Decoding the new economy

ABC 702 Sydney Weekend: Why manners matter online

We discuss online etiquette on this month’s ABC Weekend tech segment

What you do on the Internet can affect your home and business life, so online manners matters.

Join 702 Sydney’s Simon Marnie and Paul Wallbank from 10am on Sunday, September 19 to look at some basic rules on how you should behave on the Internet.

We have further information on this topic at Why Online Manners Matter.

Tune into ABC 702 Sydney from 10am or listen online through the ABC Sydney webpage. We love to hear from listeners so feel free call in with your questions or comments on 1300 222 702 or text on 1999 1233. If you’re on Twitter you can tweet Paul at @paulwallbank and 702 Sydney on @702sydney.

Five rules to protect your online reputation

Stephanie Rice’s Twitter faux pas shows how fragile your reputation can be in an online world. Here’s five rules for avoiding problems.

Last week’s tearful apology by Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice for an inappropriate comment about a Rugby score on Twitter is reminder to all of us that nothing on the web is a private conversation.

Over the years we’ve learned email can be a dangerous medium as messages can be endlessly copied and forwarded. The infamous Claire Swire email where a group of young London lawyers trashed a girls, and their own, reputations was lesson we all learned from.

Today, we have far more opportunities than just email to make idiots of ourselves online and damage our own reputations, so here’s a few ideas on protecting yourself online;

Everything is in writing

Internet communication is largely written. If you wouldn’t an off colour joke or disparaging comment about a colleague in a letter, then you shouldn’t put it online.

The Internet is permanent

The little electronic bits and bytes might be transient, but what you write will be stored in numerous places. Even if you delete an inappropriate comment from your inbox or Facebook page, someone will be able to recover it.

Online privacy doesn’t exist

Given private conversations can be copied and forwarded, you need to assume that nothing online is private. If you’d have trouble explaining something to your mum, boss, minister or your investors then you shouldn’t write it.

The real world rules apply online

There’s a touching naivety about the online world with a belief that the Internet is immune from the rules of the “real” world. The truth is that the net is part of the real world and the rules and laws that govern our daily lives apply online as well — securities law, defamation and just plain good manners are as valid in cyberspace just as they are in the pub or boardroom.

Apologise quickly

We all make mistakes, and when we do it online news spreads fast. So a prompt admission and apologies to anyone concerned is the best way to defuse embarrassment.

The best thing though is to ask “would my mum be happy reading this” before pressing the send button. If you don’t think she would, then you might want to think about things before letting a comment off into the wide world of the web.

While the Internet is the most powerful tool available to businesses big and small, we need to always remember that powerful tools have to be used with care. Thinking before you post should be the first rule for online communication.

What makes a market?

Does demand for a product mean there’s a market for it?

There’s a difference between there being a demand and a market — just because there’s a need for your service or product it doesn’t translate to there being a market for it.

A market exists when someone is prepared to pay for the product or service. Which is the challenge where the idea of giving away things for free has become the currency of the Internet.

So even if you have a good idea, if you’re looking a building a business around that idea you’ll need to ask who is prepared to pay for it?

Another question of course is how much they are prepared to pay but that’s a different thought for another time.

How broadband won the Australian election

building a new communications network was the difference between the two parties

In a dour and negative Australian election campaign, the National Broadband Network was the one issue separated the look alike policies of the two major parties. In the end, it decided the election.

Privately developed communications networks are rare in the nation’s history for a combination of factors including Australia’s population distribution and commercial appetites for investment risk.

Australian governments have always been critical to the development of regional communications, from the establishment of state operated railway networks, through the post office owned telegraph and telephone networks and eventually the road system.

So the National Broadband Network is typical of Australian communications development where the government provides the infrastructure framework and the private sector grows around it.

There’s no doubt regional communities understood the importance of being connected to the global economy, successive Federal governments have struggled with a patchwork of government programs such as the Universal Service Obligation and Broadband Connect in an effort to guarantee some level of service for all Australian communities.

The NBN itself was conceived in the realisation that any solution that relied wholly on private funding was not going to deliver a national solution. This was view that regional organisations such as Digital Tasmania had held all along when agitating for their communities not being left behind.

And Tasmania was were the vote mattered, the coalition failed to win any Tasmanian seats where three would have been won had the state followed the rest of the nation. Those three seats; Bass, Franklin and Braddon would have been enough to give the Liberal and National Parties power.

Had the coalition focussed on the legitimate criticisms of the NBN such as the government’s failure to quantify the $43 billion price tag or NBNCo’s failure to produce a business plan then they may well have won the election.

As the country Independents stated, the NBN was one of the key considerations in their decision to support the Labor government, so not getting their NBN policy right cost the coalition government in two ways.

Now the NBN is going ahead we need to focus on what it can deliver, along with a sensible discussion on the right mix of fibre and wireless infrastructure, the proportion of private and public investment and exactly how much the project is going to cost.

Now is the time to get on with building what will be the 21st Century equivalent of the roads and railways of the 20th and 19th Centuries.

the need for a digital footprint

every business person needs an online profile

The need for a digital footprint
Everyone needs a personal description on the Internet

Once upon a time business reputations were spread through local taverns, guilds and market squares.

There was only one thing worse for a local merchant than having a bad reputation and that was having no community profile at all, if the townsfolk didn’t know who a merchant or professional was, their business would simply have no customers.

In modern times, the Internet is the town square and our customers and colleagues expect they can find our backgrounds and profiles on the web. All business people — individual staff members, managers, owners or founders — need something on the web to establish their credibility.

So an online presence, a digital footprint if you will, ranging from a basic profile in your company’s website through to an elaborate personal website, is now essential for all business people.

A good online start for most people is LinkedIn, which at its most basic is like a ready made online CV listing your work history, achievements and qualifications.

Enhancing LinkedIn’s value is the recommendation function where you can publicly thank colleagues for their good work and they can do likewise to you. These become instant professional references on view to the world.

The most powerful part of LinkedIn though lies in the social networking aspect. When you look at someone’s profile the service lists everyone connected to them and, most importantly, what connections they have in common with you. This is a great way of establishing an individual’s bona fides in an industry.

Social networks tend to reward frequent updates, while most business people don’t have time to update them, it is worthwhile keeping recent appointments and qualifications up to date so people checking you out have the latest details.

There are downsides with our digital footprint, we have to be careful about what we say online as inappropriate comments do get noticed and we are held accountable.

Privacy issues are always an issue for what you post online so don’t post family details on the public Internet or add anything you wouldn’t want broadcast next to your photo on the six o’clock news.

Just as we’ve previously said that web pages are today’s shopfront, the net is also becoming our business card. Just as we need business cards, we also need that digital footprint.

Even if you don’t want to put your details on a service like LinkedIn, make sure you at least have an up to date personal profile on your company website.

The good news difference

There’s a huge appetite for good news stories and no shortage of ways to tell some about your business

Last week, children from around New South Wales gathered at the Sydney Opera House for The Festival of Choral Music. Over the four days the event is run each year, over 2,000 kids perform in the choirs, bands and ensembles.

Sitting among the proud parents in the audience on one of the nights, I listened to the positive, enthusiastic and uplifting performances and wondered why we aren’t telling more good news stories.

We all have positive stories about our businesses and there’s a demand for them; it’s no coincidence two of the most popular Internet clips of the year have been the Old Spice Commercial and Air New Zealand “crazy about rugby” safety video. Both are fun, upbeat and quirky messages.

The Air New Zealand clip also shows how we can make what’s usually a collection of stern warnings into an entertaining topic. It’s also one of the few flight instruction clips that actually shows where the life jackets are, how the oxygen masks work and clearly explains how to share them with children.

An entertaining and humorous message is worth a thousand dour and negative lectures. Let’s get some light into what we’re telling the world about ourselves.

While we can’t afford to buy the NZ All Blacks or hire actors and former NFL players like Isaiah Mustafa, the star of the Old Spice commercial and follow clips taking messages through Twitter, we can be telling our stories through positive and entertaining messages.

With our websites, newsletters, social media feeds and the traditional marketing and communications channels we no shortage of ways to tell the world what we’re doing; let’s get out and do it.

The good news story

We have some great tales to tell. It’s time to do it.

Last night, 700 children gathered at the Sydney Opera House for The Festival of Choral Music. Over the four days the event is run, over 2,000 kids will have performed in the choirs, bands and ensembles.

Why aren’t we telling these stories of talent, potential, happiness and beauty? Why are we bogged down in the negative, backward looking view of the world we see in much of our commentary of the world?

Maybe it’s time for a rethink about the stories we tell.

Author: Paul Wallbank

ABC 702 Sydney Weekend: Why manners matter online

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