True, you can argue with the exam system and suggest it is flawed. Yes, you might suggest there's some political fiddling going on to make the education ministers look good. And, it is possible, of course, that there were much cleverer youngsters before all the measuring began. But, on the whole, kids today are brighter than when I was their age.

Today's youngsters are much better communicators than we might think

So, why is it, we get so much "teen bashing" from this Government? Today we see another Government-backed scheme announcing research which shows that teenagers are doing themselves harm by using a "different language" to the rest of us. Indeed, says the Government "guru", they are making themselves unemployable. Really?

Teenagers have always used a different language to adults; it is part of their development of self-identity. When I was a youngster everything that was good was "groovy", now it's "cool". Texting has enabled them to develop a completely new form of language that actually allows teenagers to communicate highly efficiently - much more so than their parents. Language always evolves like this - after all, we don't any longer say "thee" or "thou" and the idioms from the Victorian age are no longer with us. So, the fact that this new research finds that today's teens are using different language is, well, obvious..! Well done Government - you've told us something we already knew.

But that's not all. According to the Government's Child Communication Czar, Jean Gross, "we need to help children understand the difference between their text speak and the formal language they need to succeed in life". Every study of communication tells us that it is the formal communication that causes the problems. But informal, emotionally-laden and expressive communication is what works, time after time. And that's exactly the style being adopted by today's youngsters.

Business leaders complain that today's crop of teenagers don't have the communication skills to survive in the cut and thrust of the office world. Yet in truth, it's those business leaders who lack the communication skills. They are effectively asking today's teenagers to come down from their higher level of communication to an old, formal, difficult language style. The FTSE100 bosses really should be having communication lessons from teenagers.

It's not that texting-teenagers lack the words for work, but that the world of work lacks the communication skills to deal with these highly educated individuals. What this report is suggesting is something akin to having an office where everyone speaks English, but are expected to communicate in Norwegian instead. Better for business is to allow the youngsters who work there to use the language they know the best and can use skillfully.

What that means is business putting in place technology that allows everyone in the office to text each other, Tweet each other and use instant messaging services. It means having a root and branch change in the technologies used by many businesses and a completely different focus in the way business is done. Teens today are used to webinars, audio chats and connecting via iPhone Apps. If you ask them to go to meetings and discuss things formally, they are lost. And rightly so - almost all meetings are time-wasters anyway.

So, here we have a Government which has allegedly produced the most gifted generation of all time. Yet that some Government is now telling us that this generation is unemployable. Both those facts cannot be true. What is true is that the Government is a mirror of British business - largely out-of-touch with modern technology and modern communication methods. That means that ultimately those teenagers who can't get a job in big business will walk away and set up their own companies that operate in completely different ways. And don't say that can't be done; that's exactly how Google started.

What your online business can learn from the snow heroes

2010-01-08T17:50:58Z

All across the UK people are becoming "snow heroes". Stories of bravery and amazing support are filling our newspapers. Indeed the newspapers themselves are taking part in the snow hero lark. Politicians are not to be out-done of course, singing their praises for snow heroes. And websites are even making pleas in an attempt to find the top snow heroes of our time. Of course, you might think some of these heroics are just a bit daft.

Some people are ready to help without needing to be asked. Is your company like that?

But they provide a lesson for anyone running an online business. And it's a stark lesson that shows just how cold-hearted many businesses really are. For instance, on BBC Radio Five Live this morning a caller rang in to praise the driver from ASDA, who had parked his delivery van down the road as he was unable to turn into her lane. He then trudged back and forth through the snow in order to bring the shopping in. Not much, you might think, but the caller said she was "thrilled" with ASDA. Now, would you like your customers to be thrilled with you?

Meanwhile, ASDA's competitor Sainsbury is warning staff against not trying to get in to work. People who can't get out of their drive are being told by bosses they'll have to make up the missing hours within the next month - or else. Do you sense a different kind of attitude here? One supermarket appears, quietly, to be positive and supportive in this weather, while the other is going on radio and TV to tick-off its staff. And therein lies the lesson.

An attitude of helpfulness, support and trying to do anything for anyone means that you will go the extra mile to help - even if you have to trudge through the snow to deliver the potatoes. Yet an attitude of "I'm the boss" means that even though your company might try its best to support your customers in these difficult times, getting your staff to actually do that, all the time without thinking about it, when you've told them off, is somewhat less likely.

In other words, what these heroic stories from businesses in the snow actually uncover are "culture". What is the culture of your business. Is it one of helpfulness, supportive behaviour and always doing what you feel is right, from your heart? Or is your business a culture that is dominated by rules, financial targets and hierarchies? All the evidence is that customers prefer the former - warm-hearted, helpful companies that are not dominated by rules and that allow staff to use their intuition and nous to do whatever they feel is right at that moment in time.

And these snow hero stories also tell us one other thing; that some businesses are prepared to go that extra mile, to do whatever is necessary to help their customer. How often is that the case online? Shopping carts that break and have been broken for months? Web forms that insist you do it right, or else? Online retailers that charge you the earth for "packaging"? Wherever you look online, what you actually find are businesses that expect you, the customer, to go the extra mile for them. Let's hope it snows online soon - then we'll find out the internet companies that are dominated by a culture of helpfulness towards their customers. Most appear not to be - but your company could lead the way.

How to avoid spam - easily and without paying a penny

2010-01-07T13:38:42Z

Spam, junk email, call it what you like, around 90% of all emails are unwanted. Dealing with them costs time and money. We are now

spending around a total of one hour each day sorting through emails so we can find the real ones amongst the rubbish.

There are, of course, dozens of spam filters around. Some work well - but cost money. Others work well, but all they really do is divert spam messages to another folder in your email system. So, this pile of unread emails sits looking you in the face, potentially diverting your attention once again.

What you need is a system that removes the spam before it gets to you. True there are some excellent services that do that, but the ones that are any good cost you money and need you to change your email settings at your server.

What is needed is a spam filter that enables you to retain control over your email settings, which stops all spam before it gets to your inbox and which is free of charge.

Here's what you do.
...(Read whole news on source site)

How to avoid spam - easily and without paying a penny

2010-01-07T11:38:46Z

Spam, junk email, call it what you like, around 90% of all emails are unwanted. Dealing with them costs time and money. We are now spending around a total of one hour each day sorting through emails so we can find the real ones amongst the rubbish.

There are, of course, dozens of spam filters around. Some work well - but cost money. Others work well, but all they really do is divert spam messages to another folder in your email system. So, this pile of unread emails sits looking you in the face, potentially diverting your attention once again.

What you need is a system that removes the spam before it gets to you. True there are some excellent services that do that, but the ones that are any good cost you money and need you to change your email settings at your server.

What is needed is a spam filter that enables you to retain control over your email settings, which stops all spam before it gets to your inbox and which is free of charge.

Here's what you do.

Posted: 2010-01-07 11:38:46

Read Full Article

Double planning will really boost your website

2010-01-07T09:04:53Z

Millions of people are trapped in their homes at the moment thanks to the ice and snow. We might all moan about the country grinding to a halt, but unlike Canada or Norway, which experiences worse than this every year, it surely is not worthwhile investing in the equipment and resources necessary to deal with this kind of weather when we only get it every 30 years or so. The whole British weather situation raises interesting planning questions. But much media coverage and pub chat is focused on the wrong one. People are concerned with why we didn't plan to deal with the snow, clear the pavements and enable to get the country moving again.

Focusing on the wrong plan could damage your website

Surely, though, with this weather so infrequent, what we should have is a plan in place that allows us to cope when the country does stand still. In other words, rather than plan for extra grit, snowploughs and getting the trains running again, we should have a plan that says, OK this is what we do when everyone is at home and the schools don't open.

Online, you often see people making the same planning errors. They plan their website in meticulous detail; they organise everything it's possible to consider for a website and its associated promotion. Yet, their website fails to succeed. They then ask for help, advice and spend hours online searching for solutions to what went wrong.

But what really happened was they didn't have a second plan in place. This is the plan on how to cope when the website works. For instance, if you build a website that intends to bring in more business leads, what is your plan to cope when the number of leads you get exceeds your expectations? If you are selling products from your website, what is your plan when you sell more (or less) than you envisaged? And if you are a service-based business, what is your plan for coping with all the additional phone calls your website may generate?

Frequently, people plan their website and their social networking activity in some detail. Commonly, however, they don't plan for the impact their online activity will have. This results in not being able to work on their website and grow it, which then reduces the effectiveness of the carefully planned website. Companies appear to end up in a cycle of problems; they plan a website, cannot cope with its impact, blame the website and replan it, then fail to cope....and so on.

What is needed are two plans - firstly a plan for your website and then a plan on your coping mechanisms. If you have these two plans in place new research also suggests it is much more likely to work. Researchers in Germany found that when people have an action plan and a coping plan to deal with the impact of those actions behaviour change is much more likely. It shows that when we only plan for one thing, but not the impact of that plan, we are much less likely to succeed.

So, if you are locked in at home because of the snow you could take the time to plan your website for 2010 and plan for the impact of those changes. You probably have the time to do that this week...!

Do you really understand the online world?

2010-01-06T10:19:11Z

How much do you really understand the ins-and-outs of Twitter? Can you, hand on heart, say you know exactly how your website works? And are you able to delve into the depths of your email system to ensure you get no spam? The chances are you know what these things are about, but the more in-depth details are something of a mystery to you.

This might not be the best way to learn about new technology

New research conducted in Canada shows that when it comes to technology we know a little bit about a lot of things. But we are pretty poor at gaining in-depth knowledge about technology. Even though the study was focused on people who work in a big business, the chances are they don't behave that differently to the rest of us. Indeed, just ask any of your Facebook friends if they know the depths of the software? Or check with your LinkedIn connections to see if they truly understand what goes on "under the hood". Equally, how many people do you know who fully understand every menu option in Microsoft Word?

Many of us can use word processors, get the basics from Twitter and communicate OK on Facebook, but are we getting the most out of them with such scant knowledge? The Canadian researchers say there is a huge level of underuse of technology, meaning that many individuals and businesses are not making the most from the advantages on offer.

However, the study also revealed a significant problem. The research uncovered several different learning styles to understanding technology - and few organisations actually provide support or teaching that match the needs of these different learning styles. For instance, some people are "explorers" who prefer to delve into systems themselves, whereas others are "problem solvers" who focus and drill down into technology only to solve a specific problem.

The researchers suggest that one way of satisfying the varying learning styles is to have a "sandbox" - an area of a computer or a website that can be used to experiment or find out more without the possibility of causing any damage. It is well known that one of the things which puts-off adults from adopting new technology is the fear of breaking it, something which children do not share as a feeling.

So, what does this research imply for your online business? It suggests that having a copy of your website on a private "test" domain could be worthwhile. On this site you could make all sorts of adjustments, experiment with new add-ons and technologies with no worries about harming your actual website. Once you have learnt about the new systems and improvements, then all you need to do is to transfer them to the actual site.

Similarly, if you want to learn about the in-depth aspects of Twitter, why not set up a test account and experiment there with all the add-ons, before using them on your live account?

Test accounts, copies of website and so on will help all learning styles it seems; at the heart of technology ignorance is the fear of breaking things. If what you break is only a temporary, private thing, why worry?

If you want to test things on your computer then get something like Acronis True Image, (buy it here) which allows you to set up a "Try and Decide" portion of your computer. You can then tinker and learn with software and untrusted websites, with no fear of any harm to your actual PC.

One thing is for sure; the people who are truly succeeding online are those who have bothered to study and learn the new technologies available. Only having a surface level knowledge is not going to help.

Email marketing is vital to your business success

2010-01-05T06:28:39Z

Here's a test you can conduct today in your local High Street. Grab a clipboard and ask 100 people whether they have heard of "email". Ask them also if they have heard of "RSS". Then ask them another question: ask which of these two communication systems they have ever used. The chances are almost everyone will have heard of email and most of them will be using it. But as for RSS, most people will say "RS what?". In spite of the online world having links to "RSS feeds" and even though Google gives us almost 33m pages for the term "RSS Reader", few people outside the world of technology are bothered by RSS; it is a complete mystery to them.

Email is still hugely powerful, so do not ignore its value in your business

So it begs the question, why do so many blogs and website insist we "subscribe via RSS"? And it also makes me wonder how many people actually do that? Well, thankfully the kind folks at HubSpot have just completed a study on this very issue - and guess what? Yes, that's right, RSS doesn't really get a look in. In fact, the research shows that 12 times as many people subscribe to blogs via email than they do via RSS feeds. In other words, the old technology wins hands down over the new.

For several years now, people have been predicting the death of email. It has yet to materialise. Every time someone makes the suggestion that email is on the way out, along comes more research to prove the opposite. Indeed, on the same day that HubSpot published its research, another study was released which shows that spam email succeeds because half of us open emails we already believe to be spam based on the subject line alone. In other words, we may complain about spam, but many of us still look at it. It's yet more evidence of the power of email.

So, what should your business be doing and how can you get more readers for your blog? The answer is to offer email subscriptions to your blog so that people can receive your regular articles in their inbox. You can do this using the services of Google's Feedburner system, for instance. Or you can try FeedBlitz which offers a more sophisticated service. (If you want to subscribe to this blog via email just subscribe here.)

You can also offer digests of your blog via email using services such as ZinePal which allows you to automate the production of a regular PDF file of your blog which can then be emailed. (If you want the weekly digest of this blog go to this link and choose an option from the bottom of the page.)

Alternatively, you can cut and paste material from your blog into a newsletter or email you send out regularly using services such as Marketers Choice or GetResponse.

But whatever you do, do not ignore the power of email. Even though people complain about email overload, even though they moan about spam and even though they say it is tired, old technology, almost all of the people who could connect with your business would rather do it via email.

Forget website graphics - concentrate on words

2010-01-04T08:23:00Z

Neuroscientists in Scotland have made a surprising discovery about graphics; they do not say a thousand words. In fact, the words appear to say more than the pictures ever can. What the Edinburgh scientists did was compare the decisions made by medical teams based on the "end of bed" charts. Some of the participants in the study had the usual charts of temperature, pulse, breathing and other medical data. Another group of participants were given text-based equivalent information. The researchers found that it was easier and better for the medics to use the text information, than the graphs and charts.

Focusing on graphics may work against website owners

In other words, a picture did not say 1,000 words in this situation. It is an interesting finding because it has always been traditionally thought that we are better able to interpret a graph or chart than text. However, this study shows there is a cognitive advantage to words, rather than graphics. According to the researchers, graphics are open to misinterpretation and we get more easily distracted from them than text.

From the perspective of any website owner this study has important implications. There is a huge online movement steering people towards graphics; websites are increasingly graphical - charts, graphs, polls, videos and so on. Yet, this research shows that people will be able to interpret your message better if you rely on text. Indeed, it shows that people make better decisions from text than from graphics. It therefore raises the possibility that we may well have avoided international financial ruin if the banks and stock markets used text-based systems, rather than the charts and tables they rely upon. Ho hum.

However, what this research suggests is that the most important thing to concentrate on for your website are the words. True, graphics help. True, graphics make your site look more appealing. But it's the text that will get the most attention. It's the words that will create the most action amongst your readership. And it's the articles you provide which will improve your business online.

If you don't yet have a New Year's resolution perhaps you could make one along the lines of "adding more and more text to my website". Designers and the current wave of online graphics may well encourage you to "go pictorial", but this research confirms that the most important thing to do with any website is provide loads and loads of words.

How to stick to your online resolutions

2010-01-02T00:00:00Z

When do you think your New Year's resolutions will become a distant memory? By the end of January? Before Easter? For most people, resolutions fail to stick. We make all sorts of promises to ourselves at the beginning of each year and then fail to keep them. Then next year, we reckon that's a thing of the past and "this year" we'll definitely stick to our resolutions, only to find "life" takes over and our resolutions take a back seat.

You can stick to your New Year resolutions if you try

Each year people say things like "this year I'm going to blog every day" or "this year I'll focus on a proper keyword strategy". But before long those laudable objectives are consigned to the recesses of the office as "work" takes over. However, it is possible to stick to your resolutions. There is plenty of psychological research which shows us how we can be sure of sticking to our guns and ensuring our resolutions take hold.

The first step is simple. Write them down. Whatever your objectives for your website or blog in 2010, make sure they are written down. The mere act of writing our goals and objectives make them more "sticky". Once you have written them down - share them. Tell your family, friends, neighbours or work colleagues what you plan to do. The act of sharing our objectives also appears to make them more achievable.

Now you need to trick your brain into believing that the new behaviour is "usual". Say, for instance, you want to blog every day. Then, in order for your brain to accept that as "normal" you need to do it around 15-20 times without a break. That means scheduling your blogging activity into your diary - half an hour each day at lunchtime perhaps. But do it - religiously - for up to three weeks. After that it will become a new habit and you will find it much easier to carry on. Most people who want to blog every day fail to do so because they don't do it long enough to make it a habit.

Next, work out what the triggers are that prevent you from doing what you want to do online. For instance, you might want to use social networking, but as soon as you open Facebook you might be tempted into looking at personal material from friends, rather than working on your business page. This is the diversionary trigger that is similar to people who smoke - they fail to give up cigarettes because they respond to triggers that make them smoke (such as standing outside the office talking to friends). One you know what your triggers for negative actions are you can avoid those factors. For instance, if you are distracted by the wonders of Twitter, use something like Tweetdeck to switch off the main feed so you can view only those Tweets from people and organisations that matter to your business. Avoiding triggers for negative actions is another essential component in making sure you stick to your resolutions.

You should also reward yourself for positive actions. For example, if you want to add five articles a week to your website have a meaningful reward at the end of each week - you could even pay yourself a fee for achieving your targets. Rewards and positive feedback helps us continue with our resolutions, so ensure that you set up some kind of reward system for your online objectives.

Finally, take a look at your resolutions themselves. Are they negative or positive? For example, "giving up smoking" (negative) is much harder to achieve than "going to the cinema twice a week" (positive). If a smoker goes to the cinema twice a week, they probably smoke less as they are banned from smoking at the movies. Equally, online if you want to "spend less time on Facebook" you'll actually find it easier to achieve your objective if your resolution is a positive alternative, such as "increasing the number of pages in my website". In other words, if any of your resolutions are negative in any way, replace them with a positive resolution that will help you achieve the same objectives. That makes success much more likely.

So, whatever it is you plan to do in 2010 to improve your online business, a few simple steps will ensure those resolutions stick:

Have positive resolutions
Write them down
Tell your friends what you intend to achieve
Avoid triggers for negative actions
Set up a reward system for achieving your targets

With these things in place there really is no excuse for a better year online in 2010.

Sex, death and overcoming adversity are what your website needs

2010-01-01T08:13:12Z

What does a teenage boy who had sex with a dog have in common with ITV's "The X-Factor"? Equally, what does a man who tried to pleasure himself in a wetsuit in a ladies toilet share with Ricky Gervais? And what does a masturbating tennis coach have in common with a family whose teenage son was murdered?

Your online readers have basic interests

Well, these articles all featured in the Top 20 stories read by people in Berkshire in 2009. The stories that were popular last year were either about sex, death or people overcoming adversity, coupled with a few celebrity items as well. Over at Time Magazine, the Top 10 stories of 2009 worldwide were all about death and destruction as well. So what is going on?

It all suggests we are a voyeuristic lot, only happy in seeing the demise of other people - or their success in overcoming massive problems. Either way, the stuff we tend to click on is rather negative. Deep down, though, all the stories that are popular share a common feature; they are about human survival. Sex and death are inevitabilities - we all got here as a result of sex and we are all going to die.These topics are deep rooted in our psyche and become fundamental to us.

Knowing that we are "OK" compared with the rest of the world in terms of sex or staying alive is essential information to us. In other words, what many of these popular stories share is the fact that they confirm we are "on the right road". And that simple element is something anyone who writes a blog can tap into.

Sure, your blog may well become popular if you write about sex and death - but working that into a business blog might be rather difficult. It's the underlying psychological feature you can tap into; showing people they are "on the right road". If your business blog helps your readers feel they are doing things the right way, you will become more popular. If your articles help people confirm their prejudices or they demonstrate that they are acting in the right way, you will get plenty of loyal readers.

In other words, what these newspaper popularity charts show us is the need for business blogs to find negative elements that are rare, which then confirm that the readers are OK and doing the right thing. Consider a popular blog you read regularly. How often do you find yourself agreeing with the articles? Probably, quite frequently. In other words, the blog itself only occasionally tells you anything brand new - the rest of the time it is confirming you are "OK".

It is the same with these popular news stories online; you already know that many people indulge in strange sex acts, that people die every day and that some people face terrible problems in their lives. But what such stories do is help you understand you are doing "OK". So, if you want to attract more people to your website or blog, make sure that several of your posts and articles help your readers confirm they are doing the right thing. That will appeal to a fundamental psychological need and will help you grow your readership.

Happy New Year

2009-12-31T16:46:57Z

Happy New Year; have a great 2010. Thank you so much for supporting me over the past year and reading my blog - it is much appreciated. In 2010 I have plans to expand the service I provide and to write more practical articles to help you enhance your online business. I look forward to 2010 with enthusiasm for a brand new year of excitement on the internet. If you thought 2009 was fun online, wait until you see what 2010 will unravel via the web - touch, smell and much more besides. See you next year....!

Social networking is a waste of time...really?

2009-12-28T09:33:11Z

Small business owners believe social media usage is a complete waste of time. That's the conclusion from a study completed by Ad-Ology, a marketing research organisation. For each question asked, over half of the 1,000 respondents said that social media was "not beneficial". And in some surprising data, the research revealed that three-quarters of small businesses have yet to use YouTube and more than two-thirds don't use LinkedIn. In other words, in spite of all the mass media coverage, social media is largely being ignored by small businesses.

The evidence, however, is very much against these Luddite businesses. Research shows that the most profitable businesses during the recession are those which have put considerable effort into social media. In fact, the businesses that are doing worst are those which are ignoring social media. Naturally, the correlation between social media use and profitability does not actually signal a cause and effect relationship. Probably, what it suggests, is that the companies engaging with social media have several common features which make them more profitable.

They are likely to be quick to change and adapt to new circumstances, willing to try new things and to experiment, and well-informed and educated on technology. Sadly, these are things which most small businesses do not share. The Ad-Ology study actually confirms this; it shows that the two reasons why small businesses are not using social media are "our customers aren't using it" and "because we don't have the time to learn about it". In other words, "the old ways we know and which we don't have to learn any more about are OK". That's what the stagecoach operators said when the railways were introduced; whatever happened to them?

Back in the days of Dick Turpin, the stagecoach operators could also have said about the railways that "our customers aren't using them". But just because your customers are not using something does not mean it is a technology that you should not learn about. This new research suggests a massive "head in sand" attitude on social media - and that spells potential disaster for small businesses.

People are inevitably social and it is therefore no wonder that social networks and other social technologies are expanding at exponential rates. Small businesses may say their customers don't use social media, but it is almost certain they will. Hence, those small businesses that are currently learning and experimenting will be ahead of the game when more people start to use social networks and experience social media.

If you haven't set any New Year Resolutions yet, may be just one of them should be to start learning about and using social media in your business. If you do that, you will be ahead of your competitors and probably have a more profitable year ahead.

Record High Street sales are a warning to internet marketers

2009-12-27T08:04:02Z

Shoppers flocked to the sales in Britain yesterday in the hope of getting a bargain. Today, more retailers open their doors to a predicted stampede of bargain-hunters. What's going on? Have people suddenly got loads of money in their pockets in spite of the worst financial year on record? Are the shoppers going back to credit? Is the impending VAT rise really a worry to them?

Happy shoppers enjoy a day out together

It's potentially all of these, but probably something much simpler. Every year people rush to the shops after the Christmas break; this is nothing new. The real reason is we want to engage with the world again. Christmas shuts us away; people are only really engaging with close family, pigging out on turkey and chocolate. Going shopping provides a break. An interviewer on BBC Radio this morning asked bargain-hunters why they were hitting the sales - "it's a day out," said a happy shopper.

And therein lies the problem for internet marketers and its an issue that many online businesses have yet to grapple with. Our desire to be with other people, to experience the physical world with them and share our time with them means that the notion of people doing everything online is simply false. The UK Government, for instance, revealed in its latest Pre-Budget Report that it intends to drive more public services online in a bid to save money. In principle that sounds fine, but in reality the real reason why many people visit the passport office, or the local DVLA centre, or to pay their council tax directly to their local authority is because it is an excuse for a "day out". Doctors will tell you that their surgeries are full of people who have nothing much wrong with them, but they go to their GP because it is a social outing.

The Boxing Day sales are just another example of this; we love being with other people - physically. Plus, when it comes to buying things we love to touch them.

The idea that people will be happy with the convenience of doing all their shopping online, or that they will love being able to complete forms online to save a visit to their local council, for instance, is a false notion. People like being with other people and anything that provides them with a reason - or an excuse - for doing this will be exploited by them. Many "shoppers" will have visited the sales in the past two days and returned home with empty bags, but saying they had a lovely time. They didn't go shopping - they just wanted a break from being cooped up.

So, what opportunities does your online business provide your customers with to physically engage with your business or with each other? How much "real world" interaction is there in your business? If you believe that you only need an online presence and that the "real world" is somewhat old-hat, you could be facing a future of limited income. The really successful online businesses are those which combine the online with the physical and provide their audience with an opportunity for "a day out".

Happy Christmas, Happy Holiday

2009-12-24T15:41:09Z

Whether it's Christmas to you, or just a seasonal holiday, I'd like to wish you the very best for you and your family - and thank you for being a loyal reader. We are coming towards the end of the first decade of the 21st Century and we are ending with financial difficulties the world could not have imagined just ten years ago. So, as you sit around the fireplace, supping mulled wine and munching mince pies you may reflect on the past year and look ahead to the coming decade with a little trepidation. But whatever you actually do this Christmas it pays to look forward to a bright future, rather than mither about past misfortunes; you can't change history, but with the right mental attitude you can shape your future and thus change the history that is yet to come. Whether you get socks this Christmas, or the Caribbean island of your dreams have a good, relaxing time. As you spend time with the ones you love this holiday season, I hope you enjoy yourself and come back to work ready for action with a bright positive outlook for the next decade. Happy Christmas.

Plan for the long term and your website will be much better

2009-12-23T22:28:40Z

Psychologists at Kansas State University have shown that if you look to the longer term future you tend to make more positive decisions. They looked at the example of healthcare decision-making and demonstrated that if people were able to look at a large, long-term reward, rather than short-term gain, they tended to make more positive decisions about their health.

Focus on the future and your web business will improve

What the study shows us is the notion that if you are able to consider the long-term you must be more positively minded than those people who are so anxious about the future they can only worry about the here and now. In other words, if you look forward to the future you are inclined to be more positive anyway. But the study also reveals another important factor. The fact that people are more positive when they look to the long-term appears to encourage better decision-making.

In other words, positive people appear to make better decisions; they are clearly in the right frame of mind for good decision-making behaviour. It is perfectly possible, therefore, that if you force yourself to focus on the long-term future of - say - your web business, the chances are you will become more positive AND the decisions you make about your online business will be better for that business.

The new research provides further supportive evidence that having a "big picture", long-term "goal" or "destination" for your website is likely to bring greater rewards. You will make better decisions about your web business compared with focusing on short-term gains, such as higher search engine rankings in the next month or extra cash.

There are dozens of examples of internet businesses which have focused on short-term gain - such as a rapid rise in search engine ranking - and have done very well at that. Online businesses can go from zero to millions of dollars in the space of a few weeks. But such businesses rarely - if ever - last. The online businesses that do well are those which look far away into the future. Rather than worrying about short-term financial gain, they concern themselves with longer term, higher rewards.

Many very successful people will tell you that they don't worry about the here and now; that, they say, will look after itself if you focus on your long-term goals. Now, this new study tells us why; it shows us that those people who are focused on the future are more positive and make better decisions as a result. Focusing on the short-term encourages poor decision-making, and hence the reason why many busineses that worry about the here and now ultimately do so badly.

So, what does this all mean for your web business? It suggests that instead of worrying about short-term gains (which analytics software encourages you to focus on) you should, instead, think only about the big picture. Have your "eye on the prize" instead of nitty grritty detail. It seems you will make better decisions about your online business if you do.

You can't afford not to Tweet now

2009-12-22T14:37:52Z

Most business people do not use Twitter; they can't see the point. But, shortly into the New Year, the point is going to hit them sharply between the eyes thanks to two business deals that Twitter has just signed with Google and Microsoft. If you are not using Twitter in 2010 your business will suffer - really suffer.

The new deals mean that not only has Twitter become profitable, but that real-time search on "topics of the moment" will feature Twitter above all else. To be noticed in search engine results, you will need to be Tweeting away.

In the past, all you needed to do to get noticed in search engines was to have a web site. Then you needed to have a website that was relevant and topical. After that you needed to have a website that was updated regularly. In the past couple of years, if your website did not include regular articles, or a blog, getting noticed by the search engines was increasingly difficulty. Indeed, at a meeting two years ago I said that if the businesses in the room were not blogging, they would not be in business two years later. Last week, I met one of the people who have continued to blog on public relations since that very day. And guess what they told me? Of all the people who were in the room two years ago, only two are still in business - the only two who took up blogging seriously.

Now, it's time for another prediction: businesses who don't use Twitter in 2010 will be out of business by the time the London Olympics begin. That's because the tie-in between Twitter and Google and Microsoft's Bing mean that Tweets will now get high profile in search engine results. If your business is not Tweeting away, its profile will drop. No doubt, the famed Google algorithm will get tweaked to determine whether or not your site is represented in Twitter - if not, watch out.

Ten years ago, people did not see the point of bothering to get listed by search engines or to adapt their sites for higher rankings. Five years ago, many business people could not see the point of blogging. Now, many businesses can't see the point of Twittering away. Yet those businesses ten years ago who saw the point of search engine rankings or five years ago saw the point of blogging are thriving online. The same now is true for the businesses that Tweet.

Your company's chances of being clicked on in search engines come 2010 will be reduced - potentially dramatically - if you don't use Twitter. You can make a start by downloading my free guide on Twitter for business.

Why you should start your blog this Christmas

2009-12-21T07:40:45Z

What are you doing this Christmas holiday season? Stuffing the turkey and then stuffing yourself? Slumping in front of endless hours of television "specials"? Getting stuck in hours of traffic jams in the snow as you travel to relatives to have an argument?

Get your blog started this Christmas

Christmas time is the most stressful part of the calendar. More marital break-ups happen following Christmas and it's the time of year when suicide rates are at their highest. For two weeks, people who mostly only ever spend a few hours together, are thrown together for days on end with little else to do. It's the stuff of Big Brother or I'm a Celebrity - chuck a group of people together, provide them with few distractions and sure enough the fights soon begin. In addition, the large numbers of families spending ages together provides an added pressure on the single people and those apart from their families, further increasing the stress for them.

Added to this, Christmas time sees internet traffic fall overall. For the two weeks surrounding the holiday season, internet traffic plummets. There is usually a surge on Christmas Eve, with people sending messages around the world, but overall traffic in the latter half of December in in early January is pretty low. Most people are not spending this time online.

And all of this means it is a perfect time to launch your blog. Far too many people (especially in business) have a blog "in mind", but not on screen. The longer you take to get your blog off the ground, the greater the opportunity for your competitors to steal your audience in advance. Blogging is an essential business tool these days - yet, still, most businesses don't do it. Those that do are currently amongst the most profitable businesses online.

Blogging is also somewhat cathartic. Sitting down and writing your views, ideas and your latest theories can often provide a feeling of relaxation and achievement. There is some evidence that the process of writing releases "happy hormones" (endorphins) which make you feel more relaxed.

So, when you face a time of stress this Christmas, blogging can actually make you feel better. Similarly, taking a break from the family group activities will also make them feel better. Add to that the fact that the online traffic is relatively low and you have a time when you can experiment online with design and layouts, with blog structure and with the set-up of your blog without too many people noticing.

Furthermore, many people complain that the gap between Christmas and the start of the new business year - which will not be until 11th January 2010 as schools don't return until the Wednesday beforehand - is rather boring. By setting up your blog you can ease that boredom too.

So, after the turkey has been eaten and the Christmas pud is lying half-eaten in the fridge, while the rest of the family is snoozing, take a moment to fire up the laptop and start on your blog. The easiest way to do that to begin with is to go to somewhere like blogger.com or wordpress.com and simply begin - it will take no more than three minutes to get going. Later on in your holiday experiment you can transfer your blog to your own website or host it separately to these blog companies (besides which having a commercial blog on these sites is not acceptable). You could also download my Blogging for Business free report to help you understand how blogging can work for your company. Take a look also at these blogging for business books.

But whatever you do over the coming two to three weeks, your biggest Christmas present to yourself could be setting up that new blog you have been thinking about for ages.

Most social networking users prefer being face-to-face

2009-12-20T08:07:26Z

Even people who are avid users of social networking sites prefer to be face-to-face. According to a study by the audience analysis company Crowd Science, 92% of social networkers prefer face-to-face communication. Interestingly, though, a significant slice of people prefer social networking communication to the telephone.

We would rather be with people than meet them online

At first, this might sound odd, but actually it's rather basic. Human beings have two forms of communication - spoken and written. If you go back to our days in the caves, when our communication systems were just forming, we realised that we needed two means of communication. Speech was OK - if someone was nearby to hear you. But what if you needed to communicate to someone who wasn't actually with you? That's why cave paintings were invented; they gave information, for instance, as to where the best hunting grounds were. Written communication is ideal for people who are not actually next to us.

So, the telephone is actually a very poor communication tool. It is only any good for people we can actually, at that moment in time, talk to. Few people, when they hear "I'm out, please leave a message", actually go on to leave a voicemail. In fact, most people hang up when they realise they cannot actually speak to someone. Our brain goes "oh, there is no-one to speak to, so I need to write to them". That's why SMS text messaging is more popular on mobile phones than voice; and it explains why social networking is hugely popular because we can communicate with people who are not actually with us at that moment in time.

But, if you run a business online, you need to note the details of the Crowd Science study. Even the people who love social networking and chatting to people do so because the people they want to communicate with are not with them at that moment in time. But they would really rather be with their social networking connections face-to-face. It means your online business is bound to do better if you can incorporate a face-to-face element. Amazon, for instance, is doing very well indeed online - but they would almost certainly do better if they had some kind of face-to-face element to their business. How many times have you complained about an organisation as being "faceless"? Does your online business have a "face"?

Human beings love social contact and so it's no surprise that social networking is so popular. But, as this new research from Crowd Science shows us, we prefer real contact to distant contact. Add that real contact to your online business and you will connect with your audience in a much better way than your competition. If you stick with distant communication, well, in reality you are still rather like a caveman.

Sometimes, technology is not the answer online

2009-12-18T18:03:12Z

Ask someone who runs a website what they need to get to the top of the search engines. Or chat to a web designer and try to wheedle out of them the best way to design a web page. In both these situations, the chances are you will get advice about technology. The search engine solution will relate to "analytics software" or "optimisation programs" - yet the answer is really quite simple (just talk to loads of people about your website). Similarly, the advice of a web designer may well be to use programs like Dreamweaver or to get some content management system in place. But the best websites, by a country mile, are those which are designed with pencil and paper.

Who needs technology when you have a human brain?

Frequently, we turn to technological solutions when there is no need; a simpler, more "down-to-earth" answer often exists. If you think this is not true, take a look at the latest study on the use of diagnostics technology in neurosurgery.Brain operations are notoriously difficult and need absolute precision. So it's no wonder that brain surgeons rely on CAT scanners to help them ensure patients get the absolute best treatment. But this new research shows clearly that in some particular instances, a doctor's "hands on" techniques are more accurate than the scanner. In other words, the judgement of the experienced professional produces better results than a piece of technology.

What we forget is that even the best technology we have available today is not as good as the technology inside our skull. The human brain has limitless capacity to amaze us with its capabilities. After all, a couple of human brains came up with Google, another handful of brains got us to the Moon and back, while your own brain enables multiple bodily systems to function in complete sync so you can read this. Even the biggest supercomputer cannot manage the amount of multitasking the human brain does.

So, what does this CAT scan study tell us? It suggests that all too often we think there is a technological solution, when a human one might be better. It means that if you run a website it's always a good idea to ask yourself this question "is this a task that some people could do, or do I really need technology?". In other words, a technological solution should be the last resort - not the first assumption.

Twitter study proves your website needs to be entertaining

2009-12-17T22:33:57Z

Entertainers top the charts on a study of Twitter influence. According to the phone manufacturer, INQ, the most influential people on Twitter are mostly entertainers and celebrity sports people. Fourteen of the Top 20 influencers are entertainers and well-known sporting legends. There are only two business people in the list - Pete Cashmore and Biz Stone. Pete is the founder of the social media site, Mashable, and Biz is the co-founder of Twitter.

Remarkably, they sit amongst a list of celebrities and entertainers who not only have large numbers of followers, but also get re-tweeted a great deal, who make large numbers of posts themselves and who are referred to many times over by other Twitter users. Now, that's understandable for people like Stephen Fry or Lance Armstrong...but two business people? Really? Why is that?

Well, take a look at the way Pete Cashmore and Biz Stone do their Tweets and their blogs. They are not, what you might say is "business-like". Gone are the formalities of business. Gone is the business-speak. Gone is the traditional. Instead, these two guys are, well, entertaining.

And therein lies a lesson. Both of these Twitter superstars are informative, helpful and clearly experts in their fields. But the way they write, the kind of things they say can make you smile or surprised or pleased in some way. Entertainment is all about triggering emotions and that's what Pete Cashmore and Biz Stone do.

So, if you want your business to be noticed online and to have real influence, this study should be a lesson worth thinking about. It's time to say goodbye to being like a business and time to say hello to being entertaining. The online generation no longer wants formal, stuffy, business-like ways of doing things. Entertainment is a prime motivator and businesses that ignore that are likely to do less well in the coming years than those which focus on having fun and triggering emotions in their audiences.

Online customers are highly sensitive to your prices

2009-12-16T09:53:50Z

How much are your customers willing to pay for what you sell? Getting the price right is notoriously difficult - especially online thanks to a plethora of price comparison sites. However, new research from Korea (where internet usage is amongst the highest in the world) suggests that companies should not be too focused on offering low prices. The study shows that even people who are price-sensitive don't usually buy the lowest priced item.

Tesco focuses on value rather than price for the iPhone

In other words, people want value - rather than the lowest price for an item. Interestingly, Tesco launched the iPhone this week at a seemingly low price of a mere £20 a month, compared with the competition from 02 and Orange at around £30 a month. But as analysis of the pricing structure shows, Tesco's total offer is actually marginally more expensive than the iPhone from Orange. The headline figure from Tesco may well appeal to those price-sensitive individuals, but most people will be concerned with value. And if you check Tesco's sales pitch it focuses on value, not really mentioning price at all.

The iPhone has just been voted as the Gadget of the Decade by television's The Gadget Show; not bad for a product that will set the average user back almost £1,000 at average contract prices. Yes, that's right, a cool grand for a lump of metal and plastic that sits in your pocket and lets you phone people. It can do the same basic functions that a £10 phone can do with a fiver's worth of top-up. So, why is it such a desirable product? It can't be the price.

Sure, the iPhone can do many more amazing and useful things than your average phone. Certainly, the iPhone looks good, feels good and is clearly an envy-inducing product. And, yes, the iPhone is more technically advanced than your average, basic Nokia. However, it is also much more pricey. What we get from the iPhone is value - not just lots of stuff, but lots of emotional value. It makes us feel good. And therein lies the "trick" with pricing.

Even price-sensitive people want to feel good. So, what this new research confirms - as do examples like the iPhone - is the fact that businesses need not be swayed by the price comparison sites. Selling your product at the lowest price is not important (except for a small proportion of web users). What is important is ensuring you demonstrate real value to your customers.

Your website visitors are sensitive to the prices you display - but only in the sense of how much those prices relate to the value your products and services provide. In other words, concentrate on showing the emotional value of what you offer and even price-sensitive purchasers will pay your higher prices.

Would Simon Cowell say your website has the X Factor?

2009-12-14T07:39:52Z

Simon Cowell is, of course, the real winner of The X Factor in spite of the deserved win last night of 18-year-old Joe McElderry. Even though Joe has been awarded a £1m prize contract, Simon Cowell's company, Syco, is likely to make much, much more. Whatever you might think about Mr Cowell or his TV programmes, there is little doubt he is a master marketeer. Indeed, it is likely that without him the troubled ITV would have already gone bust. And whatever you might think about the acts that make it through to the finals of The X Factor or Britain's Got Talent, Simon Cowell is clearly very good at spotting artistes that will be popular.

Sure, he has had some failures, but his successes outweigh them. Take a look at the current chart and you can see that Simon Cowell is responsible for five of today's Top 30 hits. That's not a bad - how might you call it - a "hit rate"? Now, we hear that Mr Cowell wants to turn his attention to other kind of "talent shows" including one for politicians. In an interview on tonight's BBC Newsnight Simon Cowell reveals his desire for a political show in the run-up to next year's General Election.

So, could Simon Cowell turn his own talents to judging websites? And if he did, would yours come up to scratch? Would you get the Simon Cowell vote of approval or would you receive a tirade of abuse? How confident is your business at putting itself up in front of a vocal judge like Simon Cowell?

Let's take a look at what Simon Cowell appears to hold dear. He likes people who are committed to what they do and who have a desire for achievement. He likes people who put in hard work and who bounce back in spite of criticism. He likes people who don't give up and who always want to improve, grow and learn. He dislikes people who appear to think they have a God-given right to success or who don't want to put in any hard work.

So, the chances are, the vast majority of websites would fail the "Simon Cowell Test". Few website owners put in much hard work on their pages. They construct a site and then essentially forget about it, leaving it as though it were some lifeless brochure. Few website owners strive to develop themselves in terms of the web; the frequent refrain is "I leave that to my website designer". Few website owners have a real desire to achieve true online success, remaining happy that they simply have a well-designed site that pleases them.

If you want to succeed online in the measure that Simon Cowell achieves in the music industry here's what you need to do.

Firstly, you need to commit yourself to a never-ceasing desire to improve your website and your understanding of the Internet. You need to constantly learn, discover new things and adapt to the changing environment. Online success is not a part-time occupation.

Secondly, you will have to work hard. No longer can you simply dump your rough ideas on a web designer, approve their pages and then let the website wander off on its own down the information superhighway. Instead, your website has to become central to your business with your daily involvement.

And finally, rather than arguing with your critics you simply have to bounce back, stronger and more determined than ever to succeed.

In other words, success on the web is much the same as in the music industry. You need to be totally and completely committed to your website and treat it like a developing child in whom you engage completely and totally. You also need the personal desire to succeed and to work hard in improving everything you do online. Only a very few online businesses actually behave like this - and perhaps that's why only a tiny proportion of businesses online really, truly succeed. Most of them would fail the Simon Cowell Website X Factor. How would you do?

Tiger Woods reveals a crucial requirement for great online business

2009-12-11T16:55:39Z

Tiger Woods has a clear reputation problem at the moment - which will no doubt compound his personal, family issues. At the moment the world is full of rumour, allegation and speculation; none of it is known fact, largely because Tiger Woods appears poorly advised on what to do. He should, like David Beckham, have faced the media quickly and dealt with the allegations head on. But that's not Tiger's way apparently. What Tiger Woods is doing is showing exactly how NOT to run an online business.

Tiger Woods has a tarnished reputation that will live permanently online (Photo from Wikimedia)

For a start, the web is currently littered with negativity about him; you can't move online for material about the Tiger Woods story and he is even producing more web traffic than Michael Jackson. The positive material about Woods is being swamped by the negative. Every hour, more and more bad publicity is being piled upon the vast amount that already exists. The longer Tiger Woods stays silent, the bigger the pile of poo he has to dig himself out of.

Much of what is currently written about him may be untrue; but unlike the fish and chip wrappings of daily newspapers, what is said online is permanent. It's there forever and a day to provide fodder for more Tweets, more jokes, more negative articles and more criticism. Nowadays, more than ever before it is vital for anyone whose reputation is attacked to deal with it head-on, pouring out tons and tons of positive material so that the online negativity gets - at the very least - balanced.

However, more important than this is the growing need for authenticity. The clean-living, solid, reliable, dependable Tiger has been shown to be something of an "image" rather than the truth. By his own admission, Woods has not lived true to his values. In doing so he has revealed that the public person is somewhat different to the private person. The result is the public feel they have been hoodwinked; the man they thought they knew is not "real". Instead, rather like a magician's art of misdirection, a very different Tiger has been doing something different to the character we saw.

If there is one human trait that gets almost everyone annoyed it's lying. You will often hear mothers say to their children "I'd rather have a thief than a liar". Lying, deceit, untruthfulness is something most people simply despise. And thanks to the online world, the need for truthfulness and authenticity is growing in importance.

Years ago, a business might not have been true to its values. For instance, in public a company might be upright and clean. But in private the staff might have been gamblers and drinkers. As long as the customers never knew about the lack of connection between what went on in the office and the public image, it never really mattered. But now, thanks to social networking sites or blogging, that disconnect can be public information within minutes. What it means is that the values you hold dear to your heart have to be the values your business actually lives by. Tesco, for instance, tells us "Every little helps". According to the company 'It's not just something we say, we really do mean it". But if you were a supplier to Tesco you might think that is not true. Does Tesco really live by that value for its suppliers? No doubt Tesco would argue by cutting supplier fees they are doing "every little helps" for their customers. But if "every" little really does help, shouldn't it help everyone if you are true to your values? In other words, if you have values they must be visible in EVERYTHING you do; you can't pick and choose the people the values will apply to (which is what some people might accuse Tesco of doing).

That's where Tiger Woods went wrong it seems; his values were doubtless there in his attitude to golf. But off the course, he went off his values. He was choosing where his values would apply. And that's why is reputation is in tatters - he exposed his values to be partial. So, this debacle tells us two things. Your business must be true, completely and totally true, to its values in the modern internet age; otherwise your lack of authenticity will be quickly found out and exposed. And if your reputation does take a hit, you must, must, must, deal with it immediately. When the history books come to be written, the Tiger Woods story could well be one of the turning points in modern business.

Helping others online could boost your business

2009-12-10T08:31:54Z

Today sees President Obama receiving his Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his initial attempts to make the world we live in a better place. His roots in working in social care make President Obama somewhat different to many previous presidents, who came from business or law. Rather than seeking to divide and rule, much of what he tries to do is based on attempting to help other people as best he can. So ask yourself a question: which kind of people do you like the most? Those who divide and rule, or those who are less selfish and try to help others?

Provide a helping hand and your online business will do well

The chances are you will choose the helpful kind of person over the selfish one. Indeed, recent research from the University of California at Berkeley suggests that the helpful, altruistic individuals around us are the ones that are doing best in our modern society. They call their notion "survival of the kindest" and are suggesting that selfishness actually works against us. Who are the most reviled people in the world at the moment? The Taliban? Al-Qaeda? Knife-wielding thugs? No. It's those people in suits in London's Square Mile. Their apparent selfishness in demanding million pound bonuses for going to work and doing their job appals many people. Selfishness and greed - we don't like them.

Yet, littered across the internet are countless examples of selfishness and lack of altruism. The "get rich quick" brigade are frequently selfish, don't help other people and are interested only in gloating about their bank account to try and foster envy amongst the rest of us. It doesn't work; we don't like this peacock-like behaviour. Similarly, the big businesses who are clearly more interested in profit than they are in us as people tend to get criticism and disdain. The airline industry is a great example here. "Unbundling" their prices and charging us for each bag we want to take on, for each drink we want - and perhaps even for going to the toilet - demonstrates that their focus is on income and profit rather than helping us as passengers. The mobile phone industry achieved much greater success when it went from focusing on separate prices for everything and bundled it all together in packages designed for individuals. In other words, they were demonstrating some degree of trying to help us as people, rather than help themselves to our cash.

Everywhere you look there are examples of the helpful person surviving and the selfish ones only really getting short-term gain. So, the question is, how does your web presence indicate your altruistic side? How does your website promote your helpfulness? How does your pricing strategy show you are focused on helping other people, rather than trying to make a profit?

The more your online business focuses on helping others, the greater its chances of long-term survival it seems. In other words, President Obama's strategy of trying as best he can to help others (or at least make it seem that way) is why you get awards and plaudits - even if you haven't actually achieved anything yet.

Two reasons why people don't buy online

2009-12-09T16:16:01Z

Online retailers are failing to focus on two key issues which are persistent barriers to internet shoppers. A new study of online buyers has found that taken together these two issues are stopping more than half the people who use the internet from buying anything online. We may well have seen a Christmas bonanza online in the past few days, but it is nothing compared with what might be possible if online retailers really got their act together.

Whatever we buy, we simply love touching it - and that could be preventing huge amounts of online sales

The new research from the usability experts Foviance shows that people are put off buying items online because they want to touch and feel what they are buying. Furthermore, people are also avoiding online buying because they don't like being charged for delivery.

We live in a three dimensional, physical world. Our experiences come from our interactions within those three dimensions. It means that we value physicality - it becomes important to us because it helps us understand things more easily. People find it much easier, for instance, to part with money on a credit card than they do with real, hard, cash. That's because the intangibility of credit card money makes it difficult for us to be sure how much money we are spending - and we get it wrong as a result. With cash in our pocket it is much easier to budget because we can physically engage with what we have available. All those predictions of a cashless society are so, so wrong.

Similarly, we like to touch and feel products we are buying to work out their value. For instance, I could sell you something as simple as a book - something we all have experience of. But you value books more if the paper is of a certain quality, if the cover has a shiny feel or a three dimensional nature, or if it feels heavy. Online bookshops can tell you the dimensions and say things like "printed on quality paper"...but what does that really mean? To find out you need to feel it - and that's why, still, most books are sold in physical stores (not online).

The success of Amazon or other online retailers is, of course, not to be sneezed at. Yet they are effectively only scratching the surface of what's possible. So what can they do to help us be more likely to buy? Well, for a start, they can scrap delivery charges. Free delivery will make a significant difference - according to the Foviance study potentially increasing sales by around 18%. But they can also look at making their experience physical in some way.

Amazon may be about to do this - though they are denying rumours of starting High Street stores (even though Borders could be snapped up cheaply at the moment...!). However, many online retailers need to address the physicality issue in order to improve sales. Dell, for instance, has boutiques in shopping malls in the USA where you can try out all the different PCs and then order one online for home delivery. Zappos, the shoe store, provides a service that is effectively "try then buy", allowing people to get shoes delivered free of charge and then returned without payment if they don't fit or if you don't like them. This allows people to get the physical experience of the shoes they are buying.

Scientists at the University of Buffalo have already been able to transmit the sense of touch across the internet, which means there is the opportunity for online retailers to construct web sites, for instance, where we will be able to feel the clothes we want to buy. Other scientific work going on a the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for visually impaired people is also providing methods of getting a physical experience from the two-dimensional world of the internet. Ultimately, we will be able to experience physically products we want to buy online.

In the meantime, anyone selling products online needs to be creative and communicate physicality more. Instead of saying things like "printed on quality paper" you might say "when you pick up this book the thickness of the paper makes it feel like virgin parchment". Physical language could well help sell more online.

But if you sell products online you need to address the two key issues preventing you from selling more - physicality and delivery. Scrap those delivery charges and increase the physical experience in some way and there's every chance your sales will shoot up.

Green Cross Code for the Internet is another Government mess

2009-12-08T06:27:02Z

Gordon Brown and Ed Balls are today announcing the Green Cross Code for the Internet. The idea is that it will provide children with a means of staying safe online. The code has been drawn up following the Byron review of internet safety which resulted in the formation of a talking shop, known as the UK Council for Child Internet Safety. But the code is little more than a publicity stunt.

Some people - like the UK Government - fail to understand internet safety

For a start, the whole concept of the "Green Cross Code" is an analogy to a character from the childhood of many parents which was about road safety. The notion that current children will "get it" is a mistake as they haven't even heard of the "Green Cross Code Man". The Internet Green Cross Code also demonstrates yet more of a lack of understanding about the Internet from the Government. The tag line is going to be "Zip It, Block It, Flag It". Apparently the "Zip It" is going to mean that you should keep your passwords safe, as in zipping them away inside your wallet. Of course, all children using the Internet will interpret "Zip It" to mean file compression - the current online meaning of the word "zip".

Besides which, children already know this; it's their parents who don't understand. Children are careful about constructing strange, difficult to interpret passwords. Their parents on the other hand tend to use the word "password" or their own name....derrr...!

I spoke recently to a group of over 100 children and teenagers. When I told them that some people write down their passwords on sticky notes attached to their monitor, they thought I was joking. When I told them that many people use the word "password" they thought I was making it up. And when I told them that vast numbers of people leave their computers while still logged in to some sites, they thought I was just being silly. "Who on Earth does that?" they asked. "Grown ups," I said.

And there's the issue. Children are savvy; they understand the Internet landscape much more than their parents. They know what they are doing in terms of the "Green Cross Code for the Internet". Yet, apparently, this subject is going to be part of the National Curriculum - where adult teachers will be instructing pupils in what to do. It should be the other way round...!

Here's the simple truth of the matter. When you don't understand an environment you are fearful of it and don't assess the risks accurately. Ask those celebrities who went into the Australian jungle recently whether their experience of life under the canopy actually matched up to their expectations. When you do understand an environment, you are able to assess the risks in a more informed way. For example, in some parts of the country it is OK for children to play in the street; parents know that the traffic is light and doesn't travel fast. But if you leave near a motorway, the risks are somewhat different. Because parents have experienced these different situations they are able to assess the risks for their children.

However, parents often do not have any real experience of using the likes of Facebook or game sharing sites - the places where their children go online. The result is that these parents - many of whom appear to work in the Government machine - make up in their own mind the risks their children are likely to face (in just the same way as those jungle celebrities misunderstood what they were due to experience). And then these adults over-react. That then means the children rebel; tell your children they must not play in the street outside your house and get quite controlling about it...guess what? They will be even more determined to go and play outside their friend's house (where you cannot see what they are doing). Try and control their online activities? Guess what? They'll outwit you.

What parents need to do is not put in place some code for children, but go and learn more and more about the internet so that they understand the risks involved. Then, they can properly assess what risks their children are exposed to. It is true that children will face problems online - in just the same way as they face issues in your local shopping centre or down the park. But we don't have Government initiatives for a "Green Cross Code" for using the swings, or going shopping. That's because the ministers understand the risks due to experience; they clearly do not understand the online risks. Perhaps they are trying to appeal to the Daily Mail generation instead...gosh, is there an election coming up?

Why is everyone shopping online today?

2009-12-07T11:04:11Z

As you sit at your computer reading this, tens of thousands of people are shopping online. Indeed, today it is expected that at its peak online shopping will reach a whopping £4,000 per second. Shoppers are likely to be parting with an amazing £350m online today. But why? Why are they saving it all up for today? And what is attracting people to spend tons of cash online, instead of visiting those bright and cheery High Street stores?

Today's the day for Christmas shopping online - or is it?

It's true that the web is a convenient place to shop - no parking queues, no wandering around in the wind and rain - so that helps. But equally, one in three people who use the internet simply refuse to shop online because they don't trust the payment systems available. It's also true that often there is a wider selection of items to buy online than you might find in a traditional store. And the prices are often cheaper online too. So, in spite of the worries about fraud or identity theft, there are some powerful reasons why people prefer online shopping.

But why today? Well, a couple of practical things combine. Most people get paid at the end of the month; that always results in increased footfall in bricks and mortar stores in the weekend after people get their pay (the weekend just gone). Plus, today is the first day back at work for many people after the "shopping weekend" we've just had. It means that those people who only access broadband internet in their office or workplace are likely to shop for those items online today that they couldn't find in the shops yesterday. There is another pressure for shopping online today as well - delivery times. With only two and a half delivery weeks left, people are keen to ensure that their online purchases get delivered in time for Christmas.

Having said all this, there is something far more important driving the online shopping binge today. That's social pressure. The notion that today will be a "Cyber Monday" is, of course, only a guess. It's a guess that all the major retailers are happy to sign up to because it means they can send out press releases all about their special Cyber Monday deals. The result is mass media coverage of an "event" that might or might not be real. Because "everyone is talking about it", we then feel today is the day; we get sucked in to the chit-chat about it and even if we had no plans to shop online today, there's an increased chance.

The retailers will then be able to produce statistics to show that their predictions were right after all. "Goodness me," they'll say, "everyone did shop on that Cyber Monday." But it may well be we only did our online shopping today because there was so much media coverage saying today is the day to go buying online. In other words, we did the socially acceptable thing.

This is an important concept. We see it in the current debate about climate change. If you don't do the socially acceptable thing and recycle, simply accepting that the climate has changed because of human beings, then you are frowned upon as though you have lost your senses. We all fall into line, because to do otherwise is to get yourself criticised or even hounded by the media as though you are some kind of weirdo. The truth is, though, human beings simply love to think they are in control of everything and are at the centre of all things. It took the human race centuries to finally come to terms with the fact that the Earth was not the centre of the Universe after all. It may well take as long for humanity to realise that climate is much bigger than us and that our contribution to that change is negligible at best. Gosh, I've said something socially unacceptable; what will you think of me?

And that's the point - we all strive to be socially acceptable and stick to the party line. It means if you run an online business all you need to do is generate enough "word of mouth" about the need for your products and services and it will become socially unacceptable for your potential marketplace not to buy. Don't neglect the power of social acceptability for your products and services. It is a powerful tool.

Bleating from Borders belies the boring truth

2009-11-27T08:44:55Z

So, Borders has gone into administration in the UK after a dreadful trading period. Apparently they have "cash flow" problems meaning they are potentially unable to meet their financial demands. According to several reports, it's the internet's fault. But this simply is not true. Nine out of ten books bought in the UK are bought in physical stores - NOT online. People often like to find something else to blame - other than themselves.

Book shops still represent an "old fashioned" way of doing business

Let's take a look at Borders - and other book retailers. Back in 1971 when the Borders brothers opened their first store in Ann Arbor, Michigan, it offered - well, er, books on shelves. Now, almost 40 years later Borders offers, er, books on shelves. OK, you might say they are a book store, what else are they supposed to do? Well, for a start they might have responded to the way people behave...!

For instance, the university students who set up Borders were aiming initially at an academic market. In this, people often know the name of the author they want; largely they are told by lecturers to get the set books by particular authors. The result is that students go into bookstores looking for a specific author. No surprise then that many bookshops arrange books alphabetically by author's surname. But that only works if you already know the name of the person you want....! Academics might know, but the rest of us don't.

Of course, until the advent of the internet, that's all we had - we knew no different. All bookshops worked in the same basic way - and many still do. The result is that we research what we need online and then go to the bookstore to get the specific author having found out who we want using Google or Amazon. Remember, many people will not buy online due to lack of trust in the financial systems on the internet. They are happy to research online and then buy in physical stores where there is a greater degree of trust.

When you do go to a bookshop with your online research in mind, you probably find the book is out of stock. So, they can order it for you. Then you wait a week or two and then have to go back to the shop to collect it. What kind of madness is this when on-demand printing of books has been commercially viable for over a decade? And besides if you can't find the book you want in a typical bookshop, you have to go to find someone at the "book orders" desk (frequently not staffed) and then wait patiently while they go through several options before eventually telling you it is out of stock. Argos has had machines that can check stock in seconds on tables around their stores for many, many years.

What the Borders situation tells us is the fact that the book industry is still operating with the attitudes of a Dickensian business. They really haven't moved out of the 19th Century yet. They are slow to respond to consumer change and seem to spend more of their time complaining than getting on and doing anything about it. The book industry is full of people bleating on about the Internet. Borders themselves had an online store - but did they do what they needed? Probably not; they seemingly did little in response to Amazon. They set up shop and that was about it. Where was the online innovation (like Amazon's)? Where was the online marketing push? Where was the focus on using the internet to boost all aspects of their business?

The book industry has its head in the sand - not over the internet, but over the way the world has changed. The demise of Borders is not a signal that the internet is doing the industry harm. Instead it shows us that the industry's own worst enemy are the people within it.

Here is the news....Britain is late...again...!

2009-11-24T12:13:06Z

News is, well, new. It's stuff that's either an update on information we already know, or it is brand, spanking new. Newspapers are not called "oldspapers" after all...what they give us is (relatively) new material. Online, of course, "new" means "within the last few seconds"; the race to be the first to publish the news has taken on a different meaning on the internet.

"Coming soon" is not good enough in the fast-paced online world

In the past, news could be 24 hours old, when we just had daily newspapers. With the advent of broadcasting it could be a few hours old. Then came 24-hour news channels, which meant the news had to be minutes old and now, online, seconds are what counts. So why, you may ask, has ITV not realised that the rest of the world has had a rapid online news channel for over a decade?

ITV.com is still showing that its news site (which was taken down several weeks ago) is "coming soon". Following hot on the heels of its loss of over £100m on FriendsReunited it's another indication of a potential lack of understanding of the internet over at ITV's HQ at Gray's Inn Road. True, their news site has links to ITN - but that is no longer referred to on TV; people have been getting their TV news from "ITV News" for a long time now, rather than the old ITN.

You would think that an organisation that has to respond quickly to get breaking news onto our TV screens would be geared up to cope with the pressures of speed that the internet provides. Yet by cutting the newsrooms across the UK in half and slashing over 400 reporting jobs, ITV News may well not have sufficient resources to compete with the likes of BBC News, or even The Telegraph. When ITV News does resurface online, it will have an uphill struggle to compete - a huge mountain to climb. The longer it waits to give us a news site, the harder the job it gives itself.

So, what does this tell us about the online world and the demon of speed? It suggests that if your business does not respond to change quickly, you could lose out to the competition. Some businesses are still "thinking about" adding a blog (that's 10-year-old technology); others are in a quandary about Twitter (almost three years old now). While these businesses cogitate, others are taking on the new technology and profiting from it.

The BBC, for instance, concentrated huge resources and effort in its online presence over a decade ago; in comparison, ITV is still thinking about it. Too little - too late.

Don't let your business suffer in the same way. ITV has huge losses which it may well have avoided with an online offering to at least match the BBC's. Businesses that respond to online technological changes quickly and do not dither appear to be those that are succeeding and profiting (even in these economically difficult times). Hanging around, waiting, dithering or simply being ostrich-like seems to be the way to online ruin and financial difficulty. It means restructuring many businesses - including yours - so you can respond rapidly to new online technology and avoid competitors stealing a march on you. One of the main reasons why many online businesses fail is lack of speed of response to technological change.

So, in order to ensure your web presence works, make sure you keep up-to-date with online technology AND that you respond quickly. Otherwise, your site could be viewed rather like an "oldspaper".

How to avoid blogging hell

2009-11-23T16:43:10Z

Many bloggers are unhappy bloggers. They find it difficult to get inspired to write and when they do they are upset by the lack of readers. Then when they look at their website's statistical data they are even more saddened by the lack of time people spend reading their musings. In business, it's worse; many bloggers are tapping away on their keyboards because they have been told it is good for their business. Maybe that's true, but it might not be good for them.

Feeling forced to blog will work against your online business

This is the "blogging hell" many people find themselves in. They feel pressure to blog because the theory is it is good for business, yet they can't get inspired or even find it difficult to write just a few hundred words each day. Then, the time it takes them to produce anything resembling a good blog eats into their working time, meaning stress and unhappiness with their real job of work. That then leads to them being told they should blog more, so that they can attract more custom so they don't have to work so hard. It's a seeming never-ending spiral of pressure to blog, that seems to have less and less effect on business.

Here's the issue: people in blogging hell are not motivated to write. Imagine, for a moment, you yearned to be a lawyer ever since you were a teenager. You love the legal work, the challenges, the sorting out problems and standing up for other people's rights. You may be a fantastic lawyer - yet also be penniless as you are unable to attract new clients. You see, being a successful lawyer requires you to be good at marketing yourself. But you didn't go into the law in order to be a marketeer.

And so it is the same with blogging. People did not enter the accountancy profession, or serial entrepreneurship, or cake making to end up being a writer for a quarter of the day. These people are motivated by their job - not by writing. Writers are motivated by writing. So it begs the question - why do so many business people feel the need to blog?

The answer is "fashion"; it seems as though it is "the thing to do". Then, you find that blogging gurus will explain (rightly) the impact blogging has on a business. But few people seem to question the impact blogging has on you as an individual. Is it, for instance, making you stay up late at night to come up with ideas? Is it taking time away from more productive work? Is it difficult for you to actually write in the first place?

Blogging has undoubted benefits on business - you can generate leads, create a new income stream and produce new ideas for your business. But that can be at the expense of you and your work. So, take this simple test to see if you are in blogging hell. Answer these questions:

Do you find it difficult to get inspired to blog?
Have you ever spent more time than you wanted on a blog post?
Do you blog more because you "have to" rather than "want to"?
Are you frustrated that your blog doesn't get the level of readership you want?

If you answer "yes" to these questions you could well be in "Blogging Hell" and you need to escape. So how can you do that? Simple: get a writer. Find someone who is motivated by writing to do the work for you. Build a relationship with a writer so they can be your online voice. Try Tony Quinn at Inspiration Inc, Nigel Morgan, Patrick Moore, or Matt Ambrose for instance. Or go to Elance and find someone to help.

But whatever you do - get help. Rather like an alcoholic, the first step in dealing with blogging hell is admitting you suffer. Once you have done that, get help from people motivated by writing so that you can enter recovery and get on and do what you do so well - running your business.

How to sell more online by making it easy to see your products

2009-11-19T08:47:06Z

Do you want to sell more from your website? OK, silly question, I know. But one of the difficulties anyone selling stuff online has is that they cannot really control the sales environment. People tend to buy more when they are comfortable. But your sales environment might be someone's office, their bedroom, an airport lounge or a busy train. Selling your products and services on the internet is much more difficult than in the real world because you cannot control the variable environments of your purchasers.

In a physical store they can manipulate the lighting, the temperature and the overall ambiance to make you feel more amenable to buying something. Successful shops go to a great deal of effort to get the environment right to sell their particular type of products. Butchers, for instance, can invest in lighting that brings out the redness of meat, making it more acceptable to us. Clothing shops can invest in heating that makes us feel especially warm and thereby more likely to buy new clothes. Now, new research published in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that whether we are standing on carpet or vinyl flooring can also impact our desire to buy.

You cannot control where people will buy your online products

It's a complicated study looking at several different variables, but essentially it points to the fact that we are more likely to buy if we can see the product clearly and easily. Whilst carpet did have an effect making us feel more comfortable and more likely to buy something, this was reduced if the product was at a distance. In other words, our comfort levels only have an impact on our purchasing if we can see the product clearly.

Online, this means you can easily overcome the variety of environments in which you sell. You need to make it really easy for people to see what you are selling. That suggests 360 degree videos or several images to show the product from all angles. It also means being able to view the product in enlarged format pictures, allowing people to zoom in an out of any area they want. In addition, it suggests having a variety of images of the product in particular formats - such as colour variations - so that people get a clear view of what you are selling.

You cannot change the environment in which your potential purchaser is making that buying decision. But you can improve the clarity of what you are selling by using more and better pictures, as well as videos of the product. This will compensate for any negatives in the buyer's environment.

In the same way, some physical stores would prefer to have carpet than vinyl, but can't do so for practical reasons. This new study suggests that they can overcome the increased comfort of carpet by ensuring their products have excellent visibility. In other words, people want to see what they are buying.

Facebook is right on the button for safety

2009-11-18T13:31:03Z

Children who get bullied online should rightly be protected; so too should adults who get "cyberbullied" as it is called. Today, though, a major row has erupted between the police and Facebook over a seemingly innocuous little "button" that helps people cope with online abuse. Jim Gamble, the CEO of the UK's "Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre" (CEOP), has been on radio and TV all day doing a good impression of "Mr Angry"; he has been very outspoken in his criticisms of Facebook in particular. But, in spite of his in-depth policing experience, Mr Gamble appears to have missed the point on this topic.

The CEOP logo is causing a major row over cyberbullying

He is very keen to point out that the social networking site from AOL, called Bebo, has included his button. When users of Bebo feel they are bullied or threatened in any way they can click on the button and be taken straight to the CEOP website for advice and to connect with a specially trained child protection officer. Sounds a great idea, unless you are Facebook. That's because Mr Gamble's button is happily in the corporate colours of Bebo - hardly the thing Facebook would want to include...! Furthermore, it is not really a little button at all - it's massive when compared with all the other buttons on Facebook. At a basic level, it would just look completely out of place on Facebook.

Bebo, on the other hand, is really happy to take the button. After all, it has given it much-needed publicity at a time when it is falling in popularity. Bebo was bought by AOL in March 2008 and enjoyed a rise in popularity in the "honeymoon" after the takeover. But since then it has seen engagement drop consistently as data from Alexa (below) shows.

Bebo page views have fallen significantly

By showing that they are supporting a seemingly good system to defeat cyberbullying, Bebo knows it could gain some traction against the ever-rising popularity of Facebook. Throughout the period of Bebo's demise, Facebook has enjoyed the reverse trend - a staggering rise in popularity on all measures. Far from being altruistic, the use of the CEOP logo on Bebo may well be driven by a public relations agenda more than anything else.

No doubt the people at CEOP are dedicated professionals seeking to do all they can to help children and rid society of cyberbullies. Thank goodness they exist and work tirelessly. Last year, for instance, they arrested 334 people and disrupted 82 sex offender networks. No-on can deny that is excellent work. Yet CEOP has now been sucked into a commercial argument for which they seem ill-prepared. For a start, CEOP does not appear to realise what will happen if Facebook does use the logo. They simply would not cope. Already, the logo produces 10,000 people a month contacting the police - and that's before it was added to Bebo. With Facebook being on an entirely different level of usage, that number of people would simply escalate to a point where CEOP could not cope with the demand. The result would be children being let down - by going to a place of safety and support which actually cannot help them. A double whammy of negativity for those being bullied.

CEOP would be better advised to take an altogether different approach - handling this offline. Bullies are not created online; they learn to bully well before they can even use a keyboard. CEOP is yet another example of looking at things from the wrong direction. True, we need to deal with bullying when it happens, but far better to stop it happening in the first place. That means the resources being spent at CEOP may well be better placed in offline methods to prevent bullying. Also, online bullies are usually also offline bullies. Dealing with their offline abuse is likely to prevent their online bullying from happening as well. As a result, more resources ought to be spent on dealing with playground bullies.

Meanwhile, over at CEOP there is their own report (PDF) they might like to read. This study showed that children would carry on using social networking sites even if they did not have a reporting button. Looks like CEOP has shot itself in the foot; issuing angry demands for the installation of a reporting button when their own study demonstrates that children don't really care whether there is one or not. They say they would use it if it were there, but wouldn't be bothered if it weren't.

What this study did show, however, was where CEOP should be focusing attention; the children said they would rather get their parents or teachers to deal with online bullying. But they often felt that these people could not help as they had a poor understanding of social networking. Rather than getting angry about Facebook, CEOP should divert its resources into educating parents. At the moment, all they are doing today with this constant bleating is turning yet more parents away from the likes of Facebook. And that means their children will continue to use it in their ignorance, with the resulting bullying going undealt with. Far from helping to reduce cyberbullying, CEOP today may well have helped to increase it.

Twitter and Facebook could significantly change human health

2009-11-17T07:28:01Z

What's the biggest breakthrough in human health in the last couple of hundred years do you reckon? is it antibiotics? Or, perhaps, anaesthetics? Or what about scanner technology? In spite of these significant developments in human medicine, they are not as revolutionary in health terms as the installation of sanitation. Clean water supplies do more to change human health than anything else; much of the problems in "third world" nations can be put down to poor sanitation.

When seniors use online social networks they could well be improving their health

The health developments in the past 100 years of medicine have their place, of course. But when we look at a subject like health we tend to celebrate its success by ignoring contributions from outside the sector. The microwave oven, for instance, was invented over 30 years prior to becoming popular; its popularity arose when more people acquired TV sets, making the need to cook quickly apparent. It wasn't the subject of cooking that made the microwave popular, but the arena of TV entertainment.

So, the next development in human health may well arise outside medicine itself. And the latest research suggests it may come about online. A new study from the Rush University Medical Center shows that elderly people tend to be ill as a result of self-neglect which is linked to a lack of social networking. It is a significant finding; the numbers of single elderly in society is growing rapidly. Health systems are already finding it difficult to cope with the rise in old people needing treatment.

It may well be that if older people can be encouraged to use online social networks, they will become less isolated, have more self-respect and so the incidence of geriatric disease will be reduced. The most significant change in human health in the next decade may come not from medicine, but from the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

And if you think that's fanciful thinking, think again. The most rapidly growing sector of usage of Facebook is in women aged over 55. People aged over 55 are much more engaged with Twitter than youngsters who are under 25. Even Time magazine is telling us that Facebook is for old fogies. Everywhere you look, older people are flocking to social networks. So why is that?

For a start, older people tend to me more isolated generally - often living alone - so online social networking provides an easy opportunity to get that much needed "social fix". It's much easier for those with degenerative conditions such as severe arthritis to socialise online, than to hobble out to a lunchtime club once a week. It's much easier for those with social phobia (which gets more likely as we age) to connect with people online, instead of face-to-face. And it's much easier for those with little cash to get a laptop as a present from their loved ones, than to use their money for social trips they can ill-afford. In other words, there are several reasons why online social networking becomes really suitable for older people.

Of course, it's not without problems; economics, lack of technological knowledge and fear of the unknown will all combine to help put the elderly off using social networks. But if they do engage with them, it could have a huge impact on human health over the coming years. This week sees the BBC's annual Children in Need campaign; it may well be that, as important as this is, you could do more for your fellow human beings by encouraging the use of online social networks amongst the elderly. Instead of pharmaceutical companies chasing the next geriatric drug, they might do more good by investing in computers for old people. It's a thought.

Stop moaning about the problems the Internet causes your business

2009-11-13T17:56:28Z

Fed up with the ever growing range of technologies and websites your business needs to know about? Is that information overload getting you down? Or what about the need to get training and development for all manner of new devices and online systems, such as Twitter or Google Wave? The chances are if you go to business networking meetings, or attend webinars or teleconferences, you'll hear person after person telling you that they never had so many problems before the internet.

In fact, people are regaling you with more tales of how business life was much simpler and more straightforward without the Internet. We are entering the period of internet disillusionment.

Every new technology goes through a cycle of cynicism, then excitement and then disillusion before we get to the "bedded-in" period of acceptance. Business owners and executives appear more frequently to be "talking down" the internet and it's clear there is increased disillusionment growing.

But...it's time to stop the moaning. The problems that the internet bring your business are nothing; it's the attitude to the internet that causes the difficulties. Whatever the difficulties that the internet causes your business they are little, if anything, in comparison to the problems Richard McCann has had to face up to in his life.

Today, he wowed the Annual Convention of The Professional Speakers Association with his keynote speech showing how he has overcome a tirade of difficulties. At the age of 6 his mother was murdered - the first ever victim of The Yorkshire Ripper. Prior to that he'd been in and out of care and on the "at-risk" register. Not a great start in life. Then, when returned to his drunken father, he was beaten black and blue several times. As a teenager he took to drugs, became a dealer and spent a while in prison - the same prison The Yorkshire Ripper first went to. Prison reformed Richard and he joined the Army, only to be kicked out deemed psychiatrically unsuitable to being a soldier. I won't tell you the rest - you can get his book, Just a Boy, for the full - unedited - details.

But the fact is, Richard is happily married, a father and a hugely successful author and speaker; something he could not possibly have imagined when he was told "Mummy has gone to heaven". So, I put it to you: if Richard McCann can overcome some of the most testing difficulties anyone can face, how come you are still moaning about a handful of problems the internet causes you? Pah! Whatever problems the internet causes you - put them in perspective. Almost never are they really problems.

Be careful who advises you about the Internet

2009-11-12T22:11:33Z

Who advises you about SEO or Pay Per Click? Do they ever say that things are tough? Perhaps. Who helps you with your business planning? Does he or she ever tell you about difficulties?

If you answer "yes" to questions like this, you need to change your advisers - fast. Psychologists have known for a long time that mood is contagious. When someone in the room laughs out loud, you feel happier. When people look sad, you feel unhappy. When someone tells you the recession is biting hard, you agree that there has indeed been an impact.

Other people affect the way we think. But new research shows that not only is mood catching, but so too is poor decision-making. In other words, if your advisers on SEO or PPC make bad decisions for you, then you too are likely to make poor decisions.

Successful people surround themselves with other successful people. Success is contagious too. So, if your online business is not doing as well as you would like, the chances are you could be mixing with the wrong people.

Time, perhaps, to review who advises you on every aspect of your online business.

How not to read everything you need to online

2009-11-09T07:23:46Z

Berliners are celebrating today the 20th Anniversary of the collapse of "The Wall". That great dividing line between East and West was beaten down by ordinary people - and probably you have a "flashbulb" memory of where you were and what you were doing when the news broke. But with their new-found freedom, the East Berliners started to experience a problem they had never realised existed.

The Brandenburg Gate symbolises the opening up to a free flow of information into East Berlin

Up until that point, East Berliners were effectively told what to think. In an emotional interview on BBC Radio Five Live this morning a former resident of the East (now the curator of the museum at Checkpoint Charlie) pointed out that in the East people were not free. Of course, that much is obvious. But one of the benefits of being free is also one of its main problems - the free flow of information.

Nowadays - something that could not be predicted when the Berlin Wall came down - is the extensive freedom of information we all enjoy. That freedom meant recently that the "old rules" of preventing us from knowing things was destroyed by Twitter users, allowing the Guardian to publish details which were previously hidden as a result of an injunction. That freedom means that every week Facebook users spend a total of 8 billion minutes on the site; indeed one in every seven pages viewed by UK web users today will be on Facebook. That freedom also means, according to Web User Magazine, that so much information is being published that we are now missing out on new things which appear even on our favourite sites.

We are - in this free world we live in - surrounded by so much information that we are in danger of missing out the essentials. Back in the days of East Berlin, people didn't really know what they were missing out on; the information was so restricted they did not realise what was not there. Now, like the rest of us (except those in restricted states like North Korea or China) the Berliners are swamped with information. And just like you and me, that's a problem. As WebUser says, we can miss out on some useful and essential stuff. As the Guardian and Twitter has shown, preventing other people spreading information about us is now almost impossible. And as Facebook use continues to grow, our information free world demonstrates we are sharing even more material with more and more people.

Feel like you are drowning?

Information overload is nothing new - except for some people in Berlin perhaps. As we discover and do more things in free societies, so the information increases. But these days it is an exponential rise. Keeping up-to-date in your chosen field is becoming increasingly difficult; according to Google the internet is growing by several billion pages each DAY...!

So, what can we do about it? There are three choices available to us:

Try to keep up with everything, spending more and more time reading, sorting and analysing information
Restrict the subjects we want to really know about, narrowing our information topics to those which are truly essential to us
Forget the rise in information and just go about our lives ignoring most of it

It seems that most people try to do the first on this list - they attempt to keep up with everything. Then they get "information fatigue" - where they just stop trying to swim against the tide and essentially give up (only to start again after a break).

Here's what you need to do: act like a CEO of a major multinational. For decades, these CEOs have known that they can't possibly read everything they need to about their own company or their industry sector. They would never get their job done. So what do they do to solve this dilemma? After all, if they don't know everything there is to know about their business and its place in its niche, they are doomed.

CEOs pay other people to sift through the information. They have an IT director who gives them the essential technical information they need, they have an HR director who provides the latest news on personnel matters and they have a logistics director who updates them on distribution information. CEOs pay people in a wide range of disciplines to filter the information they need and provide them with the essentials. This leaves CEOs more time to mix with other CEOs where they share the important material with each other and analyse it.

Rather than trying to swim amongst the mire of information, sort out your "topics" you want covered then pay people in those topic areas to filter out what you need to know and only let you have that information. There are people on Elance, for instance, who offer such research services for much smaller amounts of cash than the money you save by freeing your time. In other words, outsourcing your information collection and filtering becomes profitable.

Strange how the world turns full circle. Back when the Berlin Wall existed the people of Berlin effectively outsourced their information filtering to the state. But, don't do what they did - having one person who filters all your information. Rather like a multinational CEO, have several different outsourced "information filterers"; that way you can be sure you are not being "fed a line".

Or you can continue to try and spend every night and half the day reading through all the information you think you need, eventually suffering from information fatigue, stress and the resulting loss in profits.

Have you got an Internet Mentor yet?

2009-11-05T22:04:18Z

Mentor was such a wise and trusted ancient Greek, that Odysseus put him in charge of his son when he had to go off to the Trojan War. It is from that - via a book written in 1699 - that we now end up with the process of "mentoring" whereby someone with experience and knowledge helps us improve and succeed.

Who is your online mentor?

But do you have a mentor? Do you have someone who helps you grow, gain from their experience and achieve success? In particular, do you have someone who helps you succeed online, someone who can help you make the most of the Internet for your business?

These are relevant questions in the light of new research which confirms the significant benefits of having a mentor. Although the research looked at schoolchildren it agrees with other studies which show that mentoring makes a real difference to success. In the latest research on children conducted in Utah, USA, a mentor meant that teenagers were 50% more likely to go to college, when compared with those who didn't get any mentoring. For disadvantaged youngsters, it was even more striking.

In other words, this study shows that having a mentor makes a real difference to success. However, a mentor needs to be more than someone you look up to. They need to be actively involved in helping you succeed; the need to be available, accessible, communicative, supportive and knowledgeable. Simply having some kind of "hero" who gives you guidance is not mentoring.

We need mentors in all walks of life. Sports people call them "coaches" of course. But even Olympic medal winners, with all their success and ability still have coaches. The fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt, still gets coaching from his mentors. No matter how good you are at something, having a mentor can make you better at it.

So who is your Internet Mentor? Who are you going to call on to increase your success with the Internet?

Are you socially isolated?

2009-11-04T20:54:56Z

Imagine teenagers in their bedrooms right now, hunched over their laptop, tapping away on their keyboard and checking out their favourite tracks on iTunes or MySpace. It's an image that many "do-gooders" would have us believe is all too common and which is really bad for youngsters.

Will using the internet isolate you from the rest of the "real world"?

You can almost hear the Daily Mail headline screaming "Ban kids from the Internet" or some such diatribe. The assumption, for several years now, has been that the internet and other modern technologies, such as mobile phones, makes us ever more socially isolated. The notion is that as we spend more hours in front of our computer screens we have less time for "real world" human connections. It is a theory that hasn't really been tested - until now.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project (a respected research group) has studied the apparent social isolation of internet users only to find the reverse of what has been thought for years. According to the report, Social Isolation and New Technologies, internet users have much more diverse and deep human connections than people who don't use modern technology. The research also found that Facebook users tend to have the most diverse and deep relationships.

Popular theory is that the internet reduces our social diversity and makes us ever more isolated. This new study confirms what many of us have thought for ages - the internet INCREASES social activity, not reduces it.

Now, if you are in business this is an important notion. The one thing that any business leader will tell you - whether they use the internet or not - it's your network of contacts and connections that determines your degree of success. Ultimately in business it's not what you know, but who you know.

This means that people who embrace internet technologies - particularly social networks - are likely to be more successful in business than those who don't use such things. This is simply because by using social networks you end up with more diverse and deeper connections to a wider range of people. Far from being isolating and reducing your business, engaging in online social activity is bound to improve your business. If you avoid Facebook and the like, you could actually be doing your business harm as you are likely to have fewer connections and less deep relationships as a result. And in business, it's relationships that count.

So, do yourself a favour. Ignore those Daily Mail headlines which suggest that using the internet too much will isolate you and disconnect you from the real world. The reverse is actually true. You need to engage in online social networking to enhance your real world social activity and to deepen those relationships. If you haven't signed up for Facebook or Ecademy etc etc - don't delay any longer; you are doing your business a disservice if you do.

Twitter is dead - long live Twitter

2009-11-02T07:54:13Z

Twitter users love the system and are very passionate about the benefits it brings them. But increasingly, Twitter is looking like it is on its deathbed. High profile celebrities, such as Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana) have left Twitter and Stephen Fry threatened to leave but returned.

Facebook continues to rise, while Twitter remains stagnant

Now, new data from the web intelligence company, Hitwise, suggests that Facebook is simply overpowering Twitter. Indeed, Twitter's initial growth appears to be falling. Over the past year, according to Hitwise, Facebook has trebled its market share of visits. Whereas, Twitter hasn't grown; indeed, Hitwise shows that Twitter has actually fallen from a market share of 0.2% to one of 0.14%.

Combine this with high profile celebrity walk-outs and a recent report suggesting Twitter costs UK businesses £1.4b a year in lost productivity and you have a perfect recipe for everyone starting to think negatively about Twitter.

So, should you ignore Twitter too and take a lead from Miley Cyrus? Should you realise that Twitter is an online "flash in the pan", something that was good for a while? Should you stop wasting your time tweeting at every opportunity?

Should you heck. Here's the problem. Comparing Twitter with Facebook is rather like comparing a text message to a book. The people who insist on making the comparison between Facebook and Twitter simply do not understand that like text messages and books, they are completely different forms of communication. In the past few years the number of books published in the UK has more than doubled. Did that mean that text messaging was near death? Of course not. Suggesting that Facebook's increase in market share implies the end of Twitter is making the same fundamental error.

Twitter and Facebook are entirely different communications vehicles that do different things. People are able to separate them in their own minds and use them differently. The market share comparison actually tells us nothing, other than the fact that the more people you have in a system, the more people you get using it. Durrr...!

So, forget the naysayers, ignore the critics and use Twitter in the way you and your followers want to. It is simply a conversation and no-one can tell you what is right or wrong in such a two-way connection. Do what you want with Twitter - as long as it works for you and your followers, that's fine.

CrunchBase Information

Twitter

Facebook

Information provided by CrunchBase

Don't believe all the views you read on the Internet

2009-10-29T08:03:44Z

Many bloggers and those "internet gurus" are alike in one respect - they often hold viewpoints which don't quite match up with the rest of us. Indeed, you might think that much of what is written online is somewhat extreme in its position. Take, for instance, making money online. You will find countless blogs and websites explaining some rather dubious ways of getting your "list" and milking it until it is dry.

don't believe everything you read online; it might be extreme

Sure it works; but how sustainable is it? Often such people have to keep building new lists in new areas because they have got all they can from their first list. It seems that such people have rather extreme views on business compared with the rest of us, who probably believe it is down to building relationships and maintaining them for the long term.

The problem is, if you take a snapshot of the internet on almost any subject what you will get is a feeling that the extreme viewpoint is the most common one. Now, researchers at Ohio State University have explained this phenomenon. It seems that people with extreme views are much more willing to share their ideas in public. People who hold mainstream viewpoints are less willing to publicly declare them.

The result is that online what we see as the most common viewpoint on a subject is probably the extreme position. Indeed, as the extreme views take hold, those who subscribe to those positions are encouraged to believe that their view is the right one. The internet is acting as a confirmatory system of extreme viewpoints to those who hold such views.

So, what does this mean for your business and your online activity? It suggests two things. Firstly, always check out the ideas you read about online. Don't take the apparently common view to be the right one - think about it and analyse it carefully for your own particular circumstances. Secondly, and more simply, just take everything you read online with that proverbial "pinch of salt". Almost always, your "gut instinct" is the right one. If you think a view is extreme, it probably is. If you think those commonplace internet business "gurus" are not your kind of business people, then you are probably right.

In other words - don't believe everything you read online...!

Don't read this you'll hate it

2009-10-28T10:43:54Z

Oh, you decided to read anyway. Strange isn't it? You see a negative headline and you go straight on to read the article below. You may even have clicked on the headline to get here in the first place. Why? You were told not to read it...! Like so many other people you have been lured in by a negative headline.

Positive headlines are not as appealing as these negative ones

Negative headlines are immensely powerful and are not used anywhere near enough online. Take a look at your typical daily newspaper and it will be crammed full of negative headlines - even if the story is positive. They grab our attention and make us look. For instance, consider "Ten Reasons Not to Hit Your Kids". Would you have been as interested in "You should love and respect your children" - which is essentially what this article concludes by saying. It doesn't have the same attention-grabbing feel does it?

Or what about a headline that says "WordPress provides control over images for Twitter users" instead of the actual headline "Why you should NOT be using TwitPic, TwitVideo or any other Twitter media sharing service". Yet, this article is merely advising you to retain control over your images by using WordPress. The negatively framed headline is much more likely to grab attention.

In spite of what we say about being put off by negativity, the reverse is actually true. We need to focus in on negative things - it's all part of our inbuilt survival. We need to protect ourselves from possible harm all the time, hence we are finely attuned to noticing negatives (potential threats). It means that your website visitors will be attracted to negative headlines more than to positive ones.

And remember, it is the headline that gets them to read. Even if you have enticing images or videos, unless the headline is compelling people don't read on. Eye tracking studies show that people often give-up after reading the headline - largely because they are not interested in what it is telling them.

Typically a good, popular and successful newspaper will spend more resources on the headline writing than it will on the writing of the articles themselves. Headlines make a huge difference to sales and readership in the newspaper business. The two or three words on the front page of The Sun are probably the most expensive words produced each day in the UK because without them working effectively, sales can fall. If those couple of words are right, sales can rise. Hence the newspaper agonises over those words and pays high salaries to the team putting that page together.

So, you need to ask yourself a question. How much effort do you put in to the headlines on your website? And are they focused on attention-grabbing negatives? If you merely used headlines as "labels" - including the ubiquitous "Welcome to our website" - you are not going to attract the levels of readership you want or deserve. Put in considerable effort on headlines and make as many as possible negative - you'll see a significant rise in readership and time spent on your site.

Searchers aren't looking to buy online

2009-10-26T07:17:48Z

Two-thirds of people who are searching for local businesses have no intention of buying anything from them online. That's the startling statistic from new research conducted on why people search. The study of search intentions shows that 66% of people are merely trying to find a business location, phone number or driving directions. This has important implications for any business web site.

Offline methods of connection appear to be very important to people

Indeed, the research found that only one in ten people actually went on to contact the business using the internet, having completed a search. Some 89% of people went on to use offline methods of connection or to conduct further searches. It suggests that even after 20 years of web activity, the offline world is still highly important to people. Companies who concentrate their efforts on being "virtual" or entirely online are clearly losing out.

People want to speak to you on the phone, visit your premises and meet you in the "real world". It is increasingly evident that many businesses are neglecting the need for "offline" activity in a bid to do everything online. Clearly that's not what people like. Indeed, the figures show a slight increase in the desire for offline connections, instead of online methods.

So, what does this all suggest for your website? It means that your phone number, address, directions to shops and offices and so on, must all be visible for everyone who lands anywhere on your website. That means on EVERY page. Making people locate this information within your site will slow them down and increase their level of frustration with you, producing negative thoughts about your company.

It's also a good idea to have all your contact information on every page, since studies have shown that when you identify your business as "real" you increase levels of trust in your website visitors. Companies who effectively hide their contact information are perceived as less trustworthy. So, there is a "double whammy" impact of having full contact details on every page - you increase levels of trust AND you immediately provide the offline information most searchers are actually looking for.

But whatever you do in terms of providing those offline points of contact, what is clear from this new research is that the online world is actually only of marginal importance to people. We all live in a physical, three-dimensional world - and that's the world your customers expect you to inhabit. Ignore it at your peril.

Postal strike shows online retailers don't think deeply enough

2009-10-21T06:43:45Z

Your local postie is dong you a favour if you are in online retail. Every day their cheery face brightens your morning as you open the door to be handed your letters and parcels. They have been an essential part of the UK community for over a century. Yet their impending strike is threatening many businesses - online retailers in particular who depend upon the Royal Mail for their deliveries.

Ideas about delivery have changed little since the early days of the modern Post Office

This comes at a time when internet shopping is already being put under pressure by the High Street, which is currently eating in to the sales made by the online world. A postal strike merely reduces the confidence of buyers as they are not sure if their goods will be delivered. So, many shoppers are returning to the bricks and mortar stores to get their goods, rather than worry whether or not their online shopping will be delivered.

Internet retailers are responding by falling back on contingency plans to use courier firms and other delivery companies. However, on BBC Breakfast this morning the Newbury-based costume retailer, Jokers Masquerade, revealed that the last time there was a strike their additional delivery costs were £47,000. Clearly the Royal Mail either provides excellent value for money, or has consistently been too cheap compared with other ways of delivering items.

Yet, whatever the online retailers do this strike reveals one other thing. It shows that Internet shops are not thinking deeply enough about delivery mechanisms. All they are considering doing is replacing one door-to-door system, the Royal Mail, with another that is essentially the same, such as CityLink. This might help overcome distribution difficulties during the strike, but is hardly a creative solution.

People lead extraordinary lives these days. Instead of going to work just a few miles away and being home at 5pm, tea on the table, millions of people travel large distances often to different places each day. We are a hugely mobile society with working patterns that are varied. Equally, gone are the days when there was always someone at home to take in a parcel. Delivering to people's homes 9 to 5 is no longer an option.

Companies like Amazon realised this a while ago and offer delivery to alternative addresses, even multiple addresses for the same order. Tesco, too, know that you are not always in during the day and will deliver very early in the morning or late at night. But these are still based on the notion that delivery means getting it to your home.

In reality, delivery is about getting to to you - wherever you may be. The postal strike should provoke online retailers into considering other ways of getting their goods to you, rather than merely replacing the Royal Mail with a directly comparable alternative. After all, delivery companies have GPS in their vans and many people have GPS in their mobile phones. That means it is perfectly possible for delivery drivers to pinpoint you exactly and deliver straight to you. They could also set up a locker-based system at motorway service stations, protected by pin codes. Your parcels are delivered to your locker and you pop in to the services on your way to work and collect your items.

There are dozens of other ways of delivering goods to people, yet what this strike is doing is merely getting online retailers to think of replacing one tired old fashioned system with another. If you sell items that are delivered directly to people, it's time to put your thinking cap on. It looks like the striking postal workers have not actually caused a problem for online retailers at all; instead it is entirely possible this could be the trigger for creative thinking that brings about brand new delivery solutions that make online buyers happier.