Archive for November 2009

At the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009 Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google inc. set out his vision of what the Internet will look like in five years time.

These are the top 6 predictions as summarised by ReadWriteWeb:

1. Five years from now the internet will be dominated by Chinese-language content.
2. Computers will be 10 times faster, able to hold 10 times as much data, and carry out much more complex tasks, following the rules set out by Moore’s law.

3. Most broadband speeds will be well over 100MB, which will blur the distinction between different distribution channels such as web, TV and radio.

4. “Web content will move significantly towards more video and Schmidt admitted that “We’re starting to make significant money off of YouTube”. That’s news then!

5. “Real time information is just as valuable as all the other information; we want it included in our search results.” “We can index real-time info now – but how do we rank it?”

6. It’s because of this fundamental shift towards user-generated information that people will listen more to other people than to traditional sources. Learning how to rank that “is the great challenge of the age.” Schmidt believes Google can solve that problem.

Schmidt also said that it was important for business owners and marketers stayed in touch with how young people interact with different media channels. Such was the pace of change in media consumption that it was important to stay ahead of the curve.

“Talk to a teenager about how they consume media and remember in five years they’ll be your employee,” he said

So, a version of the Internet where social media and Chinese language content dominates, all delivered over super-fast broadband? Let’s see what happens!

Well its been quite the week for Twitter posts. We started with a basic how to sign up to Twitter. Then we had tips to help you get to grips with Twitter. Yesterday of course we had 14 questions you need to answer when developing you social networking policy.

And now, the icing on the cake: How to put a Twitter Feed on your Website. Watch this to find out how to put all your Tweets onto your WebEden Website.

How did you get on? Leave us a comment below.

Today we’ve got another Guest Blog by Alison Cross from AlisonCross4Webs.co.uk. Its all about how to develop a Social Networking Policy for your business. Over to Alison.

Last week we had a (cue Mrs Merton) heated debate about whether or not its OK to use Social Networking websites at work. There’s no doubt that some businesses lose money because employees are spending time on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, blogs and Twitter. On the other hand, some actually benefit from employee involvement in Social Networking.

Time Wasting or Money Making?

These sites CAN be enormous spinning vortexes of wasted time and energy, but they can also provide a brand new channel through which your target audience can access your goods and services.

Today more than ever it is important that companies are seen to be part of the discussion about their own goods and services. To stay out of the discussion suggests that your customers’ opinions don’t count. Who needs that kind of reputation?!

It requires courage to join the discussion because you won’t be able to control the comments, but to be seen to be listening to clients’ comments and opinions can help your business/brand enormously.

Developing a Social Networking Policy

But – before you create your Facebook account, jumping into the social networking waters for business purposes without some kind of plan is to court death by drowning in Tweets!  Having a plan – a flexible, regularly updated plan – will help you turn social networking from a Business Suck to a Business Success.

If you have many employees, this would be a task for your Human Resources Department (Personnel!).  However, if you are only a small business with a handful of employees and no distinct HR Department, designing that policy is going to fall on your shoulders.

This post is aimed at YOU, the small business who needs to get a grip on those man hours lost by employees adrift in cyberspace and busy doing the work that YOU are paying them for.

I don’t recommend creating your Social Networking policy without consulting your employees in some way.  It’s such a fast-developing area, they may be more clued up than you! Listen to their input fairly.  You never know, it might just result in a truly inspired business presence on the networking sites!

I envisage that there are two types of employee here:

A)    The employee whose job remit is to be the public face of your business on Social Networking platforms.
B)    The employee who’s just faffing around on company time.

14 questions you need to answer in order to develop your social networking policy:

1.   Goal – what is it that you want to achieve with your involvement in social
networking?

2.    How will you quantify your business’s success in social networking?

3.    Will it be a project with a time limit or an ongoing involvement?

4 .   To which social networking platforms are you directing your efforts and why have you chosen them?  E.g. – is there any evidence that being present will have a positive influence on your business/customer interface?

5.    Which employees are working as your official social networking staff?

6.    On what basis are they acting on your behalf?
Are they working as a team (anonymously involved under business name)?
Are they to be recognised as named individuals?
How will your logo/brand be used?

7.    What kind of communication is permitted? Eg – Product information on Facebook? Discount vouchers on Twitter? Personal comments?

8.    What kind of communication is not permitted? Eg – disparaging the company or a client?

9.    When is communication permitted (for type 1 and type 2 employees it will probably be different – if you are taking social networking seriously as a business tool). For type 2, only after certain specified tasks carried out?

10.    What are the consequences for breaching the communication rules?  Verbal warnings, written warnings, instant dismissal?

11.    Will there be different consequences depending on the level of position within the company? Is it more serious if your Director of Finance is found slagging off the CEO’s dinner party in his blog than the junior store-keeper blogging the same gossip?

12.    Do these regulations apply solely within business hours?

13.    Consider the consequences of possible identity fraud on these sites. Do you know what to do if someone steals your logo/details and sets up as YOU?

14.     Bullying – your bullying policy may need to be extended to cover cyber-bullying.  The tragic results of sustained bullying on networking sites are well-documented in the press. Make sure your company/school has a policy in place.

This list of questions is not by any means exhausted, but should be able to get you started in formulating your own policy.

What else would you add to a social networking policy for your business?

About Alison Cross
Alison Cross lives on the Isle of Bute where she has built over a dozen websites using our software. She also helps people use Twitter to market their business. For more info or advice about social media or web design, visit her website alisoncross4webs.co.uk.

Last week we gave you some simple instructions on how to sign up with Twitter. Now you’ve done that, what’s next?!

Here’s a basic guide to using Twitter. Its not definitive – your comments are welcome!

Following people

1.    Start out by following people who you are genuinely interested in hearing from. This might be your industry figurehead, a national paper, an industry magazine, or a commentator
2.     Your customers. Show you’re interested in your customers by following them whenever you can. That will make encourage them to follow you, and open Twitter as a channel of communication
3.    Don’t follow people just because they follow you, unless they are your customer. Only follow people you are genuinely interested in.
4.    Avoid following people who have high numbers of followers and follows. These will just be using auto-tools to build their follower base. Lots are US based.

Tweeting your News

1.    Every time you add a new post or item onto your blog or website, Tweet it with a headline and a link.
2.    Every time you change your prices, have an offer, or have any other news that you wouldn’t otherwise have on the blog, Tweet it

Tweeting other people’s news and blog posts

1.    Set up an Feed reader with all your important writers’ latest posts. Here’s a guide on how to set up a feed reader
2.    When you see something that you find interesting, summarise it and send a link to it

Commenting on other people’s Tweets

1.    For the people who you are following, read their posts. If you’re interested, reply @them
2.    When people send you an @message, responding to it quickly

ReTweeting (RT)

1.    If someone compliments you, your website or your company then ReTweet it by copying it into your own post and prefacing it with RT @them:
2.    If you see anything of genuine interest that you want to attribute to the original Tweeter then RT it in the same way.
3.    Do your customers a favour by retweeting their messages to your audience

Direct Messages (DM)

1.    Keep any private messages to DM
2.    If someone RTs your message then thank them privately with a DM

General Guidance for Tweets

1.    Mix up your Tweets. Send some links to your site, some to others, and include no links in some. Have a mixture of general Tweets, @Tweets and ReTweets.
2.     Tweet any comments you get on your blog comments including a link directly to those comments. Try to get a debate going
3.    Ask questions to generate interest and get answers
4.    Remember that a lot more people will be reading your tweets than responding them. If you’re using it for customer service than showcase your finest work!

Tools

1.    Ping.fm Distributes your posts to multiple microblogging platforms
2.    Shorten URL Mozilla Add on. Puts a URL shortner shortcut in your  browser, makes for quick URL shortening
3.    TweetDeck. Desktop application that lets you monitor for mentions and direct messages across multiple Twitter accounts.
4.    Tweetpic. Allows you to link images to your posts.

Tracking

Twitter traffic is notoriously hard to track as it mostly comes from redirects.

1.    Bit.ly: This can give you click data about the traffic that your shortened URLs are generating
2.    Google Analytics. Using the URL Builder, you can manually add a tracking URL onto your website address before you shorten it.

And that’s about it! Any other ideas or comments? Please let leave them below.

We’ve covered online privacy and behavioural targeting quite a bit on this blog.

At its basic level, due to the way that web technologies work, almost every website collects and aggregates data about each visitor. Its for this reason that every website should have a privacy policy.

On a deeper level, ‘behavioural targeting’ describes a kind of online advertising that reaches you based on your online activities.

On this blog we’ve always argued that its worth giving up a bit of online privacy if you get a personalised, tailored version of the web. A company called ‘Phorm’ has pioneered this type of advertising, although not without considerable resistance, even on this blog. In fact, such has been the level of friction that they have decided to give the UK a miss for now.

Google also wants to get into behavioural targeting. Their version is called ‘interest based’ advertising, which targets you… based on your interests.

As is so often the case with Google of course, they’ve thought about it all a bit more and have put in place an idea which may quell the fears of privacy groups.

Google have a tool that lets you look at the data and information that Google hold about you and delete it if you wish to. Google are calling this a ‘Dashboard’, and claim it gives you ‘unprecedented’ control over your personal data.

You can get to grips with your Google Dashboard on the settings page in your Google account.

The Dashboard summarises the personal information that Google has collected and stored about you, based on your use of their products.

“It’s important for people to be aware of what data they have online and to be able to manage that data – Google Dashboard should help to make this a reality.” said Alma Whitten, a Google software engineer on privacy and safety.

“We think of this as a great step towards giving people transparency and control over their data, and we hope this helps shape the way the industry thinks about these issues,” Whitten added.

Find out what Google knows about you using the Google dashboard. Any surprises there? Does this lay any privacy fears to rest? Leave us a comment below.

We’ve pulled out all the stops this week for what is our longest, most in-depth tutorial so far!

A few weeks ago our guest blogger Alison Cross showed you how to get more from the web with RSS. Another great thing about RSS is that you can use it to pull information and content from one website to another.

In this tutorial we show you how to add RSS feeds from other websites onto your own website. Is a great way to add valuable content, looks really professional, and can increase the length of time visitors spend on your site.

How did you  get on? Leave us a comment below.

We’ve discussed Twitter countless times on this blog, and I’ve just realised that we haven’t covered the basics: How to sign up to Twitter. Here’s some instructions!

1. Go to the Twitter Home page and press the sign up button on the right hand side. This is what it looks like:

2. Next you’ll be on the ‘Create an Account’ page. It looks like this:

For Full Name and Username you’ve got a few choices. You need to decide who you are Tweeting as. Will your account be:

a) Personal (EG ‘Ken Builder’). In this case put your first and last name in and, and for a username write your name straight through. If it looks better seperate your first and last name with an ‘_’ underscore.

b) Business (EG WebEden). In this case put your company name in as full name, and for username write your company name again.

c) ‘On behalf of’ (EG Ken Builder on behalf of WebEden). In this case put your actual first and last name, and add your company name as the username.

Keep the names as short as possible – it will give you more space to Tweet with!

Make sure you include your current email address as this is where your notifications and password reminders will be sent to.

3. Then you get onto a stage where Twitter can search your Gmail, Yahoo or AOL mail accounts to see if any of your contacts are already on Twitter. Here’s what it looks like, but I’d skip this step if I were you!

4. Next up you can look for high profile users of Twitter who you might want to follow. This is what it looks like, but I’d skip this bit too!

5. And that’s it. You’re on Twitter! Time to experiment…

I’m not going to talk here about what to do, what to say, and who to follow, except to explain the links across the top of the page that look like this:

Here’s what these all mean:

Home: This is where all the Tweets of everyone you’re following plus your own will appear.

Profile: This is where all your Tweets will appear

Find People: This is where you can search for other users of Twitter, and follow them. Try searching for webeden!

Settings: This is where you can:

• Change your Username and Passwords
• Add your website address
• Add a 160 character biography about yourself
• Change Your Background
• Add Your Photo (if its a personal account use your own photo, if its a company one use your logo)

Now that you’ve signed up why not follow WebEden on Twitter?

Leave a comment if you’re having any trouble signing up.

UK website traffic monitoring firm ‘Hitwise’ has just published some up to date information about the ebb and flow of search volumes that include the words ‘discount voucher’ and ‘sale’.

2009 has been the year of the discount voucher

This year the recession has meant that more people than ever have been looking for bargains online. And the more people who find discount vouchers and tell others, the more people become aware of the discount voucher system. It’s a positive feedback loop, which has translated to a great year for those specialising in this market.

The latest research shows that UK Internet searches for discount vouchers was up 40% year-on-year during the w/e 03/10/09 .

But what about that high street favourite: the ‘sale’?

In contrast to the discount voucher system, sales are usually only short lived, and can provide a huge spike in traffic for those online retailers who have a high street presence.

As such ‘Sale’ traffic is usually very seasonal. There’s a massive peak starting on December the 26th, and other high points coinciding with the end of a particular season.

Traditionally the view is that retailers don’t need to have a sale between October and December. This ‘golden quarter’ is when consumers make purchases anyway, so shop owners can stick to their guns, charge premium prices, and maximise their profits.

Things are a bit different this year

Whilst it is of some debate as to whether the UK is still in recession, there’s no doubt that consumers online are still looking for a bargain. And that includes searching for ‘sales’ at a time when there usually aren’t any around.

In 2008, sale searches dropped off a cliff at the end of the summer, and didn’t recover until just before Christmas. This year there has been a drop, but nothing like the scale of previous years. The number of ‘sale’ searches are much higher during this period in 2009 than 2008.

Here’s the graph from Hitwise:

This is a potential opportunity for online retailers to grab some traffic – and sales – from the search engines. Whilst no-one wants to cut their profits just to make sales, there’s no doubt that there are shoppers out there that are looking for a ‘sale’ bargain rather then a discount voucher. If you are able to package your products into a ‘sale’ then you have a strong chance of both getting more visitors, and then converting those visitors once they’re on your website.

Anyone planning to have an early sale this year? Leave us a comment below.

They must be busy down at Mountain view. Barely a day seems to go by when they don’t launch something new. I feel like the number of times I write ‘here’s a new service from Google’ has gone off the scale. And we haven’t even talked about Google Wave yet!

Well… predictably… here’s a new service from Google…

In its never ending quest to provide ever more relevant search results, Google has launched a ‘social search’ service.

In a nutshell, this allows you to search for stuff; the search engine results pages (SERPs) are populated just with information posted by those in your social networks.

This might include information that people in your social networks have posted on Facebook and Twitter. But it might also include any entries they’ve made on blogs, forums, or other services such as Picasa.

At the moment the feature is only available in Google Labs.

Let’s say for example that you’re looking searching for a place to eat in the West End. Wherever a friend or colleague has made a comment or recommendation about a restaurant, their entries will be displayed in the SERPs.

The service is able to identify posts made by those a social network by making use of users’ Google profile. We wrote previously about how to set up your Google profile. The Google profile allows Google to link up services such as Gmail, Twitter, Friendfeed and LinkedIn.

Google are anxious to stress that they will only surface publicly available information, and not data and information from private or secure services.

“All the information that appears as part of Google Social Search is published publicly on the web – you can find it without Social Search if you really want to. What we’ve done is surface that content together in one single place to make your results more relevant,” said Murali Viswanathan, product manager at Google.

For information about how it all works, here’s a video by the mighty Matt Cutts that describes what’s going on:

As we’ve mentioned before, personal recommendations are the most likely reason to buy a product. Social Search makes it more important than ever to try and get recommendations from your customers, since these recommendations will be more likely to be read and followed by those in their social networks.

Can you see a future of social search? Are you interested to see the search results populated with information provided by those in your social network? Leave us a comment below.

We’ve talked plenty about how to effectively use Facebook and Twitter to effectively market your website. There’s no doubt that as a website owner these social networks offer a fantastic channel to reach out to new website visitors.

But what has been nagging at the back of every business owners’ mind is how much employees using social networking websites are costing them every day.

A survey from IT service provider Morse has tried to answer this question, by polling 1,460 workers on their use of social media during work hours.

The survey found that a whopping 57% of people spend 40 minutes every week on Facebook and Twitter whilst at work. Whilst we website builders want them to be using their social networks to market the company website, in actual fact its all for personal use. The estimated productivity lost from this has been put at £1.4bn a year.

And what are companies doing to plug this leak? The answer is ‘not a lot’. More than 75% of UK businesses have not issued guidelines on social media use.

Quite apart from the work time lost, unregulated use of social media by employees is also a potential brand accident waiting to happen. We’ve all ready about big company employees ridiculing ‘problem’ customers on Facebook, not realising that others could listen in to their conversation.

“Social media can be good for business, helping to extend ties with customers and employees, but organisations don’t seem to understand that it’s not being used predominantly for business but for personal use. This is a massive productivity black hole,” said Philip Wicks, a Morse consultant.

“Companies need to reinforce a corporate usage policy to ensure that people use their PCs responsibly and predominantly for business purposes.”

Do you think that this is another example of corporate Britain trying to stamp on the personal activities of employees? Have you any experience of social media indiscretions when discussing company issues? Leave us a comment below.