Are all your eggs in one basket? by Graham Jones

< !doctype html> What now for social media? Facebook is in turmoil. Twitter is making significant changes. LinkedIn is losing popularity. It is time to review your social media strategy. Click here to view this email in your browser  |  Forward this email to a friend Dear Reader, This week I have

Next week I am off to the NEC in Birmingham to the “Internet Retailing Expo” where there are over 300 exhibitors and more than 100 speakers. Around 5,000 people attend the two-day event meaning there are a lot of Internet folk interested in seeing things in the “real world”. You

It’s another week of coincidence. On Sunday evening, I was sent an email from Australia asking if I was interested in a “Guest Post” on my website about “cold calling”. Then, on Monday I had a request from the UK on my “newsletter question” page asking me about the same

This week I am dealing with an issue that was raised on my newsletter question page, where you can ask your questions too…! I thought that the question was from someone who was psychic…! That’s because I was being asked on how best to set up a series of emails that would

Yesterday I was involved in a fictitious exercise for a client where one of the company’s teams was being put through its paces in a realistic scenario. The idea was to stress-test their system and to see if their existing procedures were robust enough.  During the four-hour exercise, messages were

The perceived wisdom when trying to sell something is that you shouldn’t rush to get the deal. Indeed, these days the general advice is that customers have done so much online research they already know what they want to buy in advance. So, it’s a salesperson’s job to ensure they

The other day I had a message from an academic colleague shame-faced at her elementary mistake in typing an email to a student. She should have typed the words “you need a small shift in thinking”. However, she mistyped and missed out a vital letter. I leave it to you

In the “olden days”, all you needed was a handshake to settle a deal. Your word was your bond, and all that. These days, it seems like you need contracts in triplicate, they have to be witnessed by independent people of professional standing, and you are required to provide a

Earlier this week I was sat in the office of the Chief Executive of one of London’s most famous and iconic stores. As we sat drinking tea, he explained that the globally recognised store had been through something of a transformation in the past two years. Before his arrival as

The following pop stars have something in common, but what is it? Olly Murs, JLS and One Direction. Well, one thing they have in common is immense popularity and enormous music industry success. So can you guess what this second list of names has in common and what’s the difference

On Thursday, Facebook announced a significant change in the way it presents material to users. In a press release from the company and a status update from CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook let it be known that 2018 was going to be a year of significant change for the social network. 

The other day I received a phone call from a client asking me to explain “smart content”. They had heard people talking about it and wondered what it was and whether it was worthwhile investing in some kind of system. It was another one of those occasions when I silently

When I was small, there was a TV programme called “That Was The Week That Was“. It was the first satirical programme on TV and set the ball rolling for later series such as “Not the Nine O’Clock News” and “Have I Got News for You”. These programmes poke fun

On Christmas Day, shortly after the presents are unwrapped and the chef for the day goes into the kitchen to start boiling the sprouts, the Internet will burst into life. For the past few Christmases, online activity in the UK has peaked between 10am and 6pm. That’s the eight-hour gap

The other day I received an email asking me for a “link swap”. The person who sent the email lavished me with praise about my website before saying they’d love to have a link on such a site. If I gave them a link, they promised me they’d return the