Big bank bows to social network pressure

One of the world’s largest banks, HSBC, has caved in to a pressure group organised on Facebook. The group called “Stop the great HSBC Graduate rip off” has attracted nearly 6,000 members on Facebook. The group was set up to campaign against the fact that students who recently graduated were …

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Banning Facebook will reduce productivity

Employers are increasingly deciding to ban social networking sites like Facebook. Kent County Council, for instance, this week slapped a ban on using Facebook in the office. Now the TUC has joined the debate by suggesting that employers should have a policy in place about the use of social networking …

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Business bloggers have lost interest in blogging

Business bloggers are no longer interested in finding out about blogging. Or at least so it seems. The lack of interest means that the latest Blog Business Summit has been cancelled. This follows three years where the Blog Business Summit was THE place to go to find out about the …

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Bank holidays boost online business

Online business will do very well today in England, even though it is a Bank Holiday and we are all supposed to be “resting”. What tosh! The “Bank Holiday” concept – and British politicians want to increase them – are from an idea that is past its prime, to say …

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Internet advertising rule book to be torn up

Online advertisers are still trying to get to grips with “pay per click” advertising, such as Google AdWords. Considerable numbers of people spend large amounts of money on pay per click advertising with little if any return. The auction model for things like Google AdWords is complex and requires considerable …

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Women do most of the shopping, so target them on your web site

Eight out of ten purchasing decisions are made by women, according to Trendwatching. The future thinking organisation suggests that women are the real buyers in society, so forward thinking businesses are targeting women instead of men. This suggestion follows hot on the heels of research from the University of Newcastle …

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Interaction is the key to online success

New research on the success of an Adidas ITV advert shows us an important psychological factor which will increase the success of any web site. The research looked at the follow-up viewers took following an interactive advert for Adidas. The advert achieved only a small click through rate of 1.38%, …

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Silver surfers are the real Internet whizz kids

People aged over 65 spend more time online than any other age group. According to the latest report from Ofcom, those aged over 65 spend a staggering 42 hours per week online. At the other end of the age range, children are also spending more time online, amazingly giving up …

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Back on BBC Tees again

BBC Tees had me live on air for half an hour today talking about “web revenge” – how people try to use Internet systems to get their own back on people who have crossed them…! I had a fun discussion with Alex Hall during her mid-morning programme.

Business leaders still do not understand blogging

Leaders of corporate businesses still do not understand blogging. That’s the conclusion you can draw from a recent study of CEOs. The study reveals that half of the CEOs do not think that blogging is a good way of communicating with customers. Err…what? These leaders of top businesses reckon that …

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Don’t plan for your future – it’s here already

Your future is in your hands – or at least the life coaches of the world would have us believe that. True enough, how we negotiate our way through life is down to each of us, but other people will impact upon the way we do that. We are not …

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BBC Ulster consumer programme

Today I was on the BBC Ulster consumer affairs programme, On Your Behalf, where the presenter Linda McAuley quizzed me about email stress. I was doing the interview “down the line” from the Portsmouth satellite studio of Radio Solent. It was decidedly non stressy for me because it was a …

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