Welcome to the 50th edition of eTips! I'm working on a 'best of' compilation which will emerge eventually as an eBook.
Email me and register your interest now - it will give me an incentive to get it finished!
Robin Houghton
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From the Eggblogg... |
| Better the devil you know |
It's time to make a stand against useless advertising! Put the phone down on those newspaper ad sales people! Save your money!
Read the full post...
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Things we've read... |
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10 things Northern Rock could do better online |
Oh dear, as if being nationalised isn't enough, now the Rock suffers the indignity of an e-consultancy lambasting.
Read the full story...
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What you don't publish defines your site
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Blogger Maki on Dosh Dosh comes out in favour of quality rather than quantity when it comes to keeping your blog going.
Read the full story...
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A brief guide to Web 2.0
This edition of eTips is for anyone who's wondered if they're the only one baffled by blogging, tweeting, pinging and all the rest of it.
What is Web 2.0?
The phrase dates from about 2005 and is really just an industry term. It refers to a new internet era in which with participants play a more active role. For example, when the web was first embraced by businesses, they produced websites which mirrored their brochures and were intended as one-way communications. We talk, you listen. These days you're just as likely to find a company website where the visitors, (or users, although I dislike that term) can not only decide what content they see but also create content for others to read, use or customise.
This shift in content creation, dissemination and sharing is made possible by a number of online tools or applications. These are what drive phenomena such as blogs (online journals), podcasts (audio or video that you can download and play on portable devices such as phones or MP3 players), social and business networks (where individuals build their own personal pages and share information, content and messages with others), communities of interest such as Flickr (photo sharing) and Digg (one of many bookmarking sites where people recommend content to one another) and content aggregators (where you can have the content you wish delivered to your homepage via something called Really Simple Syndication or RSS).
Why should I be interested?
Your customers may not have heard of 'Web 2.0' but they're sure to be using it - if not right now then certainly in the near future. Ask anyone between the ages of 20 and 30 if they use Facebook. That's just the tip of the iceberg - as individuals become more 'empowered' online, so attitudes are changing towards the media and traditional marketing. People are more cynical, more able to get their voice heard and less responsive to traditional marketing than ever before and anyone in business needs to be aware of that.
Is it a good thing?
Some say no - that it frequently results in abuses of intellectual property rights and a blurring of the edges between reality and fiction. From a business perspective, the relinquishing of control to customers and the need for a different style of marketing can be scary. Others say this is a new era of consumer creativity and influence, and that we should embrace it.
So how can you make Web 2.0 work for your business? Watch the Eggblogg where I'll be posting ideas, links and resources as I come across them. Do tell me about your own experiences.
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