Internet Psychologist
The UK supermarket, Sainsbury’s, is rather red-faced at the moment. For the past 24 hours it has been unable to operate it’s online store, costing it around £1m in lost revenue. That’s bad enough, but the company has also had to face several media stories about its failure, such as …
People often assume things about the Internet, yet frequently those assumptions turn out to be incorrect. For instance, many business owners I meet assume, it seems, that email marketing is dead. Yet, despite the problems caused by spam, email marketing is still the most successful method of selling online. Another …
Friends are people we share common interests with, who have the same values and morals, who cheer us up when we are down and who truly understand us. At least that’s what we would like to think. However, new research from psychologists in Leipzig shows that friendships are actually down …
People gravitate towards people like themselves. We all love people like us; anyone who is a bit different we tend to shy away from. It’s the same online – we tend to “hang out” in groups and clubs in places like Facebook and Ecademy where the people we meet are …
Lance Armstrong, Tony Blair and Mark Zuckerberg all have at least one thing in common. They are amongst the 100 most influential people in the world according to Time Magazine. If you have been living in a time warp, Lance Armstrong is the world’s most successful professional cyclist who beat …
Researchers at the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California have just published their report on the consequences and benefits of children going online. However, embedded within the report are some interesting facts that every online business needs to think about. Firstly, the annual study shows …
Some people are avid social networkers and build up huge numbers of “connections” and “friends” online. Take a look at Thomas Power, the Chairman of Ecademy, for instance. He has over 15,000 contacts in Ecademy and almost as many in LinkedIn. Does he really know all those people? If you …
The BBC has been pioneering the use of the Internet for several years. It has invested huge amounts of cash in its new media strategy and is seen as having real leadership position for the way it has incorporated the Internet into what was a rather fuddy-duddy organisation. Now, though, …
A new report for the recruitment industry reveals a massive increase in the number of companies that are banning the use of Facebook at work. The survey shows that seven out of ten companies now have banning orders in place to prevent their staff from using Facebook. That’s double the …
Let’s get this straight – sexual offences are abhorrent; I am in no way a defender of people who have committed sex crimes. As a psychologist, though, I’m aware that many of them are victims themselves, having been abused as children. But the Government rightly wants to clamp down on …
Children are signing up to social networks in their thousands. According to a significant research study by Ofcom half of children over the age of eight have a social networking account and profile. This is in spite of the fact that the networks themselves set an age limit of 13. …
Advertising gurus are great aren’t they? They are seen as leaders in “the creative industry”; they pat themselves on the back with lavish award ceremonies to celebrate their “stunning” advertising creations; and they mix with the stars who feature in their ads, making us all jealous that they have friends …
Many businesses are put off social networking sites. They feel that such sites distract staff from getting on with work. They think that social networking sites, like Facebook or MySpace are some kind of security risk for their business. Or they just think these sites are for bored teenagers and …
Facebook is in trouble; or so it might seem from stories in the specialist press, such as New Media Age and subsequent mainstream follow-up coverage. It seems that in the UK, Facebook has started to lose users; it is down by around 400,000 over a month. That might seem a …
Woolworths have big red faces over an entry in their Big Red Book. This is their catalogue shopping service that also features online. The problem is that no-one at Woolies realised that the word “Lolita” had sexual connotations when they started selling a bed with that name. Worse still, the …