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Steve Jobs Has Died 1955-2011 RIP

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:49:00 +0000

Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman of the board, former CEO of Apple and industry icon for decades, has died.

Apple released this statement:

We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.
Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.
His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.

The front page of Apple.com displayed a picture of the late Steve Jobs, and the second page contained a tribute to the industry leader:

Steve Jobs
1955-2011
Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who’ve been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve lost a dear friend and inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

If you would like to share your thoughts, memories, and condolences, please email rememberingsteve@apple.com.

In August, when Steve Jobs stepped down from his position as CEO of Apple, he wrote the following in his resignation letter:

“I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
“I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook released the following statement:

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com.

No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Laurene and his children during this difficult time.”

Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, was quoted by The New York Times as saying that he was “truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’s death.” He added: “The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.”
Steven P. Jobs is survived by his wife Laurene, their three children, and one child from a previous relationship.

Patent Wars: A New Age of Competition

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Patents are a source of constant lawsuits between large tech companies like Apple, Microsoft and Samsung. They’re one reason Google wants to pay $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility. And many entrepreneurs believe these documents stunt innovation rather than protect it.

Last year, 107,792 patents were issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Here are some interesting points on the history, process and recent impacts of this important component of the tech ecosystem.

5 Social Media Tips for Scoring Your Next Job

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 05:50:00 +0000

Marc Hoag, CEO and co-founder of Venturocket, is a California-licensed attorney with an econ degree from UCLA and a strong background in math and science. Marc’s mission with Venturocket, first conceived nearly 10 years ago, is simple: to help make the world a more productive place.

Unless you’re fortunate enough to be deliriously happy with your professional life, the odds are high that you’ll be looking for a different job in the future. On the bright side, the fact that you’re reading this article means you know how to navigate the Internet — a point in your favor. So how can you use that ‘net savvy to most effectively court the employer of your dreams?

Your cover letter and résumé may still be your opening gambit, but the life you lead online increases in relevance every day, especially as a resource for potential employers. Companies are turning to social networks and media more than ever. A recent study suggests that nearly 90% of companies will use networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for recruiting, and that nearly 80% will review a candidate’s online presence and behavior before making a hiring decision.

Since social media presence will likely be investigated and considered prior to your next hire, you’re going to want to put your virtual house in order.

1. Keep Your Profiles Clean…

The first step is a matter of common sense, but nonetheless a vital task: Do not make an idiot of yourself online. One would think this advice is hyper-obvious by now, yet it seems that all too often we encounter a new article profiling an employee’s shortsighted tweeting or a large company’s bafflingly insensitive Facebook status. A golden rule of television is, “When in doubt, your mic is always on.” The same applies to the Internet: Everything you post, tweet or comment on is being recorded, and will come back to haunt you. Not to mention, if a tweet can get you fired, it can also prevent you from being hired the next time around.

2. …But Show Some Personality

On the flip side, however, is the danger of being too careful. While you’ll want to avoid putting up those incriminating and obscene photos from your Vegas bachelor party, don’t let fear prevent you from posting anything at all. An employer will be looking for a candidate who is social and outgoing, who has a demonstrable knowledge of networking and communication. They’ll also be looking for somebody with character, who stands out from the crowd.

If all you’ve shared are the same bland qualifications that are already attached to your résumé, your potential employers won’t have the excitement of learning something new about you. Be bold, be opinionated, be unique — just do it without cursing or detailing your hangover symptoms. Take a tip from Nicholas Allegra, the iPhone “hacker” known better as Comex, who turned his notoriety into an internship with Apple.

3. Spread Yourself Around

When crafting a proper online appearance, you’ll have better luck sharing the right things once you’ve shared them in all the right places. Twitter and Facebook are essential platforms, but at a bare minimum, you should also maintain a fully fleshed-out profile on Google+, LinkedIn and About.me. Get your name out to as many sources as possible — you’re building strong SEO for a vital product: yourself.

4. Target Your Message

When an employer Googles your name, make sure that the first thing they find is a result you’ve handcrafted for their perusal. You may even wish to secure your own domain name and build a website about yourself. Witness the efforts of Eric Romer, who launched a blogging campaign that proclaimed his eagerness to work for a company (he was hired a day later). Or take a tip from Louis Gray, whose demonstrated love and dedication for Google+ got him hired as a product evangelist.

5. Connect With the Company You Want to Work For

This leads directly to the next tip regarding your online activity: Don’t be afraid to actively engage the company you’re courting via your tweets and status updates. Any business actively checking a potential hire’s online profile will most certainly have a social media presence of its own. Therefore, start following its tweets, “like” it on Facebook, etc. Be careful on LinkedIn, though; it’s something of a faux pas to add someone to your network if you don’t personally know him. Still, nobody says you can’t check out the LinkedIn groups and communities to which he belongs.

While you’re at it, don’t forget that a company’s social media isn’t just a place to make yourself heard — it’s also the perfect opportunity for you to observe the company’s actions. How is the company interacting with the public? What insight can you glean from its tweets and statuses? What kind of culture does it display, and what are its subjects of interest? Take meticulous notes, because these are the kinds of things you’ll want to keep in mind when sitting in the interview chair.

Start reinforcing your digital persona now. In the coming years, companies and recruiters will only become more thorough when evaluating new candidates’ online behavior.

Oprah to Appear Live on Facebook, Invites Your Questions

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 05:45:00 +0000

Oprah Winfrey is coming to Facebook next week. On September 8, the TV star will be the one answering questions rather than asking them, appearing on a one-hour Facebook Live streaming video interview on Sept. 8 at 10 P.M. South African Time.

To see the live webcast, go to Facebook Live on Sept. 8 and Oprah will answer questions shared by visitors to theFacebook Live event wall. Fans are invited to share their questions now, with the promise that “you might hear Oprah answer your question during the live show.”

Oprah is no stranger to Facebook. Her official Oprah Winfrey page is liked by more than 6.2 million fans. She’s also hip to the iPad-based magazine app Flipboard, where there is an official “Oprah” section.

Oprah has a burgeoning Twitter account as well, where she has 7.2 million followers. That number is dwarfed by the throngs of devotees the woman enjoys elsewhere. For instance, soon after she joined Twitter and featured it on her TV show in 2009, Twitter traffic was boosted by an astonishing 24% compared to day before the segment aired.

Top 10 Twitter Trends This Month

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:00:00 +0000

A few recurring Twitter trends tussled for dominance in August, and if you’ve been following our weekly chart, you likely won’t be surprised by this month’s aggregate.

Soccer was strong week after week, and ultimately came out on top in August thanks to a variety of highly anticipated matches from around the world. This global trend has consistently been hard to beat.

It was anybody’s guess where Justin Bieber would land, but a few antics and appearances late in the month got his fans fired up. The Biebs hits number two in August.

And the British riots from early in the month had enough staying power to come in at number three on our chart.

See the full list below. Note that hashtag games and memes have been omitted from the data. You can check Twitter trends from the past in our Top Twitter Topics section.

Top Twitter Trends, August 2011:

Rank	Topic	Intensity	Description
#1	Soccer/Football	3	Topping the monthly rankings by an easy margin, football captured the most chatter this month, likely due to the start of the English Premier League season in August. However, the top two topics were a bit different, with one celebrating the founding in 1914 of Brazilian team Palmeiras, and the other the move of star player Cesc Fábregas to FC Barcelona.
#2	Justin Bieber	3	Singer Justin Bieber pretended to be “Derek Bieber,” fans waited (impatiently) for a Christmas album, and Bieber gave his friend Ryan Butler a haircut in the “Bieber Barber Shop.”
#3	British Riots	3	In the violence and chaos of the riots that gripped England, the three most powerful trends were #prayforlondon, #riotcleanup and #OperationCupOfTea.
#4	Super Junior	3	Korean pop group Super Junior returned to the stage with new song “Mr. Simple,” winning a number of award shows, including Inkigayo.
#5	Hurricane Irene	3	Hurricane Irene blazed a path up the U.S. East Cost, doing less damage than was feared in some spots (New York) and far more than expected in others (Vermont). At last check, more than 40 deaths are attributed to the storm.
#6	One Direction	2	British/Irish boyband One Direction released its debut single “What Makes You Beautiful.” Related trends included various requests for band members to disrobe.
#7	Jersey Shore (TV Show)	2	Jersey Shore returned to the air and was notable for many things, but mostly that clothing manufacturer Abercrombie and Fitch made an offer to the cast not to wear its clothing.
#8	Jonas Brothers	2	Fans wished the Jonas Brothers a variety of happy greetings, birthday and otherwise, but there are apparently still lingering rivalries between fans of Taylor Swift and her ex, Joe Jonas.
#9	Lil Wayne	2	Rapper Lil Wayne released his new album Tha Carter IV. While initially a number of fans tweeted their excitement, it was not long before some started trends such as #ThingsBetterThanTheCarterIV.
#10	Chris Brown	2	Chris Brown released his new mixtape titled “Boy in Detention,” but his trending is mainly the result of a halo effect from Justin Bieber rapping on the song “Ladies Love Me.”

Are We Approaching the End of the Daily Deals Era?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:56:00 +0000

The golden age of daily deals, led by the unprecedented growth of Groupon, seems to be coming to its end.

That’s not to say daily deals won’t be sticking around for a long time — clearly there is a business in it — but when two major players withdraw from the space and its biggest player experiences a 50% traffic decline, it’s a clear sign that the daily deals market is no longer in its heyday.

Last week, Facebook killed off Deals, its Groupon competitor, after just four months. “After testing Deals for four months, we’ve decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks,” Facebook told Mashable in a statement. “We remain committed to building products to help local businesses connect with people, like Ads, Pages, Sponsored Stories, and Check-in Deals.”

Facebook, with its 750 million users, couldn’t find a way to make daily deals work. And its not alone:BusinessWeek reports that Yelp is cutting down on its year-old daily deals product. Half of the sales staff will be cut and the company will refocus on its core business of local reviews.

Yelp’s slow withdraw from daily deals is more problematic. It started testing daily deals in July 2010 and has expanded to more than 20 cities since then. Still Yelp, which has more experience with local businesses than almost anybody in the business, simply couldn’t justify staying in the daily deals market.

Groupon Isn’t Doing So Hot

What about Groupon, the company that practically created this market? Surely with 115 million subscribers, it’s doing just fine, right?

According to web analytics firm Experian Hitwise, Groupon’s web traffic has dropped 50% since July 2011. At the same time its primary competitor, LivingSocial, saw a 27% rise in traffic in the same time period. If the trend were to continue, LivingSocial would become bigger than Groupon before the end of the year. [Update:Some readers have pointed out that these stats may be flawed. We'll know soon enough with Groupon's next quarterly statement.]

When it first filed for IPO, Groupon was hammered by the media for its unprofitability, high marketing costs and questionable accounting practices. In particular it used something called ACSOI (adjusted consolidated segment operating income) to measure its income without factoring in the staggering costs of its marketing and customer acquisition efforts. It was so convoluted that the SEC launched an inquiry and Groupon removed the accounting metric from its S-1 entirely.

Andrew Mason, Groupon co-founder and CEO, addressed these issues in a “leaked” internal memo, but the issues facing Groupon remain the same: It’s an unprofitable business that’s losing steam in a overly crowded market. When you consider those factors, it shouldn’t surprise anybody that major players are getting out of the space.

There are still a lot of daily deals startups in the market right now. My day isn’t complete without at least three pitching me for a story on Mashable. But while more daily deals startups may be getting off the ground, the big players are clearly realizing that this business is being commoditized by intense competition and fatigue by consumers and local businesses. Fifty-two percent of U.S. consumers say they feel overwhelmed by the number of daily deals emails hitting their inboxes.

This phenomenon is exactly why Groupon is betting the farm on Groupon Now, its location-based real-time daily deals service. Will it help differentiate Groupon in this crowded market? Can it generate enough income to justify the cost of sales and marketing? These questions will soon be answered as the company approaches its IPO.

It seems clear that the golden age of daily deals has passed. The question is: which companies will survive its inevitable collapse?

Facebook Kills Off Deals, Its Groupon Competitor

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:53:00 +0000

Facebook has decided to shut down Facebook Deals, its four-month-old Groupon competitor.

“After testing Deals for four months, we’ve decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks,” Facebook told Reuters in a statement.

The product, which launched in late April, was an attempt to bring the popular daily deals phenomenon to Facebook’s 750+ million users. It launched in San Francisco, Austin, Dallas, Atlanta and San Diego, but quickly rolled out to other cities.

The market for daily deals has become more competitive in recent months, however, and many are questioning the entire business model in light of Groupon’s questionable financials.

“We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses,” Facebook said in its statement. “We’ve learned a lot from our test and we’ll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses.” We have reached out to Facebook for more information.

13 Best Practices for Restaurants on Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:47:00 +0000

Everyone has to eat, and 700 million of those people are also on Facebook.

Naturally, there are a lot of restaurants on the world’s largest social network, though there could be a lot more, and many of the ones that do have Facebook Pages could be better. To that end, Mashable spoke with social media stars from the hospitality industry about some best practices when it comes to Facebooking food.

1. Be Transparent

“We never want to delete any negative reviews,” says Ashley Tyson, social media manager at 4Food. In fact, 4Food streams all @-mentions on a 240-square-foot media wall inside the restaurant. “Nobody expects a restaurant to always be perfect, but an honest response and quick offer to resolve the situation is what differentiates a good restaurant from a bad one.” Above, you’ll see that when Judy complained about a wrong order at her local Jimmy John’s, the company showed initiative and replied with an email address and a willingness to work hard to regain trust.

And just like you shouldn’t only pay attention to good reviews, you shouldn’t play favorites to those with a large social network. The average Facebook user has 130 friends. But just because someone has more or less doesn’t mean they’re a more or less valuable customer. Be sure to respond to everyone and address everyone’s concerns — in a timely manner. Chipotle‘s Joe Stupp says it’s company policy to answer every (or almost every) Facebook post, whether it’s positive or negative, typically within an hour or two. And people do appreciate the round-the-clock responses, no matter how “popular” they are on Facebook. “Just because somebody has a high friend count or a high Klout score on social media doesn’t necessarily mean they are important in their community,” says Stupp. “Vice-versa is also true.”

2. You Must Respond

You want to engage your fans on your Facebook Page, but you also want them to know that you are engaged, too. Be sure to answer questions, address concerns, and acknowledge when people take the time to post on your Page.

Even if it’s just a thank you for a nice remark, be sure to respond to your fans. “Never underestimate how far the words ‘thank you’ can go,” says Amanda Spurlock, Zagat’s social media editor.

3. Educate Your Fans

Restaurants have a unique opportunity — they can showcase the food, provide recipes, explain the origin of a dish and shoot videos of the chefs in action. That kind of content never gets old, and it doesn’t even have to be original — there’s so much stuff on YouTube, and all you need to do is unearth it. The Mermaid Inn posted this how-to video on its Facebook Page to show fans how to cook and eat lobster — an item they sell, so it’s related to the restaurant but also adds value.

Tyson says that because 4food receives new shipments of fresh produce and product every day, she likes to “use social media to educate our followers on fresh shipments, how we prepare our food (from scratch, with no artificial ingredients or fillers), where it comes from, etc.” She adds that as the locavore and sustainability movements gain steam, consumers are more interested in this angle than ever before. “People want to know they’re eating the freshest, tastiest and most healthful product possible,” Tyson says.

4. Show Off Your Goods

Food not only tastes and smells delicious — it looks beautiful, too. Post pictures of your dishes like Hill Country does, because those “food porn” pics are sure to make people salivate and get them in the door. There’s a reason things like Foodspotting exist — people like looking at artful food. However, Spurlock has a word of caution before you start uploading pics: “Make sure that the photos are appetizing because not all cellphone photos of food turn out appetizing, even if it does look nice on the plate.”

You don’t even always need a picture — sometimes a sensory description will do the trick. Case in point:Beauty & Essex‘s bacon Bloody Mary:

5. Don’t Just Sell — Be Interesting

Yes, your restaurant is a business, and your goal is to make profit. But you don’t have to do the hard sell on Facebook — oftentimes restaurants are overly promotional. “While consumers love to hear about new menu items and special offers, they don’t want to interact with anyone that appears too self serving,” says Tyson. Think about your brand and then try to find the right mix of promotions and special offers, education, customer service, engagement, etc. Use a diverse set of content to establish and build your brand.

On National Oyster Day (who knew that existed?), Island Creek Oyster Bar posted a YouTube video — it’s a soft sell that doesn’t desperately scream “Come eat here!” yet still plants the seed that could get consumers to crave oysters. Sharing fun facts pertaining to your cuisine or the team is also a fun way to get people excited about your food, and it humanizes the brand.

Another way to promote your brand is to let others do it for you. After all, word of mouth marketing is the most effective (and authentic). Stupp recommends that you motivate your customers to become ambassadors by treating them well, listening to them, talking to them, informing them and being interesting and engaging. Once you do that, your loyal fans will spread the word for you (for free!) online and in real life.

6. Share Your Press

You’ve worked hard to get good reviews and spur people to write blog posts about your food. Go ahead and share it with the world. This goes in tandem with avoiding the hard sell — by being awesome, you’ll motivate people to spread the word. More publicity means more customers, and it will snowball as long as your product is delicious and your customer service remains excellent. Chicago eatery Graham Elliot is great at posting press, which shows that the restaurant gets a lot of press, and also serves to brag about the cool things they do, like hosting a pop-up restaurant at this year’s Lollapalooza music festival.

7. Flaunt Your Social and Digital Savvy

A small percentage of restaurants are on social platforms and seeing success. Jimmy John’s, the Midwest sandwich chain, is one of them. Not only do they have an iPhone app for ordering, but it’s also their Facebook profile picture, which is a great way to increase awareness of said app. At the very least, be active on Twitter and Facebook, and it’s also great to have a blog or an app. And all of these things should be promoted on your Facebook Page, like the Jimmy John’s company blog.

8. Be Consistent Online and Offline

Be sure that your community managers are “as well-versed in your restaurant food and service and intangibles as your best employees in the field,” says Stupp. You don’t want people to get answers on Facebook and hear a different story when they show up for dinner. It can be hard to maintain seamless communication — especially if there are different locations that may have different offerings or hours, but it’s important to stay in the loop and make sure that the information put out by your restaurant is accurate and consistent across all platforms, whether they be social platforms or in-person. Being inconsistent will lead to confusion and frustration for your customers, who may feel like they were promised one thing, only to be told something else upon arrival.

9. Don’t Give Away Too Much

Whereas a bike store or car dealership are typically single-purchase businesses (how many bikes and cars does one person need?), restaurants are in a unique position in that someone could be a customer every single day. And while group deals and offering discounts might be good for a one-time promotion to increase Likes, you don’t want to give too much away.

The NBC Facebook and Chipotle promotion for a buy one, get one free burrito was a huge success that got a lot of people buzzing and in the shops, but the business didn’t have to lose too much money on it, because for every free burrito, there was a paid burrito. Just giving away product or offering steep discounts a la Groupon can have detrimental effect on the perceived value of your product, thereby making customers less likely to want to pay full price once the deal is over.

A once-in-a-while promotion that isn’t too generous — like the Mermaid Inn’s Social Media Monday word of the day for 20% off — keeps people coming back week after week without giving too much away. Plus, you’ll get a sense of your social media influence if you offer a code or buzzword on Facebook for in-store redemption.

Experiment with different times and codes to discover when people are more inclined to be driven to your store by social media, says Tyson. You want to use Facebook to enhance traffic and sales, but to do so most effectively, you have to know when people are paying the most attention to you.

If you’re looking to build loyalty and Likes and keep people coming back, don’t just give away product. The best thing to do is respond to people, talk to them like they’re your friends and show your appreciation for them. To customers, that’s worth more than a free sandwich.

10. Be Charming

Work can be stressful, so when someone sneaks away from the office for lunch or dinner, they want to be delighted. Whether you’re a quick sandwich lunch stop or a white-tablecloth establishment, you can be charming and human. Which Wich, a sandwich chain, literally flirts with its customers on Facebook, presenting a Like-gate that’s modeled after a middle school-esque “Do you like me? Check one. Yes/No” note.

We know there’s a human behind your Facebook Page, so you don’t need to stifle him — let a genuine voice come through.

11. Respect and Appreciate Your Team

A company is nothing without the people who comprise it, and the same can be said for restaurants — it takes many people to run the machine. When a customer posts about a positive experience on Facebook, be sure to pass it on to the team and also thank the customer and tell him you’re doing so — both parties will feel special and appreciated.

However, sometimes people write about not-so-positive experiences, and that can be a trickier situation to manage. “If someone complains about a particular individual or restaurant prior to an objective investigation, take the correspondence off the wall but make sure you let the customer know this and why you are doing it,” says Stupp, adding that your team has a “right to fair treatment” and should not “be guilty in the eyes of the public until proven innocent.” Be sure you resolve any issues, apologize for the perceived wrongdoing and let the customer know what steps have been taken to remedy the situation — follow-through is key if you’re trying to get that customer back in the door.

Also realize that your staff is on social media sites and are essentially ambassadors for your store. Show some appreciation, and they’ll appreciate their job even more.

12. Facebook Is Not Twitter

Sure, it’s easy to automatically syndicate your Twitter posts to Facebook and vice versa, but is it a good idea? No. “You have to think of Facebook as it’s own platform,” says Spurlock. Just consider the 140-character limit on Twitter. That means Twitter-to-Facebook posts will be extremely short (and photos and links won’t show up like they do when you post directly to Facebook), and Facebook-to-Twitter posts will likely get cut off and people may be annoyed that they have to go to Facebook.

“If someone is following you on Twitter, they don’t want to be told to go to Facebook every time for more information on each of your posts,” says Spurlock. “Also it gets rid of any incentive for someone to follow you on both platforms if everything you’re doing on them is the same.”

Variety is the spice of life, and food establishments should know that.

13. Target Consumers With Facebook Ads

A new Facebook feature allows advertisers to target consumers based on zip codes, which means that you can blast an ad to those who live within walking distance of your restaurant. There are some tricks of the trade when exploring the world of Facebook advertising, and it can be an effective way to build your fan base on Facebook.

Email Newsletters: Best Practices for Small Businesses

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:38:00 +0000

Does anyone actually look forward to email newsletters? Debatable. But it doesn’t mean your business has to fall to the bottom of the email heap.

Nor do those moans and groans over email newsletters mean you should stop sending them. According to Exact Target data, 42% of subscribers are more likely to buy from a company after subscribing to their emails. So, it’s a safe bet for your business to continue sending out newsletters. However, it’s important to use common sense, strategic language and ethical practices in order to improve your subscription results.

Here are four best practices to help ensure your business and your customers benefit from email newsletters. Please share your experiences (good and bad) with email subscriptions in the comments below.

1. Best Time of Day

Easy answer? There is none. However, we can advise you not to send emails on Monday mornings — human beings on average don’t crack our first smiles until 11:16 a.m. that day. An overstuffed inbox would just further delay the process.

On the other hand, perform some basic analytics about your business’ customers or users. Does your blog or business target parents? Send an email update on Sunday evenings when the family is relaxing with a movie. Do many of your purchases come from another country? Consider setting your email updates to that time zone. Does your service list weekend events? Don’t wait until 4:55 p.m. on a Friday afternoon to send invites.

Sure, many of these tips seem to follow common sense. But as an avid online shopper, you’d be surprised how many emails from Urban Outfitters I delete while feeling the crunch of a Tuesday afternoon deadline. Perform basic demographic analysis: as a gamer, financial analyst, retiree, college student, etc., when would you be most likely to click through promotional emails?

2. Best Wording

“Check this box if you’d like to receive our newsletter.” Let’s point out everything wrong with this all-too-common option: It’s vague, it’s boring and it lacks incentive.

First off, encourage customers to opt-in by advertising what your company’s email newsletters will include. Maybe your company allows its customers to subscribe to specific lists, designated by interest or gender, for example. Can they expect promotions, deals and product updates? Make sure to emphasize the inherent value in receiving regular email notifications from you.

Second, use punchy language to turn vague into enticing. Subject headings are key in this regard — weekly newsletters with identical subject lines lack click appeal. If customers get the feeling they’re about to read the same thing they read in a previous email, they won’t open it in the first place. Instead, highlight the most important or eye-catching piece of news or product update in the subject line. After all, SEO is key these days.

Finally, customers love a good deal. When inviting customers to subscribe to or open an email newsletter, be sure to emphasize savings. Not only do JetBlue’s $39 flight subject headings get me every time, they inspire me to daydream about travel in the first place.

3. Best Unsubscribe Etiquette

Consider that 91% of email users who have subscribed to a company’s email newsletter later decide they no longer want to receive the emails. Bleak, but useful data.

Even more telling, 54% of email subscribers say they unsubscribe when they feel the emails come too frequently. It’s important to be upfront with subscribers about the frequency that email newsletters will appear in their inbox. Depending on the customer’s interest level, even weekly may be too often. Consider offering several options for email frequency. If a customer clicks the unsubscribe button, try to sell them on a lower frequency mailing.

Which brings me to my next point: Sooner or later, you are going to get dumped. But, you can go out the bigger person. My biggest pet peeve is having to search for or jump through hoops to unsubscribe. Etiquette, business integrity — and most importantly, the law — demand that you always give customers the right to opt out.

That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t ask that customer her reason for unsubscribing. A simple check-box survey can provide information as to why your audience is vacating: unsubscribe explanations can include email frequency, irrelevance, repetition or product dissatisfaction, and they can help you improve the experience for remaining and potential subscribers.

4. Best Ethics

One of the most controversial debates around email involves a user’s opt-in confirmation. Users and security filters alike usually consider spam any email users didn’t approve for delivery. Your business should steer a wide berth away from unethical email solicitation practices as well.

According to Lisa Barone, co-founder and chief branding officer of Outspoken Media, Inc., the only acceptable time to add people to an email list is after they have confirmed through a double opt-in. Any other means of populating an email address book is invasive and unethical, such as using an email address after a customer has registered for your site or entered a contest. Barone warns that it’s even bad practice to add peers or colleagues to an email list after they gave you a business card, for instance.

Not only will the unethical use of email addresses earn your business a bad reputation, but chances are those users will be part of the 91% who unsubscribe anyway.

Until email evolves or disappears all together, I’m afraid we’re stuck with the sometimes intrusive inbox newsletter. The trick is making your newsletter’s content engaging and valuable while maintaining your integrity.

How Toyota Used Social Media To “Digg” Itself Out of a PR Nightmare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:28:00 +0000

In January 2010, Toyota faced a nightmare situation for any brand, but particularly for one that staked its reputation on safety and quality: The company had to recall 2.3 million vehicles because of faulty accelerator pedals.

Suddenly, Toyota was trending on Google and Twitter on a daily basis, but for all the wrong reasons. Auto brands had faced similar crises before — Audi in particular grappled with a gas accelerator recall in the 1980s — but none had done so under the 24/7 scrutiny of social media.

But Kimberley Gardiner, Toyota’s national digital marketing and social media manager, saw an opportunity as well. “Right away, we were seeing a lot of conversation and getting a lot of people who were using social media to reach out to us,” she says. “We didn’t have a lot of answers at the beginning.”

Toyota’s social media team, which was only a few months old at the time, decided to address the situation head on, but in a novel way: via Digg.

Before Digg’s disastrous Version 4 hit in August 2010, the site had a lot more social media influence. Recall that in 2009, Digg’s traffic ranged from 37 million to 44 million unique visitors each month. Plus, the site had outsize influence on Google News searches. At the time, it seemed like the best place for Toyota to get its message across.

On February 8, Toyota served up Jim Lentz, president of Toyota’s North American sales operation, to the masses in the form of a Digg Dialogg. In many ways, the appearance was a stroke of genius. For one thing, Lentz didn’t actually appear on Digg, but on a dedicated video site. The questions, which were voted on by fans (the ones with the most votes rose to the top) also wound up being pretty softball. “They were mostly general questions, like ‘What kind of car does Mr. Lentz drive?’” says Florence Drakton, social media manager. (“That’s a great question,” a clearly relieved Lentz answers.) Lentz’s interview, which ran 28 minutes, is still available onYouTube:

It was hard to beat the reach Toyota got from the appearance. Within a week, the Dialogg had received 1.2 million views. “Probably the biggest indicator of interest was there were 3,200 questions,” says Drakton. “Only celebrities have gotten that much.” In addition to reaching a fairly big audience, the Dialogg gave Toyota theappearance of achieving social media branding nirvana: Transparency. Though there were other factors at play, like news fatigue, researcher YouGov’s BrandIndex, which polls 5,000 Internet users daily, saw a bottoming out around the time of the Dialogg. Note: YouGov’s scores are based on consumers’ perception of the brand. A positive is +100 and negative is -100. The scores below are averages:

As the chart shows, Toyota hasn’t completely recovered. “It’s mostly good news,” says Ted Marzilli, senior vice president and global managing director of YouGov’s BrandIndex. “They’ve certainly bounced back, but aren’t back to where they were before the crisis.”

Perhaps a better comparison is to BP, which faced its own PR disaster in mid-2010, probably on a greater scale than Toyota’s. The following chart shows BP’s brand perception before the April 20, 2010 explosion of theDeepwater Horizon and afterwards. As the chart shows, BP has recovered somewhat, but still has an overall negative brand perception.

The best news for Toyota, though, is the company’s brand perception among those in the market for a car within the next six months is high. In YouGov’s most recent survey, Toyota was second only to Honda among that audience; the brand had leapfrogged Ford sometime in August.

Looking back, Gardiner says although the Digg Dialoggs (there were two more in July and August of 2010) were successful, if the same thing happened today, she’d probably use a TweetChat on Twitter instead. In fact, the medium is a favorite of Toyota’s, which has held several such chats in the last few months. Facebook, Gardiner says, is a great way to reach out to Toyota owners, but Twitter addresses those consumers who might be skeptical about the brand.

The choice of the exact form of social media may be beside the point, though. Like Dell, which became a social media poster child after its Dell Hell debacle, Toyota’s recall situation forced the company to embrace social media. “Toyota is an organization that is not used to being on camera and in the spotlight,” Gardiner says. “It was new to many people in the organization. It’s not something you plan for. We’re learning as we go.”

Apple Loses Yet Another iPhone Prototype at a Bar

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:21:00 +0000

Has another Apple employee lost another iPhone prototype at yet another bar? It seems to be the case, according to a new report.

Sometime in July, an Apple employee lost an iPhone prototype at the Cava22 bar in the Mission district of San Francisco, according to CNET. As one would expect, Apple immediately contacted the San Francisco Police in an attempt to secure the device.

The report continues, stating that Apple actually traced the device to a home in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood. The police searched the home, where a man in his twenties was living. He admitted to being at the bar that night but denied knowledge of the phone. The police didn’t find anything, so Apple offered the man money for the phone with no questions asked. The man continued to deny any knowledge of the phone.

CNET has more, though. The device was apparently sold for $200 on Craigslist not long after it was lost. That’s a far cry from the $5,000 Gizmodo paid to get its hands on the iPhone 4 prototype.

If the story is true, nobody is talking about it. Apple, Craigslist and the San Francisco Police are not commenting. The owner of Cava22 says that somebody called about a missing phone several times, but hasn’t been contacted directly by Apple or the San Francisco Police.

Last year Gizmodo rocked the tech world when it leaked the details surrounding the iPhone 4. The device was lost by Apple engineer Robert Powell in a bar in Redwood City, California. It was soon found by Brian Hogan, who then sold it to Gizmodo for $5,000. Apple took the case to court, which led to a raid on Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s home.

It’s unclear whether the lost iPhone prototype was for the upcoming iPhone 5, a device expected to debut next month and hit store shelves in October.

2GB mobile data prices in SA compared

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:18:00 +0000

Vodacom, Neotel and 8ta recently unveiled new broadband prices. We compare their pricing on 2GB data packages

Neotel launched new broadband packages and data bundles in August 2011 to increase the choice of data and voice solutions available to consumers.

Neotel’s new products include two NeoGo packages, offering consumers 2GB of data per month at R99 and 3GB of data and a dongle at R179 per month.

Vodacom and 8ta have also unveiled aggressively priced mobile data promotions over the last few weeks.

Vodacom announced on 24 August 2011 that they will cut their prepaid and top up data prices by up to 42% from 19 September. The company also unveiled a ‘double your prepaid data’ promotion on their bigger prepaid data bundles.

Vodacom’s announcement comes only days after 8ta announced their new prepaid data special that offers subscribers 2GB of anytime data and 1GB “midnight surfer” data for R149. ‘Midnight surfer’ data can be used between 00:00 and 05:00.

The following table provides an overview of some of the most prominent data offerings which were launched over the last few weeks.

Data bundles: Prepaid and month-to-month
Service	Data	Price	Cost/GB
Neotel NeoGo	2GB	R99	R49.50
8ta Go Big	2GB	R149	R74.50
iBurst Wireless	2GB	R198	R99.00
Vodacom	1GB + 1GB	R249	R124.50
Cell C	3GB	R400	R133.33
MTN	2GB	R389	R194.50

Data prices: Contract
8ta	10GB	R199	R19.90
Neotel NeoGo	3GB	R179	R59.67
Cell C (+USB modem)	2GB	R149	R74.50
MTN (+USB modem)	2GB	R149	R74.50
iBurst Wireless (+USB modem)	2GB	R257	R128.50
Vodacom (+USB modem)	2GB	R349	R174.50

Neotel slashes broadband prices

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:11:00 +0000

Neotel has unveiled their latest mobile data (2GB and 3GB) and home broadband products with aggressive pricing

Neotel is the latest broadband provider in South Africa to unveil new, improved broadband packages.
The company has launched new NeoConnect Home and NeoGo Data products which provide far better value for money than their existing products.

The new packages are: NeoConnect Home, NeoConnect Home Plus, NeoConnect Home Exec, NeoGo Data 2GB and NeoGo Data 3GB.

It is understood that Neotel will run these new products as promotional offers which will compliment their existing NeoConnect and NeoGo product ranges.

New NeoConnect products

NeoConnect Home

The NeoConnect Home service offers consumers a NeoGo data card, a cordless Neotel phone, 50 any-time minutes and 5GB of data per month, for R299 per month on a 24 month contract.

The service is also available at R349 on a 12 month contract, or at R249 per month on a month-to-month contract with a R799 up-front payment.

NeoConnect Home Plus

Neotel’s NeoConnect Home Plus service offers consumers a NeoGo data card, a cordless Neotel phone, a wireless Netgear 3G router, 100 any-time minutes and 5GB of data per month, for R399 per month on a 24 month contract.

The service is also available at R499 on a 12 month contract, or at R349 per month on a month-to-month contract with a R1,599 up-front payment.

NeoConnect Home Exec

Neotel’s NeoConnect Home Exec service offers consumers a cordless Neotel phone, a NeoFlex Data router, 100 anytime minutes and 5GB of data per month, for R499 per month on a 24 month contract.

The service is also available at R699 on a 12 month contract, or at R349 per month on a month-to-month contract with a R2,199 up-front payment.

New NeoGo data card products

Neotel’s new NeoGo data card products undercut the current 2GB and 3GB promotional data offers from Cell C, 8ta and MTN.

NeoGo Data

Neotel’s NeoGo Data 2GB service offers subscribers a 3.1Mbps NeoGo data card and 2GB of data at R99 per month on a month-to-month contract with an up-front data card cost of R399.

The company’s NeoGo Data 3GB service is similar to the 2GB offering, but is priced at R179 per month on a 12 month contract without any up-front costs.

In related news, iBurst is also set to launch new broadband products in the near future, and market speculation suggests that the company will unveil new iBurst Wireless and ADSL products within the next week or two.

WikiLeaks: Sensitive info about Telkom revealed

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:06:00 +0000

A recently released WikiLeaks cable revealed sensitive information involving Telkom and AT&T, with the US telecoms giant criticising the slow pace of Telkom decision making

Former Telkom CEO Reuben September and AT&T business solutions president Ron Spears signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in 2009 which promised better services and lower prices.

A US diplomatic cable leaked by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, flagged as “sensitive but unclassified,” said Spears explained that South Africa was an important entry-point for AT&T’s business in Africa and that AT&T’s strategy in SA would be to find good partners to grow its business.

This included partnership opportunities outside of Telkom, the cable quoted Spears as saying.

High expectations

Continuing to quote Spears, the cable went on to say that AT&T decided to revive its partnership with Telkom because of Telkom’s breadth and depth of experience in Africa. The timing was good for a partnership as Telkom had to begin adjusting to a more liberalized ICT [information and communication technology] market in South Africa.
The cable highlighted the ending of Telkom’s “restrictive relationship with mobile operator Vodacom” and its search for a buyer for “its ill-fated Telkom Media subsidiary.” According to the cable, proceeds from the Vodacom sale would have allowed Telkom to pursue its strategy of further expansion into sub-Saharan Africa, which would increase its value as a partner for AT&T.
One can’t help but wonder what effect the poor showing of Telkom’s Multi-Links business in Nigeria may have had on this partnership.

Memorandum of Understanding

According to the cable, Spears and September signed the MOU on the afternoon of 16 April 2009. This was followed by an announcement to the press.

Though operational details were yet to be finalised, the cable said that the MOU would allow companies based in Sub-Saharan Africa to connect to other global markets more effectively and permit U.S. companies to connect more easily with their subsidiaries and clients in South Africa.

The partnership was lauded as a win-win for both companies, the cable added, saying that partnering with AT&T would allow Telkom to leverage AT&T’s network and would also allow Telkom to meet the infrastructure requirements it has agreed to provide FIFA for the 2010 World Cup.

AT&T frustrated with slow pace of Telkom decision-making

Spears expressed frustration at the slow pace of Telkom decision-making, the cable said.
While Spears was optimistic about the renewed partnership, the cable said that he would have to pressure September to begin finalizing the details of the arrangement. Spears noted that AT&T had hoped to have more concrete plans for the partnership finalised by the time of the April 2009 MOU signing, but had been thwarted by the delays in Telkom decision making.

Media representatives at the signing of the MOU also “bombarded officials for additional details regarding the partnership,” the cable said.

According to the cable, Spears said AT&T was ready to move forward with implementation, but felt frustrated at Telkom’s inability to finalize decisions. A follow-up trip was planned for June 2009 and Spears hoped to finalise details before the trip, the cable said.

Telkom’s willingness to engage AT&T in a new partnership is reflective of the pressure South Africa’s incumbent telco is beginning to face under an increasingly liberalized ICT market, the cable quoted Spears as saying.

However, the prolonged negotiations reflect Telkom’s slowness in embracing this change.

Partnership a benefit to consumers

The cable concluded by saying that the proposed AT&T and Telkom partnership would benefit African ICT consumers and would complement other developments in the ICT sector including the addition of new fiber-optic bandwidth capacity (referring to the imminent landing of Seacom, with WACS on the horizon).

However, trade union activism and the slow pace of ICT liberalization could hamper final decision-making on the partnership and potential areas of cooperation, the cable said.

Telkom was asked for comment on the cable’s statements about slow decision-making from the operator and the operational detail of the MOU, but did not respond by the time of publication.

Best IT companies to work for in SA

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Corporate Research Foundation Institute (CRF) Best Employer Index reveals the best employers in South Africa

The Corporate Research Foundation Institute (CRF) has released their 2011/12 Best Employer Index. The results were unveiled at a gala function in Sandton last night (24 August 2011).
The Best Employer Index rates companies in the following areas: organisation strategy; the HR function; communication; diversity management; corporate social responsibility; knowledge management; talent management and engagement; performance management; and rewards and recognition.

Microsoft SA has been rated as the Best Employer in South Africa for 2011/12 by the CRF Institute, followed by Accenture SA and SAP South Africa.

When it came to the best telecommunications companies to work for Vodacom came out tops, followed by Telkom and MTN South Africa.

The Best Employers 2011/2012 overall ranking is given in the table below (a total of 69 organisations were listed this year).

Overall Rank	Company
1	Microsoft SA (Pty) Ltd
2	Accenture SA (Pty) Ltd
3	SAP South Africa (Pty) Ltd
4	Unilever SA
5	Ernst & Young
6	Netcare Limited
7	Vodacom Group Limited
8	Peninsula Beverage Company
9	Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs Inc.
10	Telkom
14	MTN South Africa
26	Dimension Data MEA Group
28	Siemens Southern Africa
31	Cisco Systems SA
41	IBM South Africa
65	Rectron Holdings
67	State Information Technology Agency (SITA)

According to Samantha Crous, the CRF Institute’s Country Manager, the importance of the Best Employers campaign is that it recognises that success lies in an organisation’s ability to distinguish itself by establishing and promoting excellent HR strategies and practices that can attract, retain and engage the right talent.

Samantha Crous

World’s First Glasses-Free 3D Laptop Comes With Health Risks

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:33:00 +0000

Toshiba announced the Qosmio F755 3D laptop on Tuesday, describing it as “the world’s first laptop capable of displaying glasses-free 3D and 2D content at the same time on one screen.”

The press release proudly featured the laptop specs in the body of the text, but other seemingly minute details — such as potential health risks of 3D viewing, in this case — were kept in the footnotes. One footnote stated:

“Due to the possible impact on vision development, viewers of 3D video images should be age 6 or above. Children and teenagers may be more susceptible to health issues associated with viewing in 3D and should be closely supervised to avoid prolonged viewing without rest. Some viewers may experience a seizure or blackout when exposed to certain flashing images or lights contained in certain 3D television pictures or video games. Anyone who has had a seizure, loss of awareness, or other symptom linked to an epileptic condition, or has a family history of epilepsy, should contact a health care provider before using the 3D function.”

That disclaimer footnote then points to another more lengthy disclaimer on Toshiba’s website entitled, “3D Viewing: Important Safety Information,” in which another list of health risks continues. The first point on the list is especially poignant:

“If you or any viewer experiences the following symptoms or any other discomfort from viewing 3D video images, stop viewing and contact your health care provider: Convulsions, Eye or muscle twitching, Loss of awareness, Altered vision, Involuntary movements, Disorientation, Eye Strain, Nausea/Vomiting, Dizziness, Headaches, Fatigue.”

Priced at $1,700, the laptop will be available in mid-August. One can’t help but wonder if consumers will be paying attention to these small details relating to their health when deciding to purchase the latest in technological wonders.

It can be argued that these health risks apply for any type of 3D viewing — even so, should they be relegated to the footnotes?

What are your thoughts on how tech companies should disclaim health risks regarding use of their products? And is owning a 3D laptop worth risking your health? Let us know in the comments below.

Hacker Group Anonymous Aims To Destroy Facebook on Nov. 5

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:20:00 +0000

Hackivist group Anonymous vows to “kill Facebook” on November 5, citing users’ lack of choice in privacy as its reason for attack.

Update: Anonymous confirmed via a tweet that while some of its members are organizing the upcoming attack against Facebook, the hacker organization as a whole does not necessarily agree with the attack.

The group of hackers has claimed participation in just about every recent notable hacking attack of this year and successfully broke into 70 law enforcement websites and took down the Syrian Ministry of Defense website this week alone.

This recent interest in Facebook, despite a slew of privacy concerns raised against the social network since its founding, may be a result of Anonymous’s recent announcement that it plans to create its own social network, called AnonPlus. After the group’s Google+ account, called “Your Anon News,” was banned, it began fleshing out AnonPlus.com, “a new social network where there is no fear … of censorship … of blackout … nor of holding back.”

Below is a video and statement released by Anonymous explaining the reason for its upcoming battle with the world’s largest social network. Let us know your thoughts on the group’s statement in the comments below.

Anonymous Statement

Attention citizens of the world,

We wish to get your attention, hoping you heed the warnings as follows:
Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill facebook for the sake of your own privacy.

Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world. Some of these so-called whitehat infosec firms are working for authoritarian governments, such as those of Egypt and Syria.

Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your "privacy" settings, and deleting your account is impossible, even if you "delete" your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time. Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more "private" is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family.

http://www.physorg.com/news170614271.html
http://itgrunts.com/2010/10/07/facebook-steals-numbers-and-data-from-your-iphone/

You cannot hide from the reality in which you, the people of the internet, live in. Facebook is the opposite of the Antisec cause. You are not safe from them nor from any government. One day you will look back on this and realise what we have done here is right, you will thank the rulers of the internet, we are not harming you but saving you.

The riots are underway. It is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It is a battle for choice and informed consent. It's unfolding because people are being raped, tickled, molested, and confused into doing things where they don't understand the consequences. Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives users the illusion of and hides the details away from them "for their own good" while they then make millions off of you. When a service is "free," it really means they're making money off of you and your information.

Think for a while and prepare for a day that will go down in history. November 5 2011, #opfacebook . Engaged.

This is our world now. We exist without nationality, without religious bias. We have the right to not be surveilled, not be stalked, and not be used for profit. We have the right to not live as slaves.

We are anonymous
We are legion
We do not forgive
We do not forget
Expect us

64% of Small Businesses Think Social Media Is Unnecessary

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:55:00 +0000

Small businesses don’t seem to be swept up in the social media revolution, according to a new study.

Hiscox, a small business insurance provider, polled 304 decision makers for U.S. businesses with between one and 249 employees in June. Of those polled, just 12% considered using social media a “must” for their business. However, 50% of respondents said they couldn’t do without word-of-mouth marketing. Just 4% said the same about social media marketing.

According to eMarketer, a whopping 64% of those polled said social media was either not necessary or not something they had an opinion about. Of those small businesses that were using social media for marketing, Facebook was the most common vehicle, followed by LinkedIn.

Nicole Perrin, senior editor at eMarketer, says she’s not surprised by the results. “We typically don’t see that they see this as the be-all, end-all,” she says, noting that small businesses often lack the resources to execute a social media marketing plan. “They’re still very focused on traditional word of mouth and very used to traditional marketing.”

TechLabs is currently conducting a similar poll in South Africa and will release the findings in a future article.

Start your own business?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 10:45:00 +0000

So you’re thinking of launching your own internet business startup? Or is it a business magazine? Maybe you haven’t decided yet but are certain you want to start your own business. Maybe you’re seeking an escape from the mundanity of nine-to-five employment; maybe you can’t stand working for anyone else for a minute longer; or perhaps you’ve just been made redundant or simply have an idea that’s too good to go to waste. Whichever it is, that first entrepreneurial seed has been sown, and before long you will be starting your own business.

But how do you grow that seed into a thriving, new business? Firstly, do you really want to? Are you cut out for it? Even if you are, is it too greater risk to give up a secure income? And just where should you start? You’ve probably got at least one of these questions, along with many others, swimming around your head right now – and that’s perfectly understandable.

Starting up your own business will change your life. It’ll change the way you think, the way you work, the way you spend money and the way you socialise. It’ll be one of the most demanding challenges you’ll ever be likely to take on.
You’ll work every hour possible to get your business off the ground then even longer to keep it afloat during the early days. You probably won’t have another holiday for a couple of years and virtually your entire life will become focused on making your business start up succeed.

If you’re in a relationship, it will undoubtedly feel the strain and if you’ve got a family prepare to be repeatedly torn between them and ‘the business’.

This is the harsh truth of starting your own business. If you thought you’d be reducing your hours not increasing them, that it wouldn’t disrupt your family life and that, frankly, it all seems a bit too much trouble, then stop reading now; turn off your computer and think of a different way to improve your everyday happiness.

If what I’ve just said hasn’t curbed your desire, keep reading – you’re showing all the attributes an entrepreneur needs when starting up in business.

Sure, you’ll still have plenty of anxieties and unanswered questions, but like every successful entrepreneur starting a small business, the thought of a challenge excites and enthuses you.

If you’re going to succeed, you won’t mind concentrating all your energy into the new business because it’ll be ‘your baby’ and you and your family will be the ones reaping the rewards – not a fat cat on ten times your salary. You’ll also have the enthusiasm and ideas to find solutions to the obstacles in your path.

And remember, you’re not the first to have these anxieties or to face these obstacles as you’re starting your own business. Every successful entrepreneur has overcome many barriers and continues to do so every week with his new internet business startup, her freshly launched business magazine or whatever new business it is you are bringing to market.

What’s more, many successful entrepreneurs had no business qualifications or experience prior to starting up in business; many spent months, even years, formulating their idea into a viable business proposition; and absolutely every single one has made mistakes, accepted help and learnt lessons as they’ve gone along.

The reason they’ve succeeded is because they’ve remained determined, focused, worked extremely hard and had the clarity of mind to realise they couldn’t do it all on their own. If you share these attributes, you’re half way there.
And needn’t be that scary. It might seem that you only ever hear bad news about the condition of the economy, but there’s never been a better time to start a business.

There’s never been so much help and information from business startup services available to people wanting to do it as there is today. There’s never been so much funding available for business start ups, and the government has never been so geared to encouraging enterprise.

The doom and gloom merchants certainly haven’t put off the 3.8 million businesses currently operating in the UK, or the 904,000 people that made the plunge and started-up last year. Every year the figure gets bigger as more people decide to work for themselves, and each year the number of business closures decreases too.

What’s more, business start ups are now fundamental to the economy. The days of thousands of large companies employing millions of staff are no more. The number of aspiring entrepreneurs starting small businesses have surged in recent years, and their companies now make up 99.8% of the total businesses in the UK and are responsible for almost half of the UK’s workforce.

So while you might be on the verge of starting your own business with the freedom to work when, where and for how long you want, you won’t, contrary to popular belief, be ‘going it alone’. There will be others going through the same experience, there will be others who have already gone through the experience and there will be business startup services to guide you.

That said, nobody’s going to build your business for you while you sit content in the knowledge you’re now master of your own destiny.

Finding suppliers can be one of the most difficult parts of starting a business and you will need to use your contacts and make new ones. They are out there and once you have a list of them you can appraoch each of them and negotiate pricing.

Resarch your competitors and see what they are offering. There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing a little recce on the competition. Can you beat their pricing or make offers more attractive. One thing I have learnt about being back in South Africa is that most shops arent up for negotiating, which to be does not ake since. I would rather sell an item and make some profit that let the item sit on the shelf for another week.

Have a fresh up to date website. Remember that your website is a first impression on you and your business. If it looks like you built it yourself with no eperience of web design it will reflect badly on your image. Consumers need to be able to speak to someone if they are having problems so insure your "contact us" page has a telephone number. I hate having to send a message through the site and not know if it's even been looked at 3 days later.

Marketing is propbably going to be your biggest ongoing expense. The rule of thumb here is to set aside 20 percent of your profit to marketing each month. Dont think "I have the right amount of customers. I can stop my marketing campaign" Consumers come and go and if you arent constantly letting people know who you are and what you are offering your business will likely suffer in the long run. You can keep the cost of marketing down by using Social Networks, blogs and forums. Google Adwords is also a great way to drive much needed traffic to your site, however you may initially need an SEO company like TechFundi to set this up for you.

Starting your own business will likely be tough in the beginning but the rewards can out way the time and effort. Dont feel like oh well there are to many companies doing this or that if you can offer something better or different for the same arena you will get customers.

If you are thinking about starting your own business contact us and we will gladly assist where we can and put you in contact with some excellent South Africans to assist in growing your business.

mail: info@techlabs.co.za

CCMA To Assist With Telkom Wage Dispute

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 09:07:00 +0000

Solidarity has asked the CCMA to intervene in its wage dispute with Telkom

Solidarity has asked the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to intervene in its wage dispute with Telkom, the union said on Wednesday.

“Trade unions earlier referred a dispute to the CCMA on the grounds that Telkom did not negotiate in good faith,” Solidarity spokesman Marius Croucamp said in a statement.

“It is also clear that Telkom is trying to delay the negotiations,” he said.

“It is in the national interest to see to it that the wage dispute is settled as soon as possible.”

Comment from Telkom could not be immediately obtained.

Solidarity said wage negotiations with Telkom started in May, and that three rounds of talks had failed to yield results.

Solidarity spokeswoman Ilze Nieuwoudt said the negotiations should have started around February or March as the wage agreement was meant to take effect on April 1.

Croucamp said Telkom had a large skills shortage and a strike would have “catastrophic consequences” on its ability to deliver services.

The union represented the more skilled workers at Telkom such as engineers and artisans, he said.

Solidarity has demanded a 10 percent increase. Telkom has offered five percent, an increase on its initial offer of 4.5 percent.

“The meagre wage offer is definitely not going to resolve the company’s skills crisis which it caused by awarding voluntary severance packages earlier this year,” according to Croucamp.

“A weak offer could worsen the skills shortage, as the remaining skilled employees may start looking for greener pastures,” he said.

Unhappy With Your ISP or Broadband In South Africa?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 09:02:00 +0000

Latest MyBroadband survey reveals what percentage of consumers are looking for a new broadband service or ADSL ISP.

MyBroadband conducted their latest broadband survey in July, asking users to rate their broadband provider and ADSL Internet Service Provider (ISP).

The survey was completed by 3,072 respondents of which 1,811 were ADSL users, 1,032 were mobile broadband users, and the rest were fixed wireless subscribers.

As part of the survey broadband users were asked whether they are “actively looking for a new broadband service?”.

The percentage of positive (Yes) answers to this question gives an indication of the overall happiness with the service and whether a company can expect a high churn rate in future.

According to the survey results the lowest percentage of subscribers looking for a new service comes from 8ta, followed by 1Mbps and 4Mbps ADSL subscribers.

The results further revealed that more than half of Neotel’s NeoConnect and NeoFlex subscribers are actively looking for a new broadband service.

The table below shows the percentage of users from the various broadband offerings who are actively looking for a different broadband service (lower is better).

Broadband Service	Looking for new service (%)
8ta HSPA	11
ADSL 1 Mbps	16
ADSL 4 Mbps	18
Cell C HSPA	18
ADSL 10 Mbps	21
MTN HSPA	27
ADSL 384 Kbps	35
iBurst Wireless	37
Telkom WiMax	44
Vodacom HSPA	46
Neotel NeoFlex	50
Neotel NeoConnect	55

To find out how happy people are with their current ADSL service provider and whether they are looking to migrate, all ADSL users were asked “Are you looking to move to a new ADSL ISP?”.
Here Web Africa’s subscribers seem the most content with only 10% of users saying they are looking to move to a new ISP, followed by Afrihost and Openweb.

ISP	Looking for new ISP (%)
Web Africa	10
Afrihost	14
Openweb	15
MWEB	16
Internet Solutions	20
Cybersmart	26
Telkom Internet	28
Axxess	35

Fancy Yourself a Writer, Journalist, Blogger or Reviewer? TechLabs Paying Up To R500 For Your Articles!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:56:00 +0000

TechLabs newly launched media site in South Africa is looking for budding amateur reviewers, bloggers, writters and journalists to send in their stories. TechLabs a new startup in South Africa is providing a platform for anyone who enjoys writing articles about products, startups, technology and reviews in South Africa.

"This is a great platform for anyone who enjoys social networking and has something interesting to say." writes founder Scott Alwood. If your story trends well we will even increase the payout for that story. At the End of each month the writer with the most amount of hits gets a prize.

"We want to encourage more South Africans to share their views and experiences. It can also be a nice little income if your good at it." Initially we pay R100 per story that is published, the more hits and tweets the story gets the more we pay the author. It's that simple. This is a great way to gauge interest in your journalistic ability.

To submit your article or questions please email info@techlabs.co.za.

Gmail Now Lets You Make Multiple Calls at the Same Time

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:18:00 +0000

Remember those old multi-line phones with all the buttons across the bottom? They gave you access to more than one line at a time, a feature now available in Google‘s Gmail.

According to the official Gmail Blog, this new multi-call capability will let you put callers on hold with Gmail’s phone service, picking up another call at the same time. Too bad there’s no music on hold to entertain that first caller.

Also imitating conventional phone systems is call waiting, where you receive a notification of an incoming call, and then it’s up to you whether you’re going to answer it or not. The only limitation with this new capability is that you’re only allowed two outgoing calls to physical phones at the same time.

Best of all, U.S. and Canada calls using the Gmail phone and video system will be free through 2011, and all these new multi-line features work with Gmail’s phone, voice and video calls.

Has Google Tripled The Speed Of The +1 Button?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:14:00 +0000

The +1 button is about to get a whole lot faster, thanks to an update Google rolled out on Tuesday.

“We’ve begun to roll out out a set of changes that will make the button render up to 3x faster on your site,” software engineer David Byttow said in a blog post. “No action is required on your part, so just sit back, relax, and watch as the button loads more quickly than before.”

In addition to the speed boost, Google also introduced new code that speeds up the +1 button via an asynchronous code snippet. The code allows a web page to load with the +1 JavaScript code in parallel. The result is another improvement in page load time. The code is available on the +1 configuration page.

The +1 button is Google’s answer to Facebook’s Like Button. Since its launch, it has quickly gained adoption, and one report even claims its more widespread than the Twitter Tweet Button.

The Looming Content Battle Between TV Everywhere & Online Streaming

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:12:00 +0000

The TV Everywhere movement got another win Wednesday, as Fox announced that it will limit next-day streaming access to some of its programs to cable, satellite and Hulu Plus customers. This news, which comes a week after CNN and HLN’s TV Everywhere push, is just the latest example of the complicated relationship between television networks and the burgeoning streaming services game.

TV Everywhere, which Netflix’s Reed Hastings has referred to as his company’s “biggest competitor,” is gaining favor with content producers, like broadcast and cable networks. Unlike the streaming deals that networks have to work out with Hulu, Netflix or Amazon, TV Everywhere streaming deals can be negotiated as part of a regular carrier relationship with cable and satellite operators.

As demand for online content continues to grow, networks are looking to get more money for their content. Netflix, which already has a dearth of first-run content, has seen its licensing fees explode in the last few quarters. Still, the cable networks want more. That’s where TV Everywhere comes in.

The carriage rates, or amount per subscriber that networks get from traditional cable and satellite providers, far exceeds pure online deals. That’s just one reason that premium cable networks like HBO have decided to skip Hulu or Netflix, and instead offer its own robust TV Everywhere offering, HBO Go.

Consumers often ask why they can’t just subscribe to HBO online. The answer is that the price that the market would bear for an online stand alone subscription, is in all likelihood less than what HBO is getting from cable and satellite companies in carriage and subscriber fees. As HBO told us at Mashable Connect, the goal with HBO Go wasn’t necessarily to add more HBO subscribers, but to keep existing HBO subscribers from canceling their subscriptions in the months when the network isn’t airing new episodes of its original series.

That makes HBO Go and TV Everywhere good for cable providers, but that’s bad news for services like Hulu and Netflix.

The one thing that could change the situation — at least as far as free online streaming of content is concerned, would be if broadcast networks could get better ad deals for streaming content. Of the current Hulu owners, Fox has been most vocal about wanting to increase the ad footprint in Hulu.

What remains to be seen is what the other network partners will do.