{!date dayname+0}, {!date long+0} Dear {!firstname_fix} It has been a momentous week in the Jones household this week. After more than 20 years as a loyal subscriber to Sky TV, we've cancelled the lot. It's all gone - Sky TV, Sky Plus, Sky HD - lock stock and barrel. We subscribed to the full package - a whopping £72 a month. But we sat down and looked what we had in our Sky Plus storage - which channels were we really watching. It turned out that apart from the occasional movie and one or two channels, everything we watched was available on a combination of Freeview and Freesat. Our TV set already has Freeview HD built in and with the addition of a £250 Humax Freesat HD recorder we now have everything almost the same as with Sky. We're just one channel down on what we used to watch - The Disney Channel. But other than that we have the same - and there are no ongoing payments - a first year savings of £615, when you take into account the cost of the Freesat box. That's welcome extra money, of course, but it is a reminder that as human beings we often find it easier to accept the "status quo" rather than change things. This can work against you in business and for you. What do you continue to pay for or do that actually is not that vital? But what could you offer as an on-going subscription which your customers would keep paying for - because that's easier than cancelling?
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED: How can my business benefit from Wikipedia? Wikipedia is ten years old today; Happy Birthday Wikipedia. This amazing online encyclopedia can be of significant help to your business. It is, after all, the 8th most visited website in the world with almost 400m visitors every week. It is more popular than Twitter and Amazon added together. This is a massively important site and as a result can help your online business succeed. However, some business owners miss out on the potential impact of Wikipedia for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there is a widespread assumption that Wikipedia is inaccurate or unreliable. But academic investigations into the veracity of Wikipedia have shown that it is at least as accurate as well-known printed encyclopedias and some studies have demonstrated that Wikipedia is more reliable than traditional sources of information. In fact, Wikipedia is the MOST RELIABLE source of independent information you can find these days. Another issue for businesses with Wikipedia is that you cannot promote your company using the system. Even though anyone can add anything to Wikipedia, blatant and even subtle promotion is outlawed, so a number of business owners therefore assume Wikipedia has little benefit. But that's a false assumption. If your company is big enough you can have a profile or history on Wikipedia. Indeed, even if you have a small business you can complete a profile page - as long as you can back up your material with evidence. Such evidence needs to be independent of your own website, perhaps articles in magazines and newspapers about your business, or links from profiles on professional association websites. If people within your business are well known, they can have a biographical page for instance (like this one of me: http://uklik.me/grahamonwikipedia). You can also contribute to articles on Wikipedia on your own topic or subject expertise. You can then use material on your own website as references for the information you supply. As long as the reference is objective information and not mere opinion, the contribution you make will likely be accepted by the volunteer editors. However, if you add material to Wikipedia which is really only opinion you can expect it to be deleted fairly quickly after you add it. Contribute some facts and reference your articles or other content to support the material and you can then be using Wikipedia to enhance your online reputation. Remember too that Wikipedia material is free to use elsewhere. The copyright is "common" which means as long as you do not edit the material, that you only use it word for word, you can reproduce Wikipedia content anywhere you like. For instance, here is a Wikipedia article embedded within my website: http://uklik.me/cyberpsychology. You can also produce your own printed books using Wikipedia content. This can be done within minutes from Pedia Press. Indeed, to get my 312 page paperback book, "The Complete Guide to Wikipedia", just visit http://uklik.me/wikipediabook. You can make your own books like this using Wikipedia content on just about any subject you can think of - another valuable reason for thinking more about how you might use Wikipedia to benefit your business. Remember, you can always ask your question and get it answered in this newsletter by going to: http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/questions
WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK: Basic customer service is rather important... For some time now I have used ACT as a Customer Relationship Management tool. The product is sold from Sage, makers of the famous accounting software programs, which I have also used. When I upgraded to the new version of ACT, just over a year ago, I signed up for the extended support service, paying a monthly fee of £17. Because the new version was much more comprehensive and rather different to the earlier packages, I assumed I'd need the extra support; I didn't. In the whole year I only contacted them once. So when the annual contract came up for renewal I phoned Sage and told them I did not wish to carry on with their support. No problem, I was told, your contract is cancelled. Indeed, two days later I had a letter in the post confirming the phone conversation. A good advert for their CRM software I thought. Wrong, oh so wrong. A couple of weeks after this letter, I received a bill for my annual renewal. So I sent it back, together with a note explaining I had already received confirmation of cancellation of the account. I heard nothing back from them so I assumed all was now OK. It wasn't. Last week I got a "direct debit schedule" confirming the monthly payment amounts and the payment dates for my support contract. I sent that back with a terse note. A few days later I received a short phone call confirming my account had been closed. I wonder, now, what I'll get in the post next week? Here's the thing - Sage makes CRM and Accountancy software, yet this little case shows either those programs are poor or that Sage themselves are unable to use them effectively. Either way, I can no longer recommend Sage to anyone because they clearly were unable to do something as simple as cancel a contract, even though they said twice it had been done. It's just another examples that shows how getting the fundamentals right is often more important than the nice "twiddly bits" of customer service.
THIS WEEK'S "MUST BUY": Wikipedia - The Missing Manual If you have decided that you are going to take advantage of Wikipedia in helping you improve your website or in boosting your online reputation, then you will need to get to know what to do. Unfortunately, Wikipedia doesn't use standard online techniques - adding a link, for instance, is not done the way you might expect. So, I'm afraid you are going to need to do a bit of homework and learn how to use Wikipedia properly. There is, inevitably, plenty of material on Wikipedia itself, but it is not as handily put together as the material in this book in "The Missing Manual" series. If you are serious about capitalising on Wikipedia for your business, you need this book. To find out more about this book visit: http://uklik.me/wikipediamanual
SPECIAL NOTE: Join me for breakfast Fancy Breakfast in Basingstoke? On 8th February I shall be one of the speakers at the North Hants Expo at The Anvil Theatre. I'll be talking about The Future of Social Media and how it will impact on your business. Best of all, the breakfast event is free to attend as i the Expo itself. See http://www.northhantsexpo.biz/ for more information and perhaps I'll see you there. Kind Regards
Graham Jones Web: grahamjones.co.uk Tel: +44 118 336 9710 If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter than you can delete your name from the mailing list by clicking this link: {!remove_web} Affiliate Links: Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links providing me with a small commission when you purchase the item. However, I only use affiliate links for products which I personally value. |
