12 rules for using the web

Twelve tips to stay out of trouble on the Internet

I’m currently writing a book, provisionally titled Seven Steps to Online Success. One of the chapters looks at using social media for business and I included twelve rules to keep businesses out of online purgatory.

On reviewing that chapter, the rules really apply to the web in general. So, with a little bit of editing, here are the 12 rules for using the web;

1. Show respect to everyone. Even people you find disturbing, you’ll quickly learn the Internet is mankind’s gift to the disturbed, deluded and downright deranged.
2. Listen. Once you’ve filtered out the crazies, you’ll find the collective intelligence of the web can be quite powerful.
3. Converse. The big currency in social media is conversation, by joining in with constructive comments you enhance your reputation.
4. Be constructive. Add value to the conversation
5. Positivity. The web rewards the positive more than the negative, by all means post critical comments, but it’s best to for your posts to be more positive than negative.
6. Be honest. Social media has a horrible way of catching people out, so don’t tell porkies.
7. Associate with the smart kids. You’re judged by the company you keep, just like in the school ground.
8. Don’t constantly plug your services. You’ll be branded a spammer and shunned.
9. Social media is not a numbers game. Don’t obsess about the number of Twitter followers or Facebook friends. Quality beats quantity every time.
10. Never post when drunk or emotional. You will regret it.
11. Step away. If you find a social media channel is taking up too much of your time or passion, take a break.
12. Learn. Use what you’ve learned.

Seven Steps to Online Success is due out in Australian bookstores in June. In the meantime, my new business Netsmarts is running workshops helping businesses use Google and News Limited’s free local search services to grow their business.

The Web for Free workshop

How to get your business working harder on the web using free tools

Your customers are going online. Can they find you?

Our two hour hands on workshop makes sure you can be found on the web

Our customers are going online. Today’s consumers – young and old – are turning to the web when looking for local businesses and services that were once listed in the phone directory or local newspaper classifieds.

Your business needs to be there for them to find you when they go looking on their computers or mobile phones. The great thing is most of these listing services are free.

Why Local Search?
The websites, search engines, iPhone applications and even GPS systems that consumers are using to find tradesmen, services, restaurants and cafes in their neighbourhoods all rely on a small number of directories run by companies like Google and News Limited to provide details of local businesses.

I already have a website
Even if you have website, an effective entry on these directories is essential – the local plumber, baker, lawn mowing service or hairdresser is finding their local search listings is vital to capturing customers in their neighbourhoods. Local listings improve the performance of your site and help it go to the top of searches in your suburb or town.

What will I learn?
During the workshop participants will develop a cost effective online local search presence along with gaining insights on some strategies to be the most popular search result for their neighbourhood.

At the end of the Web for Free workshop you’ll have full, effective listings in the Google Places, True Local and Facebook Pages services. This ensures your business is being found when customers go looking for you on the web.

Participants cover;

• how the local services work
• the relevant local directories for Australian markets
• how to list in the local services
• maximising local coverage
• using basic search optimisation strategies
• optimising product descriptions
• designing and creating a free web site
• leveraging special offers and sales
• adapting social media to local search

Who should attend?
The Web for Free is designed for entrepreneurs, business owners managers and staff of new or established businesses wanting to understand local search tools and how to use free web services.

Duration and location
Our first two hour workshop will be held at the Mosman Professional Centre on March 17 from 10.30am. Seats are limited to 15 so space is restricted. You will need to bring your own laptop computer along.

Book now
Seats at the workshop are $300 each. With restricted space you’ll have to book now to avoid disappointment.


The rise of the connected consumer

Forget the technology, it’s all about customer service.

Last week in Sydney the Federal government’s Online Retail Forum, set up after the first round of big-retailer complaints about Internet shopping, was held to discuss the threats and opportunities that lie in the connected economy.

The event’s location and timing, being held at the old Sydney Post Office the day after the Angus & Robertson book chain went into administration, was somewhat symbolic of the changes facing the retail industry.

Australia Post itself is a good example of a business dealing with change, their traditional mail business is shrinking while the move to online commerce is driving and growing their parcels business. As traditional post offices selling stamps become less important, new opportunities open in the logistics of getting physical goods to Internet shoppers.

The old post office itself is an example of that, as technology changed how mail is sorted and delivered the need for a big downtown building disappeared and today the mail service occupies a tiny corner of the massive building which is now a hotel and office complex.

How post offices changed is a big lesson for commercial landlords, and our super funds that invest in them. COSBOA’s Peter Strong pointed out on the opening panel how the business model of ever increasing rents forcing out smaller retailers and replacing them with cookie cutter national chains and franchises is one that is already struggling to cater for the online consumer.

Customer service is the opportunity missed by the big ‘bricks and mortar’ retailers, a physical store has the advantage of being able to deliver a personalised, friendly experience yet what we find when we visit a big department store or electronics ‘category killer’ superstore is service that often leaves much to be desired.

The participants of the online retail forum’s panels covered how the online retail industry is filling the customer service void; Mike Knapp, the co-founder of Sdyney’s Shoes of Prey, explained how their consumer friendly return policies encourage sales while logistics companies like DHL, Temando and Australia Post described how tracking the delivery of Internet purchases was essential for customer confidence.

Most importantly, much of the morning emphasised that e-commerce was only a small part of what the Internet has to offer the retail industry. The web has become a monitoring tool for both buyers and sellers as well as improving the supply chain and radically changing the marketing industry.

Google’s Jason Pellegrino explained how many of the US electronics chain Best Buy stores now keeps floor stock for consumers to feel and touch but then places orders through the net for delivery to the buyer’s premises. Not keeping anything more than display stock dramatically improved the efficiency of Best Buy’s stores.

Interestingly Dick Smith Electronics employs the opposite model, with their “click and collect” service customers can order online and nominate the store they want to pick up the product which gives the retailer an opportunity to cross or up sell.

Both models illustrate how retail can adapt and take advantage of shoppers using the Internet and with some creative thinking can open up new opportunities which enhance their traditional sales models.

The message from all the industry panellists at the retail forum was consistent; the net is giving power back to the consumer who is using it. For retailers to compete, they have to be dirt cheap or offer excellent customer service.

What the event showed is the customer is more important than the technology – the point of going online is about improving the offer to customers be it by cheaper prices, faster delivery or better service. If the technology happens to improve our margins then that’s a pleasant benefit as well.

Customer service is something our bigger corporations like the retail giants, banks and telcos have forgotten, it’s now turning around to bite them and that’s probably the biggest opportunity for the rest of us – to adapt technology to our business in ways that deliver a better product.

It’s more than just having a website and online shopping cart, these changes are affecting almost every business. It’s important we all think about how our ventures are going to adapt to markets where our customers have more power than ever.

The tipping point

An important change has happened on the net which is changing the way we do business

Late last year the Internet quietly entered a new stage in its development as smart phone sales surpassed those of personal computers. This represents a fundamental shift on how society uses the web and how it will affect markets and our businesses.

The mobile workforce

Our staff and suppliers are going to be increasingly mobile and available. Logistic programs similar to Red Laser – which we discussed last year – coupled with recognition systems, virtual reality and always on wireless broadband are going to enable business, whether it’s a multinational trucking company or a local plumber, to have shorter supply chains and faster response times than ever before.

Going on the cloud

For ourselves it means increasingly we are going to be using mobile platforms like iPads and smartphones. It means we’re going into the cloud as the cost of maintaining the back end of these services are too prohibitive for many businesses.

As we discussed a few weeks ago there are a number of risks in the cloud that we need to understand and be aware of, but as the commenters to the Smart Company column pointed out, we can’t ignore the cloud.

The pervasive customers

Our customers are using the cloud on their smartphones as well, A presentation by silicon valley stock analyst Mary Meeker late last week emphasised the process that’s underway. Mary’s colleague, John Doerr calls this evolution of the mobile Internet SoLoMo – Social, Local, Mobile. People are using their mobile phones to quiz social networks to find local businesses.

This is going to challenge all businesses, particularly those who’ve resisted going onto the web until now, as we have to make sure our presence on the web is more than just a pretty web site with a token Facebook Page and Twitter account

Fancy a bowl of noodles, need your lawn mowed or toilet repaired? Increasingly we’re going to be using the mobile web and making note of what our friends say about these services. Even those business like the trades that have got away without going online are going to find it increasingly necessary to sign up to services like Google Places.

Change has arrived

The time for procrastinating about how our businesses are changing is over; the changes are happening now. Our customers are looking for us online and our competitors are reaping benefits from the various mobile and cloud technologies.

You need to be across these changes, just as telephones, cars and computers revolutionized most of our industries through the 20th Century, the mobile web is the first big change of the 21st. If you want your business to be part of the next decade, you have to start thinking about how you can use these tools.

There’s an app for that

Some terrific iPhone applications for home use.

One of the reasons for the iPhone and iPod’s popularity are the hundreds of thousands – 350,000 at last count – of applications that enhance the devices and make them more useful for work, home and play.

While it’s not possible to look at every app available, here’s a few useful ones that can make things easier for you at home.

Better Christmas List
For the super organised, it’s never too early to start shopping for Christmas list, the Better Christmas List app allows you to track gifts. The Christmas app uses your contact list for you to budget and organise gift and ideas for your Christmas shopping

GiftPlan
Staying on the gift theme, GiftPlan lets you create occasions as well as import contacts and birthdays, anniversaries and profile photos from Facebook. For each person’s profile you can add likes, dislikes, what you’ve previously given, clothing sizes and other types of gift ideas.

Expenditure
Tracking your expenses is not just an issue at Christmas, the expenditure app not only allows you to keep note of your own expenses but also keep tabs on items like kids’ pocket money.

Classes
Keeping track of school timetables can be a challenge for kids, the Classes iPhone app keeps track of school and university schedules along with the progress and due dates for assignments and projects.

Weekcal
The built in iPhone calendar is good, but the Weekcal app extend its capabilities. Weekcal allows you to flag, prioritise and track your events and appointments as well as drag and drop with other iPhone applications.

Evernote
A great productivity tool for the iPhone and iPad is Evernote which saves your notes, diagrams and pictures on to the cloud. It’s great for saving ideas and notes as well as being an invaluable tool for anyone asked to take minutes of meetings.

Dropbox
Anyone who tries to co-ordinate groups, be they project teams, volunteer groups or organising the local football club know that sharing documents can be a pain. the Dropbox app plugs into their file sharing service and helps you manage documents while on the go.

Park Patrol
A nifty tool for city dwellers is Park Patrol, an application that tells you if there are parking rangers nearby and when to move your car. Great for avoiding fines.

Labor Mate
For expectant mothers, Labor Mate an application that times labour contractions, tracks progress and alerts you for when you need to start heading for the hospital.

Shazam
Can’t identify the song that’s stuck in you head? Shazam is an application that identifies a song playing and tells you the title and artist.

Maybe Baby
The Maybe Baby iPhone app tracks fertility, ovulation and the pregnancy progress.

Tripview
Regular users of Sydney’s public transport system know it’s a sprawling, complex beast. The Tripview Sydney public transport planner is essential if you use buses, trains or ferries to get around the city.

This is only a tiny sample of the over 350,000 applications available in the iTunes store, many of which are free and most of the paid ones are under $5.

It’s worth exploring to see what tools are available to help you at home and in business.

Is Facebook worth $50 billon?

Investment bubble or a wise bet?

Goldman Sachs’ recent $500 million investment in Facebook that values the entire business at fifty billion dollars raises the question, can a business that was founded in college dormitory seven years ago really be worth that sort of money?

It is possible Facebook is worth that sort of money, but to figure out if it really is, we have to crunch some numbers. So here is a back of an envelope calculation.

Learning from others

The first thing we need to look at is similar examples, the closest comparison is Google who were launched on the stockmarket shortly after Facebook were founded and today have a market worth of $195  billion.

So Facebook’s investors are valuing the business at about ¼ of Google’s size. Yahoo’s stock analysis of Google allows us to look at the rough numbers.

Income

Currently, Google is earning 29.3 Billion and making a profit of 8.5billion for a Price to Equity (P/E) of 23.26.

To justify a 50 billion dollar valuation on similar rations, Facebook would have to make around 2 billions dollars profit on revenues of $8 billion .

Facebook is reported to have made $1.2 billion in sales with $355 millon profit in the first nine months of 2010. If we extrapolate that, crudely assuming no revenue growth in the last 3 months, we come to 2020 earnings of $1.6 billion and roughly $450 million profit.

So Facebook has to grow revenues and profit by a factor of five, based on the same ratios as Google, to achieve the $50bn valuation. Where could this come from?

Advertising revenue

The bulk of Facebook’s current revenue comes from advertising, according to Inside Facebook in 2009 all but $10million of their $660 million earnings came from one form of advertising or another.

Online advertising is going to continue to grow spectacularly, a 2010 Morgan Stanley research paper illustrated (on slide 25 of the previous link) how advertisers will have to increase spending onling by $50 billion to match the Internet’s share of media consumption.

It’s a fair assumption that Facebook, as the biggest social medial platform, will get a large slice of that $50 billion. If Facebook were to capture 10% of the market’s growth, they’d achieve their valuation easily.

We should also consider that most of Facebook’s revenue is coming from the United States and they barely touched international markets, so there’s even more potential growth in their advertising revenue.

Games revenue

One of Facebook’s biggest growth opportunities comes from the games. Games like Farmville and Mafia Wars are proving popular with the user base; Zynga, the developer of Farmville, itself has a projected market capitalisation of $5.8 billion.

The global games business is valued at $105 billion dollars and much of this market is moving to web based, online platforms. Should Facebook based games grab 10% of that market, the platform’s 30% cut would see another 3 billion go into Facebook’s revenue, most of which would be profit.

The credits market

Related to the games market is the sale of credits for purchases of games and other features like virtual, and real, gifts and products.

It’s almost impossible to quantify what that market would be but already credits have gone on sale in US stores like WalMart and Best Buy and the virtual world site Habbo Hotel reports 2010 credit revenues of 4.5 million Euros on a user base that is a fraction of Facebook’s size.

So is Facebook worth $50 Billion?

Facebook’s fifty billion dollar valuation is feasible. That’s not to say there aren’t risks, it’s possible Facebook could turn out to be another fad like Myspace or that users might decide to value their privacy over Facebook’s benefits.

While it’s not an investment you’d like to see your grandmother in as a safe source of retirement income, for risk tolerant Russian fund managers and high income clients of Goldman Sachs, it’s a punt worth taking.

Alternatives to Internet Explorer

There’s a number of different web browsers to Microsoft’s built in program

This week’s announcement of a serious security flaw in Internet Explorer should be a warning to anybody using Microsoft’s web browser that they should move to an alternative program.

Internet Explorer, the web browser built into Windows, is particularly prone to security problems mainly because of the way Microsoft have integrated it into their operating system.

So it has always been a good idea to use one of Internet Explorer’s competitors to avoid various security issues. Luckily there are plenty of options which are not only more secure but faster, more flexible and reliable.

Mozilla Firefox

The most popular alternative browser is Mozilla Firefox. You can download a free a copy from the Mozilla website. One of Firefox’s big attractions is the vast range of add-in applications that make it a very useful tool.

Google Chrome

Google’s web browser is gaining acceptance across the market. It’s fast but it does do things a bit differently from the others with a vary spartan layout. You can get this free from Google’s website. Like Firefox it has a wide range of plug ins.

Opera

One of the longest established alternative browsers, Opera tends to be the cutting edge browser, while it’s not for everyone it’s fast, stable and is also a free download.

Apple Safari

If you use a Mac then the Safari browser is included with your system. Windows users can download a free version from Apple.

Of the four, Mozilla Firefox is the most popular with Google Chrome gaining acceptance.

All of these alternatives are perfectly good for general web browsing. It’s best to try each and use the one you find works best for you.

Unfortunately you can’t completely get rid of Internet Explorer. Not only is it a integral part of Windows, but some web sites won’t work properly on anything else.

Most notably for business users is the Outlook Web Access function, part of the Microsoft Exchange service, only works properly in Internet Explorer.

While we can’t ditch Internet Explorer, we can be sparing in its use. Consider the options and choose what works best for you.

Diversity is good in many fields. A variety of programs is good for your desktop.

Facebook explained

Nightlife technology’s February 2011 spot looks at the popular social networking site.

Tony Delroy and Paul Wallbank on the February 3  ABC Nightlife across Australia technology segment looked at how Facebook is taking over the world.

A recording of the program is available from the ABC Nightlife website until February 10.

Aspects we discussed included;

  • Is Facebook really worth 50 billion dollars
  • Where are they making money?
  • Can we trust them with our data?
  • How do we protect ourselves when using Facebook?

Your views are welcome and if you’d like to join the conversation with your questions or comments phone 1300 800 222 within Australia or +61 2 8333 1000 from outside Australia.

You can SMS Nightlife’s talkback on 19922702 or twitter @paulwallbank using the #abcnightlife hashtag

The local business revolution

ABC 1233s Carol Duncan discusses how local businesses should use the net

While the big retailers are moaning about lost offshore sales, local business is changing as customers go online and expect their local suppliers to do the same.

The great thing is many of the local tools are free and easy to use. There’s no reason for any business not to be online and local right now.

Join Paul Wallbank and Carol Duncan to discuss how local businesses can grab the opportunities in the connected economy on ABC 1233 Newcastle and Upper Hunter.

If you’d like more information on how your business can use the local business directories, we describe them in our Why Online Listings Are An Essential Business Tool post and we can help you through our new Netsmarts service.

You can listen in on air or stream the broadcast online. We love your comments and questions which you can call in on 1300 233 222.

If you’re on Twitter you can also follow Carol at @carolduncan or Paul at @paulwallbank.

Is there an entrepreneurial elite?

Confuse wealth with building enterprises could be a mistake

In a recent Atlantic Magazine article Chrystia Freeland charted the rise of the New Global Elite and suggesting “our light-speed, globally connected economy has led to the rise of a new super-elite that consists, to a notable degree, of first- and second-generation wealth. Its members are hardworking, highly educated, jet-setting meritocrats who feel they are the deserving winners of a tough, worldwide economic competition”.

A few days later The Economist followed up this theme with a discussion on whether we should worry about the rising wealth of the entrepreneurial elite.

While there’s no doubt there is a global elite, enjoying fine wines at the World Economic Forum at Davos while congratulating themselves on their successes, wisdom and hard work. The question really should be are these people really entrepreneurs?

Some of the self appointed global elite are highly paid executives. One of the notable aspects of the corporate sector is the majority of managers are not risk takers – in most organisations, public or private, taking risks is going to jeopardise one’s career – instead it’s the risk adverse who are rewarded with the senior management positions.

However even the managerial classes are outnumbered by the financial wizards. The biggest stimulus to the global elite’s riches was the financial market deregulations of the 1980s and 199os. As our society’s forgot the lessons of previous generations and released the regulatory restraints on banks, a whole new wave of opportunities appeared to make huge fortunes. The loose credit of the early 21st Century leveraged and amplified those fortunes.

Financial Innovation became the key to wealth, although as former Federal Reserve chief Paul Volker observed “I wish someone would give me one shred of neutral evidence that financial innovation has led to economic growth—one shred of evidence.”

The killer to the idea is that financial innovation is entrepreneurial are the consequences of the two decades where the financial markets reigned supreme – trillions of dollars in bailouts.

That the bulk of the global elite relied up bailouts and government stimulus packages gives lie to the concept that most of these people are entrepreneurs; genuine entrepreneurs take real risks and accept the consequences if their venture doesn’t work out.

While it’s true that some of the “global elite” include individuals who have built up enterprises and taken risks with their personal fortunes and reputations, it would be a mistake to describe this group as being entrepreneurial. The bulk of this global elite are speculators and managers who’ve been richly rewarded by a system setup to guarantee their wealth.

You’ll find more entrepreneurs running stores in your local mall than you will walking the privileged halls of Davos or any of the other expensive haunts of the global elite.

Losing faith in the cloud

There are risks when trusting the net, we need to understand them.

Over the last few years, I’ve been a great believer in the benefits of cloud computing but events of the last month have shaken my faith in trusting data to another organisation’s servers.

The most immediate challenge was a trivial, but irritating, crash last weekend when I lost my monthly client newsletter just before sending. The really frustrating thing was there was over a month’s worth of relevant, interesting web links for clients along with six hours lost work in writing the vanished work.

While trivial, my little disappointment illustrates the fundamental problem we have with cloud computing – we can’t trust the businesses and governments  who control the net.

Simply put, the Internet itself isn’t as trustworthy as we’d like.

Egypt’s closing Internet links, Wikileaks being hounded off the net and the Queensland floods all illustrate this on a far bigger and more important level, we cannot take the cloud or Internet access for granted and when service is interrupted the failure is total.

Natural disasters like the Queensland floods or the 2009 Victorian bushfires give rise to the trite response that “the Internet is designed to survive a nuclear war.” This is true, but view overlooks the Internet maintains service by finding a detour around the damaged areas

Which is problematice if you find yourself in a distressed area and the Internet has routed itself around you and your modem, which is something we should keep in mind everytime someone suggests using social media tools for disaster management.

It doesn’t take natural disaster for you to lose access to your data. The hounding of Wikileaks off the commercial, US operated parts of the web shows how much of the Internet is controlled by corporations enforcing spurious terms and conditions.

You don’t have to be Julian Assange for this to happen to you, last year a Sydney Jeweller had her Facebook page shut down because her doll showed too much nipple while last week an English healthcare assistant had her account suspended because she had the same name as someone famous.

Like Julian, both had their access frozen without notice and struggled to receive any sensible answer from their service provider. Unlike Julian, subsequent media embarrassment finally forced Facebook not only to acknowledge their customers’ concerns but also reinstated the services.

Far more worrying are government controls. Until last month, most of us in Western democracies – this writer included – conveniently ignored how quickly telecommunications companies and Internet Service Providers will accede to the demands of governments.

Both the Egyptian shutdown and Wikileaks reminded us how wrong we were. Governments of all persuasions can and will shut down Internet services to suit their domestic political agendas.

Here in Australia there are proposals to filter the Internet or shut down accounts to protect us from what Canberra and various lobby groups deem to be copyright infringement, pornographic material or video games unsuitable for 14 year olds to play.

Even without the more extreme proposals being introduced we’ve seen the websites of Queensland dentists and political satire sites being blocked or shut down on these grounds. In both  cases the actions were taken without the site owner’s knowledge.

As our businesses and society in general becomes more dependent upon the Internet, we need to keep in mind there are risks which need to be managed. Cloud computing itself is a great business tool but we need to understand the risks and costs of depending upon other people.

If you’re looking for cloud services, you’ll need a product that offers a backup to your systems. Business is built on trust and right now there isn’t a lot of it around in the online world.

Transition effects and changing employment

As the economy changes, so too do the opportunities and threats to our livelihoods

On Australia Day, it’s worthwhile considering one group of convicts in the early fleets who stood against an earlier time of economic change.

As the automation of the cloth weaving process accelerated through the 18th Century,  many trades in the English fabric industry, such as Croppers, found their skills in great demand.

Yet by the early 19th Century, their trades were near extinct as automation reduced the cost of weaving fabric dramatically and labourers replaced skilled workers.

This massive wave of change and loss of once well paid skilled jobs helped accelerate the Luddite movement, many of whom were transported to Australia for their role in attacking factories using the new technologies.

We should keep the plight of the croppers and Luddites in mind in today’s period of massive economic and technological change.

One notable aspect of the workforce when industries are going through major changes is how many high paid skills and business niches pop up for a short time before being overwhelmed by change.

We shouldn’t consider that many of the services and opportunities in today’s economy are permanent, quite a few businesses and skills that have appeared in the last two decades might not survive this one.

A good example is the web designer. In 1996, a punk with a little basic HTML knowledge could call them selves a web developer and three years later many of those punks were driving Porsches and Lamborghinis. By the mid-2000s most of those expensive cars were just memories for those who assumed those basic skills set them up for life.

Today we see the same thing with social media, group buying and cloud computing. Many of the services we see – some of them being valued for billions – are transition effects as markets adjust to changed conditions.

As we begin to understand the effects of trading our privacy for connections, trusting valuable data to anonymous corporations and mass selling for discounts, we’ll see consumers, governments and business adapt.

Some of today’s superstars will adjust to those changes and become the next Microsoft or General Motors while many others will fond memories after their reason for existing vanishes.

We should grab opportunities when we see them – many of the thousands of Groupon clones are doing exactly that ­– but we shouldn’t assume they are permanent and forever.

A time of change means none of us can assume our livelihoods, skills or assets are safe, just as those 19th Century industrial workers found when they were transported to Australia.

Mule-spinning room in Chace Cotton Mill in 1909 by Lewis Hine courtesy of Wikimedia