Finally getting in the habit of writing 2-3 articles per week. This is for the people who are wondering how I got the Copyright widget for the right sidebar. Using the text widget; I went to the WordPress support section on Prevent Copyright Theft. There is a highlighted section which is an example of a valid copyright notice that you can place on your blog. This I saved and used and placed in the widget. Presto – Copyright Notice up!
March 24, 2012
Whoohoo! Got my first couple of comments. I’m so excited. Oh, crap! Jumped in and visited their sites to post comments. Just figured out that I could reply to the comments by hitting “reply” below the comments. D’oh! Let’s hope I remember to do this next time. Dam, running late to catch up with the guys. Gotta go.
Posted in Journal
China’s Weibo stirs to take on Twitter
Weibo.com Logo English (Photo credit: bfishadow)
When will china’s software companies stir from their sleep? The signs point to Weibo. What’s a Weibo? I haven’t heard of this Chinese software company until recently. Out of all the software company in china, it’s no surprise that this company has entered the global market. So I will simply give you a quick snapshot of this company.
Weibo is basically best described as Twitter that allows Facebook features. This platform operates exactly like Twitter but here comes the part where its different. It verifies the account if the user is a celebrity, allows you to insert emoticons, pictures, video and music files in each post. Then last year it announced and launched an English version, the contents are still controlled by Chinese law.
Follow me on Twitter logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Twitter has made heavy losses for several years now. With a host of celebrity accounts, it has been a valuable target that Google and Facebook want. With its recent announcement of promoted tweets and it’s self-service ad unit used by Amazon. It has tried to generate revenue from its platform. However, with the recent acquirement of Posterous, it hopes to add a slick digital media sharing interface to its platform. Why is that?
They are looking over their shoulder at Weibo. It was reported last year that Twitter had 21 million active monthly users compared to Weibo’s 50 million active monthly users. Weibo has recently improved their content delivery to iPhones and Ipads by joining forces with Flipboard. This enables content to be tailored to the user by using information from the users interactions. However, the most interesting fact is that the Chinese content is now available to users around the world. Why should or shouldn’t Twitter be worried?
Contributing Articles
- “Weibo: The Chinese Twitter that dwarfs Twitter” by Jemima Kiss
- “Twitter’s Financial Numbers Leak — And They’re Ugly” by Matt Lynley
- “Twitter’s Promoted Tweets go Mobile” by Christopher Heine
- “Twitter acquires Posterous” at Rueters
- “Flipboard launches in China for iphone, makes Chinese content available worldwide” by Hana Steward-Smith
Businesses’ Strategy for the Social jungle
Business of Software (Photo credit: betsyweber)
How can a business get their message to the social masses? When a business enter social media they feel like they are lost in a jungle. There are obstacles in the way, weird sounds (terminology) and if they head in that direction they will see a way out. Do not despair. One common thing is that most businesses are in this same situation. Businesses using social media are in an early development stage. Most businesses are experimenting in ways to build their business and brand.
There is a catch with social media. Businesses are the fish in the fishbowl. People are the main voice here, you are not. Pete Cashmore explained it correctly that politicians and businesses usually decide the future of the world for the people but this medium has empowered people to talk back and express their views if they don’t like what they see. So politicians and businesses can no longer pretend to be doing good. You need to be doing good or you will be regularly experiencing public anger that gets bigger and bigger.
Business of Software – Dharmesh Shah (Photo credit: betsyweber)
Businesses need to understand that careful planning and preparation is needed when working with this media. The benefit of value is in how you manage the audience and engage them. The result of this is increasing your business brand and revenue. So where do you begin your business social strategy?
There are several elements you need to consider when preparing this plan. Businesses need to decide what social media platform or platforms to use. This maybe 1 or 2 sites for small businesses. Work out where your audience is online and what they think of your brand. Listen to your customers. Then work out your goals and objectives for the business and I recommend that you spend no more than 10% on self promotion. Now, comes the crucial stage where you need to work out a timeline in advance to deliver your content to the social media platform/s. Your content is crucial to your brand and the channel you choose to deliver it to. Don’t make the mistake of doing ad hoc content as you will pay the price for this. Implement your plan and measure your success results through your goals and objectives. This process will allow your business to manage through the social media jungle. This solution seems a lot of work for the business, but its worth its weight in gold. What problems or solutions have you had with your social media strategy?
Article Inspiration:
Tagged with: Brand, Business, Public relations, Small business, Social media
Posted in Business, Ideas, Strategy
Posted in Business, Ideas, Strategy
March 23, 2012
I’m so happy today. I finally worked out how to design the “Recommended Site” widget. I had to go to custom menu and build a favourites menu. I then simply added the URL sites and the title of the site it brings the reader to, example of this is Mashable. You just then add it to you Favourites menu. Sweet! Now I need to work out how to change the colour of the links. Working out the colour for links in articles is easy, but still trying to for widgets.
Posted in Journal
March 19, 2012
I have now gone live with all my finished articles and some pages. There will still be adjustments and design issues. Need to adjust a couple of links in some of the articles. Oh, crap! Articles not posting to pages. Dam! Need to think about this. How do I set up a favourites site?
Posted in Journal
Business and the Social Media Monster
How well does your business manage social media? Many businesses have joined the social media phenomenon. Most businesses have done this without a clear strategy. They joined the platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, Blogs, Pinterest, etc.
Many businesses are unprepared when dealing with this social media monster. Social media is a powerful voice for the people and many businesses can be damaged from this interaction. Businesses you are under the microscope by your customers and society.
Image via Wikipedia
Here are some case examples of how society view businesses:
Tesco often struggles with how they deal with social media. The latest is when Gareth at UK Tesco tweeted “Good day, Twitter-bods! Gareth here to help with any Tesco questions you have, keep me busy!” The public vented their anger at Tesco, it was already in trouble for advertising a “wage free” job. This innocent tweet and backlash caused them to implement a social media crisis management plan.
Lowe‘s pulled advertising from TV’s “American Muslim.” This one Facebook post received 28,000 comments in a few hours. They couldn’t handle the volume and eventually deleted the original post and comments.
Image via Wikipedia
The Hershey company was asked by a boy, with down syndrome, for a Hershey T-shirt. The company declined and their reply was posted on his Facebook page. Hershey fans expressed their disappointment at the company. Hershey eventually sent the boy lot’s of T-shirts and wrote an apology for not sending it in the beginning.
Westpac deleted comments from its Facebook page when people vented their anger at them for raising interest rates when the Reserve Bank kept it on hold and they were cutting staff. They justified the removing of comments because of the damaged it caused to its financial products. In the end they stopped deleting the comments.
Businesses need to build a social media strategy that quickly deals with crises. You need to decide who is best suited to handle content on these sites. Is it the Marketing or Public Relations people? You can also source it out. If you’re a small business owner, ideally you should do it. Prepare your business. Are you lost when it comes to social media? What preparation and strategy has your business come up with for social media?
Other articles:
- Tesco Twitter PR crisis over ‘Slave Labour’ Claims by Eileen Brown
- How Brands Can Manage Facebook Overload by Jason Keath
- Hershey’s three pillars of Facebook engagement by Matt Wilson
Tagged with: Hershey company, LinkedIn, pr, Social media, Tesco
Posted in Business, Ideas, Management, Social Media
Posted in Business, Ideas, Management, Social Media
Good Sources for information
There are several sites that I use regularly visit to keep up to date on information for various subjects and trends. Here are the sites that I recommend that you visit:
Image via Wikipedia
LinkedIn is the main site that I use to see what is happening in different areas of the business sectors. There are several groups and links to sites that has interesting articles. The groups offer insights to people on how they can over come business problems. These groups also offer a discussion forums where people who are industry leaders can offer ideas or advice.
Business Insider is another site that is a valuable resource. This is a newspaper style site where it mainly deals in businesses. It is heavily geared to American companies and has unique insights into business practices and strategies. It also offers profiles on companies and business leaders.
Image via Wikipedia
Mashable is highly recommended. It is the leader in providing information on social media, but also extends to technology and gadgets. If you ever wanted to keep up with what ever is happening in the world of social media, then this is the place. It identifies trends and has good content.
Image via CrunchBase
The last advice that I offer, is to check the Technorati site. This site lists the Top 100 blog sites, but you can also view some different industries. It also updates you on trending topics. I use this site to view up and coming blog sites.
So check them out. What’s your site and why is it the best source for information?
Tagged with: Business, Business Insider, LinkedIn, Social media, Technorati
Posted in Social Media, Trends
Posted in Social Media, Trends
Samsung’s Global Innovation Push
Image via Wikipedia
What’s Samsung‘s next global achievement? This korean conglomerate (chaebol) continues to grow and expand products that we consumers want. Some of these products are sleek, sexy and stylish like their mobile phones. So what is the next step for Samsung?
Image via CrunchBase
Can they reach or even topple Apple? The proof will emerge in the next couple of years. Samsung spends billions of dollars on research and development from a revenue that most countries envy. There are two types of technology where Samsung will be able to steal the edge over Apple.
The first is in the mobile phones technology. Samsung has already invested in DRAM chips, liquid crystal display screen and mobile phones. It’s now combining these elements with “Graphene” technology. This smart phone uses technology that relies on layers of Graphene (sheets of carbon atoms) that is sandwiched together, protecting a layer of liquid crystal screen. Added to this is their DRAM chips. This new phone will have similar specs to the Galaxy SII. This will mean that the phone could be rolled up, survive hammer blows and maybe a cycle in the washing machine.
The other edge it has is in DRAM. The company has reduced the size of the chip as well as being able to use less power, its improved the speed. This provides a green memory solution. For mobile phone users, the benefit of this technology will seem minimal. The biggest impact will be in servers and businesses dealing in data warehousing. Combined with the motherboard redesign, this will allow input/output of data transfer at faster rates. As well as reducing those hefty power bills.
Graphene Micrograph (Photo credit: Argonne National Laboratory)
Other areas that Samsung have invested heavily in and thanks to the new environmental rules are solar power, LED lights and electric cars. They have also entered the exploding demand in emerging markets like medical devices and drugs. These new products can be combined with different industry elements to produce a global innovation solution. How do you think Samsung’s innovative products have made the world better?
Other articles:
- What is Graphene by Anthony Munns
- Apple’s Hot Cloud Offers Samsung Chance to Boost Low-Power Chip Lead by Jun Yang
- Samsung Introduces Faster, Low Power Memory Modules by Chandler Harris
You can bank on us to ….
Image via Wikipedia
What has happened to the banks? In Australia, there are four big players in the banking system. They are Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), the Commonwealth, National Australia bank ( NAB ) and Westpac. These four banks control and influence so many Australians on how they live their lives. With no competition, they recently tarnished their public image even more.
When the Reserve Bank of Australia announced that it would place the interest rates on hold, the big four decided to raise it. To make things worst; when people were upset with the banks, they learned in the paper that theses banks were shedding thousands of jobs over the next couple of years. Soon after, reports confirmed that the Commonwealth Bank was having a “Pirate Party” for 200 of its staff. Staff mocked the party, believing customers thought bankers were pirates. When the Sydney Morning Herald reported that one of the banks had deleted all the negative comments from its Facebook page due to negative comments on the site. Westpac claimed that the comments would deter people from its financial products. I good read is “Living on edge in social media – two case studies of Australian Social Media” by Craig Thomler.
Image via Wikipedia
Why do these banks treat people like numbers? If they wonder why people dislike or don’t trust them, they need to fix this. People have built their own image of what banks are, a greedy corporation that doesn’t empathize with people. I hope that they come to realize that this type of behaviour is unacceptable. There will come a time when people will no longer tolerate the selfishness of banks or greedy corporations. Do you think banks can change? Or you can bank on them to …!
Tagged with: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Bank, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Sydney Morning Herald, Westpac
Posted in D'oh, Ethics
Posted in D'oh, Ethics
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Aqua Black Cat 