Year: 2008

Newspapers and social networks set to die in 2009

Your fate is in your hands; up until now businesses have been able to use newspapers, social networks – other publishers – to help them get their messages across. Marketing experts have often emphasised media coverage and social networks (word of mouth) as a way of promoting your business. However,

Business blogging isn’t worthwhile says new study

New research from Forrester suggests that business blogging could well be a waste of time. It seems that only 16% of Internet users trust what they read on business blogs. And – worse – this is the lowest trust rating for any web content. What the study reveals is a

Naked girl picture causes unrest in Wiki-land

A picture of a naked girl, aged around 11-years-old is causing a major stir thanks to its appearance on Wikipedia. The picture has been deemed pornographic by British legal advisers to the Internet Watch Foundation. This has led several Internet Service Providers to being forced to ban access to the

Social networking makes you happy

Happy people mix with happy people. Wow – hold the front page…! That’s one of the conclusions to a major study from the University of California and Harvard Medical School, published in today’s British Medical Journal. The researchers looked at people in a particular (offline) social network around Framingham, Massachusetts.

This is why the banks are in a mess – and other businesses too

Goldman Sachs has announced today that it is “thinking about” running an Internet bank. Hang on a minute – I thought they were a bank. Indeed, their web site says, for instance, “Goldman Sachs offers comprehensive wealth management services, including private banking products and services, to our high net worth

What a load of fuss over Pownce…!

You have probably never heard of Pownce, yet its name is plastered all over the Internet this morning – including in highly respected publications like the Financial Times. Pownce is a social networking site which has bitten the dust. It has been bought by a blogging company called Six Apart

Confusion reigns over email marketing

People are getting confused over the benefits of email marketing according to a new report on “customer engagement“. The study shows that 45% of businesses say they have not done email marketing to any great degree because of budgetary concerns. Now, with the recession beginning to bite and budgets being

Big business is killing itself by its attitude to the Internet

Researchers at the Chartered Institute of Management (CIM) are reported to have discovered that most companies are failing to embrace the Internet. Indeed, around one in every eight companies admit to imposing “curfews” on Internet usage, preventing employees from accessing the web at particular hours of the day. Are they

Get more attention for your blog and you will naturally start to write more

Researchers at Hewlett Packard have worked out why some people do well online and others don’t. The study looked at contributions made to YouTube. Why do some people post loads of videos on YouTube and others give up? It’s an interesting question and relates to many other areas. For instance,

More on email on City Talk Radio

I’m on the breakfast show on City Talk (Liverpool) tomorrow morning talking about companies who want to ban email…!

Daily Express just called

Just been interviewed by the Daily Express about social problems caused by office emails.

Positive minded children show Internet marketers what to do

Children with terminal illness are amazing. In spite of knowing their short life is near its end, they remain incredibly positive and have a zest for their remaining months or years. Meanwhile, as youngsters face the end of their life, unable to achieve all that they desired, Internet marketers moan

Is it any wonder Woolies went bust?

Employees at Woolworths wake up this morning not knowing if they are going to have a job much longer. Not the kind of news that 25,000 people want just a month before Christmas, but sadly their company has gone into administration. Woolies owes its creditors some £385m – a debt

Online shopping falls for first time in seven years

Online shopping has fallen by 4% over the previous year, according to the latest comScore analysis. Of course, this is only to be expected – consumer confidence is at its lowest ever, the economic news is depressing and people are losing their jobs day in, day out. However, it’s easy

No one is safe in a recession – even Google is in trouble

If you think your business can survive the recession – think long and hard. The world’s biggest bank had to be baled out by the US Government yesterday, the historical Lehman Brothers has disappeared and leading car makers are on the verge of bankruptcy. Now, even Google is in trouble.

So darling, is Alistair right?

Economists always disagree; put three of them in a phone box and they’ll come out with four different opinions. The thing is, economists would like us to think they run a “science” (indeed you can study “economic science” at university), but actually it’s all guesswork. Admittedly it’s reasonably educated guesswork,

Google finally admits it’s a failure

Webmasters worldwide have been scrabbling over the past couple of years to get to the top of search engine rankings. People are using “Search Engine Optimisation” techniques to help boost their appearance in search results. For many people, though, search is becoming “old hat”. Millions now rely not on search,

Your web site should avoid anything that can break

Users of your web site are less likely to return if your site breaks or doesn’t work properly. People get frustrated by slow loading, by the addition of technologies that work only in certain circumstances or where your web site is simply too technologically “clever”. The latest “gadget survey” by