Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

Tag: social media

  • Using free services

    Using free services

    The lure of free is attractive – free web hosting, free software or the free lunch always grabs our attention.

    Deep down though we know there’s really no such thing as a free lunch and the same is true with all the other free deals, there’s always a cost of some sort.

    Often the definition of free can be a problem; there’s the social media model of free that harvests your personal data, the Silicon Valley version that hopes a big company will buy the service, the earnest work of volunteers and the freemium marketing model.

    Most computer users have used the freemium model, this is where the business gives away a basic free version in the hope of encouraging enough customers to the paid premium version that has support and additional features. Common examples are AVG Free Antivirus, Google Apps and Mailchimp’s Forever Free plan.

    All of the freemium services come with a catch, AVG’s free software is only licensed for home use ­– so no using the free version on your office computer – while Google Apps only supports ten unpaid users and if you have more than 2,000 people on your mailing list then Mailchimp is no longer free.

    Developing a free product to raise your profile is a common way for entrepreneurs to enter markets and establish a reputation. This is particularly common in the software and web design industries where coders and designers offer free applications or templates to build their portfolios.

    These products developed by entrepreneurial designers and programmers are often great, but as there is the risk the developer will lose interest as their business evolves. The WordPress Guy, Tony Constantino, warns “when a free theme stops being supported in 6months you will get left behind”

    By far the most lucrative free model to date has been the advertising supported business. This is nothing new as commercial radio and television stations have had this model for nearly a century, but Google have taken this online with their advertising platform that funds their search tools and many other free services.

    A variation on the advertising supported model is the data mining carried out by social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. This isn’t as transparent and may be a problem for business users who don’t want to share their client details with an internet service.

    Increasingly the free services are based around the Silicon Valley model of a deep pocketed venture capital company funding a business with the aim of building the customer base through offering freebies services with the aim of selling to a trade buyer.

    The danger with the Silicon Valley VC model is its instability as most companies shut down without finding a buyer. Even when they do find someone to buy the venture the service often doesn’t last as we saw when the once popular free hosting service Geocities was shut down by Yahoo! in 2009.

    Despite the traps free can be good for your business but you should understand the terms, conditions and hidden costs that come with the products. Often you’ll find paying for a product delivers a much more functional and better service that requires less of your time.

    One service that might help businesses choose the right free or trial online services is Cheapstart, that compares the various services available for entrepreneurs starting out.

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  • The digital inheritance

    The digital inheritance

    Our digital footprint – what appears about us online in websites and social media services – is becoming more important as we’re judged by what people find out about us on the web.

    As what we store on the web becomes more important, the need to plan for what happens to that data when we pass away becomes more important. “Generation Cloud”, a survey in the UK by hosting company Rackspace and the University of London looked at how Britons were dealing with these issues.

    Information left online can cause problems as social media sites will send suggestions and reminders which can distress others if the suggested contact has passed away.

    Equally, a web site or Facebook page could even serve as a memorial. The final blog post of Derek K. Miller is a particularly touching memorial.

    To create a “digital tombstone”, for your loved ones to remove inappropriate posts or just to access your digital personal effects like email or photos stored on a cloud service, they will need your passwords.

    In the Generation Cloud survey, 11% of the participants planned to leave their online account details and passwords in their wills and half considered some of their ‘treasured possessions’ are stored online.

    Once again we’re finding our online data has real value that’s worth passing down. It’s another reason to guard your data safely and not give it away lightly.

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  • The agents of change

    The agents of change

    It’s understandable technologists see technology as driving change. Often it’s true – technologies do build or destroy businesses, alter economies and collapse empires.

    Sometimes though there’s more to change than a new technology changing the economy and while it’s tempting to credit innovations like the web, social media and cloud computing with many of the changes we’re seeing in the world, we have to consider some other factors at work.

    The end of the 40 year credit boom

    In the 1960s, the United States started creating credit to pay for the Vietnam war; they never stopped and after the 2001 recession and terrorist attacks the money supply was kept particularly loose.

    The worldwide credit boom allowed all of us –Greek hairdressers, Irish home borrowers, Australian electronics salesmen, US bankers and pretty well everyone else in the Western world – to live beyond our means.

    In 2008, the start of the Great Recession saw the end of that period and now the economy is deleveraging. Consumers are reluctant to borrow and businesses struggle to find funds to borrow even if they want to.

    Any business plans built on the idea of almost unlimited spending growth are doomed. The era of massive consumer spending growth driven by easy credit is over and the days of expecting a plasma TV in every room are gone.

    The aging population

    An even bigger challenge is that our societies are getting older, the assumption we have an endless supply of cheap labour is being challenged as a global race for talent develops.

    The lazy assumption that economic growth can be driven by building houses and infrastructure to meet increased demands will be found wanting as the Western world’s populations fail to grow at the rates required to power the construction industries.

    Our societies are maturing and increased economic growth and wealth is going to have to come from clever use of our resources.

    Innovations in computers and the Internet – along with other technologies like biotech, clean energy and materials engineering – will help us meet those challenges but they are tools to cope with our transforming societies, not the agents of change themselves.

    Had  tools like social media come along in the 1970s or 80s they probably would have been massive drivers for change, just like the motor car and television were earlier in the 20th Century. In the early 21st Century they have been overtaken by history.

    Smart businesses, along with clever governments and communities, will use tools like social media, local search and cloud computing with the demographic and economic changes, but we shouldn’t think for a minute the underlying challenges will be business as usual.

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  • Technology with Carol Duncan on ABC Newcastle

    Technology with Carol Duncan on ABC Newcastle

    In the occasional tech spot with Carol Duncan, we looked at Facebook’s new changes and what they mean to users.

    The immediate changes to Facebook are the News Feed at the top of the page where updates and posts will be ranked according to what Facebook thinks are your interests, to the left of the screen is “the ticker” which will give summaries of updates.

    Coming in the next few weeks will be the Timeline feature which will give show the history of all your posts.

    A great summary of the changes with a hands on review is Jason Kincaid’s article on the Facebook changes in Tech Crunch. The official Facebook blog goes into the detail of all the new features.

    The purpose of these changes is to increase Facebook’s value as an advertising platform and it raises the question of the viability of these networks.

    One of the interesting features of these changes is that users will start seeing increased advertising, if you’re not happy with this our Netsmarts site goes through the process of shutting down your Facebook account.

    Join us on ABC Newcastle with Carol Duncan to discuss these issues and more.

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  • ABC Nightlife Computers: The Internet Name Wars

    ABC Nightlife Computers: The Internet Name Wars

    The online empires want our names and identities, are the real costs of social media now being exposed? Our September ABC Nightlife spot on September 22 from 10pm looked at these issues and more.

    Paul and Tony discussed how Google’s “Name Wars” or “nymwars” came about, why social media sites like Facebook and search engines want you to use to use your real names.

    The podcast from the program is available from at Nightlife website, more details of Tony’s programs can be found there as well.

    Is this a good thing or are there costs we should consider before handing over our intimate details to a social media or free cloud computing service?

    Some of the topics we covered included;

    • What are the “name wars’?
    • Why do companies like Google and Facebook want us to use our ‘real’ identities?
    • How can they use the information they gather?
    • What problems does that cause for Internet users?
    • Can these problems spill into real life?
    • Are all web services doing this?
    • What are the risks to businesses using social media?
    • Is this the real cost of social media?

    Some of the information we mentioned can be found here;

    The cost of lunch: Google and Information Revenue
    Google’s real names policy explained
    Google’s Eric Schmidt on being an “identity service”, not a social network
    Google’s company philosophy (note item two)
    Why Twitter doesn’t care what your real name is

    We’ll be adding more resources in the next few days, the next ABC Nightlife spot is on 20 October and our events page will have more details. If you have any suggestions for future programs or comments on the last show, please let us know as we love your feedback.

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