2. Twitter, LinkedIn to partner, share status updates.
3. 607.5 million people worldwide will access social networks via mobile devices by 2013 and 150 million in US to use smart phones by mid-2011.
4. Google giving free wireless in 47 airports through January 15 (and indefinitely in Burbank, Seattle).
5. College students spend twice as much time on computers as compared to television.
rose 5.35 percent to A$3.94 at the 4:10 p.m. market close in Sydney, their highest level since May 2008. The stock, which has gained 49 percent this year, rose the most in 20 years on Friday after posting earnings that beat analyst estimates.
The stock was also raised to the equivalent of “buy” at JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank AG and UBS AG. Analysts at Citigroup Inc. raised their rating to “hold” from “sell.”
The government has distributed more than A$12 billion ($10 billion) in cash to households since
December while grants to home owners and borrowing costs at a half-century low are increasing home-building approvals at the fastest pace in four years.
HARVEY Norman shares surged yesterday to their highest level in a year after executive chairman Gerry Harvey triggered a wave of retail confidence with his claim the economy "is growing stronger and stronger each day".
Profit from Australian franchises, where the company gets three-quarters of revenue, has risen as government cash handouts stoked demand for flat-panel televisions and notebook computers and helped the nation avoid a recession. Chairman Gerry Harvey said a pick-up in sales that started in April has extended into the first two months of this fiscal year.
Mr Harvey said July and August sales had improved. More customers were buying electrical goods, bedding and furniture, an indication that the government’s first-home owners stimulus packages had encouraged more people to purchase homewares, he said.
The company will pay a fully franked final dividend of 6c a share, taking its full-year dividend to 11c and Mr Harvey will pocket $34m in dividends for the year. Harvey Norman has 264 retail outlets across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Europe trading under the Harvey Norman, Domayne, Joyce Mayne and Norman Ross brands.
Today’s Internet is a lot different than it used to be. With new developments such as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and web standards, building websites the same old way just won’t cut it anymore. The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) creates guidelines and regulations that designers strive to follow to make their sites as accessible and functional as possible. Compliance with W3C standards ensures that your site achieves its full potential across a range of systems. However, the W3C regulations continue to change everyday. Do these new rules and regulations on the Internet mean that your website has to suffer aesthetically? The answer is NO. With CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), web designers have the ability to do anything on the web, from browser compatibility to full control of all the aesthetics of any web page. CSS also gives a more solid foundation for SEO, usability, and compliance with web standards.
From a development aspect of web design, the first great advantage of CSS is cross browser compatibility. Every web designer has sat down at a foreign computer and opened one of their websites only to find that the layout is mangled. Everything is either in a different spot or not present at all. This happens because different Internet browsers, and even different versions of the same Internet browser, display websites slightly differently. Web designers are forced to test their builds on as many browsers as possible to minimize this problem. However, users constantly upgrade their computers and download new features to enhance their experience on the Internet. As a developer, you can never control all the variables, but you can eliminate the majority of the problems by using CSS – an extreme advantage when one considers that everything on the Internet is about usability. If the user is at ease and comfortable then they are more likely to return to your site, purchase your product, recommend your service to others, etc. If they get confused because the navigation moves or doesn’t function properly, they are more likely to move on to another site.
Web designers know that the power of CSS gives them many options, but a great deal of designers do not use CSS to its full capabilities. By learning about this language, you can develop it to do more. The cascading part of CSS is the most important feature and yet it is still the most over-looked. CSS makes it possible for the designer to alter one file and, in doing so; make modifications to the entire site. For example, rather than adjusting every font tag individually, this programming technique allows the designer to alter every font in the entire site by changing a single tag in the CSS file. CSS also creates code that is cleaner and less bulky than other scripting languages. Less code means that the search engine “bots” will have enhanced access to the content on your website. In turn, your website will be indexed more effectively, matching your site with appropriate inquiries from users looking for your services. Older development techniques like frames and tables limit the search engines’ ability to crawl your website, so the bot will leave without registering the content. This significantly limits the search engines’ ability to view and catalogue all of your information, and ultimately limits your presence online.
Increased ease and efficiency is another great benefit of CSS. Once you have obtained a decent knowledge of the programming technique, however, it is very easy to let the styles of the CSS control the way you design. CSS functions much like building blocks. At the bottom levels, building is very easy to accomplish, but the larger you go the more advanced and detailed the work becomes. I see many websites that boast about the designer’s ability to utilize CSS, but the site is rather plain and boring. I am a big fan of minimalism but not when it results from a lack of creativity. Which brings me to the question, has the ease of CSS made designers lazy? For some, the answer is yes, but others use the many advantages of CSS to connect creative design with utility and performance. As a full-time designer, I devote all of my energy to creating graphic-focused, visually stimulating websites with CSS as the structure everything is built on.
A website doesn’t have to be simple or boring to work properly. CSS does not limit the design graphically but instead gives the designer the power to create an aesthetically pleasing and fully functional website. If you took two identical designs and built one with tables and one table-less (CSS), the CSS site would have a higher usability across more platforms, it would rank better with the search engines, and the overall performance of the website would be better. Graphically intense CSS layouts do take more time to think through and build out, but that is why I make custom websites. In the ever-changing online world, CSS-based sites are the most up-to-date and effective way to build W3C compliant websites that push the limits of design and function.
In a way, the Internet may be compared to the Wild Wild West. (Where do you think the acronym ‘WWW’ came from?) There is no real central authority that is in charge and many scam artists take full advantage of this. Especially as a small business owner with no large company name behind yours, building credibility in the prospect’s mind becomes crucial.
Here are seven ways to build your online credibility.
1. You may find it beneficial to place your picture (even a smugshot) on your website.
Brick and mortar stores have the advantage since the clerk has a direct face-to-face conversation with the customer. It is therefore easier to ‘connect’ and form a relationship.
I recently read an interesting thread on a marketing forum message board with several people giving their opinions on the pros and cons of placing your picture on your site. Most of the fears expressed were that people might be turned off by the owner’s ethnicity. Even though this is a real fear I think that the best reaction I read on this point came from an Italian-American small business owner. She said that she would not want to do business with someone who was prejudiced against her anyway – I thought to myself – “Problem solved!”
Your photo helps your visitor to reach across the great chasm of the Internet and touch your customer -– right from their monitors. Why do you think cellular phone customers are trading in their ‘old phones’ for the new ‘talk-to-me-and-see-me-at-the-same-time’ models
2. Provide an audio message in your own voice.
This is closely tied to the former tip. It all has to do with feeling connected and human. We are not computers – we just use them. We have emotions and use them to communicate. There is nothing that can communicate emotions like the human voice.
I can still fondly remember those days before my family could afford a television. As children we often listened to those radio dramas. You were there in the center of the action. ‘The Loooooonee RRRRanger!” the gallop of the horses, the crackle of gunfire … trust me, you were there. You smelled the gunpowder and rode those horses!
What can you use your voice to do? At least it can say, “There is a REAL person behind this website”. In this our automated age REAL counts.
3. Place your PHYSICAL address and contact information on every page.
Here again you are being transparent and in the open about your identity and how you may be contacted. You have nothing to hide, and you do not intend to take their money and close down your website the next day.
Your address also adds a sense of structure to the very fluid environment of the Internet. It is much like the sign on a brick and mortar store – this is where I’m located. That is why just a post office box number would not suffice.
Can you be reached by fax, landline phone, email, and mobile phone? This information adds to your credibility, not to mention your perceived availability.
4. Do not use a free email or hosting service as your main site.
Tied closely to credibility are the perceptions that you create of your business. Some say that in business image is everything. That may be taking it a little too far but you are NOT who you think you are but what the customer perceives you to be!
If you use a free email service such as hotmail.com what does this say about you? You are so successful but you cannot even afford a paid email service? Most spammers use these free email accounts anyway – that’s another count against you. It may be best to use the account associated with your paid website’s domain. I think that almost all web hosting services provide POP email accounts.
5. Have an ‘About’ page.
When a surfer appears at your site for the first time it is like going on a blind date. The visitor may have heard a little about you and know where to find you but she is practically just window-shopping. The ‘About’ page gives her a good chance to get a quick background check on you. She can then know if you are the one she really wants to build a relationship with.
Information you should place on this page includes:
- a personal and professional biography,
- maybe a photograph of yourself,
- name, address and telephone number,
- your company objectives,
- a comprehensive description of you and your company.
Just knowing this ‘outline’ of who you are places the visitor at ease and most of the nervous jitter hopefully disappears. Why? She sees you are not afraid to be checked out.
6. Include a ‘Privacy Statement’.
Internet users are becoming more and more sensitive to how their personal information is being used. This makes it almost imperative for you to provide a page with your privacy policy.
General concerns that would have to be addressed are:
*How you use the information that is collected.
*Is the information shared with a third party?
*Let them know how they can opt out of any mailing list they sign up for.
*Why you track their IP address.
For a more detailed discussion on website privacy you may check: http://www.truste.org/
7. Use your customers’ unsolicited testimonials and product reviews.
What you say about your product or service is not really taken seriously. I mean what are you expected to say anyway? It’s your product … duh. What carry the greater weight are the opinions of other experts in your field. But what carries the greatest weight is what the customers themselves say.
This means that you can get instant credibility if you present the unsolicited testimonials of your satisfied customers. These testimonials should be accompanied with the email address or website and full name of the customer. The less information you give about the customer who is providing the testimonial the less believable it is. I have had visitors who actually contacted these customers to confirm that the testimonials were real.
So pour on the testimonials – too much is not enough.
There you had it. Use all these strategies to help build your credibility online and see more customers willing to open their wallets and their hearts.
I’ve just been reading the 2009 Horizon Report which explores what emergent technologies are likely to hit the higher education sector over the next few years. It’s a fascinating read for anyone interested in new technologies – and not just those working in HE.
As readers of this blog will know, one of my constant concerns for the records management profession is that we are getting further and further behind ‘the curve’ when it comes to new technology – and thus need to be doing all we can to futurewatch and to consider the implications for our profession.
Here are just a few snippets from the report and a summary of how they might be relevant to records managers…
The notion of collective intelligence is redefining how we think about ambiguity and imprecision. Collective intelligence may give rise to multiple answers, all equally correct, to problems. The notions of collective intelligence and mass amateurization are redefining scholarship as we grapple with issues of top-down control and grassroots scholarship
Anyone who has read ‘Managing the Crowd’ will (hopefully) appreciate how this chimes with my own thoughts on how ‘the wisdom of the crowd’ could be used to inform information appraisal.
Students are different, but a lot of educational material is not. Schools are still using materials developed decades ago, but today’s students come to school with very different experiences than those of 20 or 30 years ago, and think and work very differently as well. Institutions need to adapt to current student needs and identify new learning models that are engaging to younger generations.
Today’s students are your workforce in 1-3 years time. So if you think that change will never come to your workplace – think again (a point I made during my keynote at the RMS Conference in 2008)
In countries like Japan, young people equipped with mobiles often see no reason to own personal computers. A recent survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project predicts that by the year 2020, most people across the world will be using a mobile device as their primary means for connecting to the Internet
We need to start ensuring that whatever tools/systems we are designing to manage records are equally at home on a mobile device as they are on a PC or laptop. How many EDRMS work fully and seamlessly on an iPhone I wonder…
And how about the following for examples of technologies which automatically contextualize content (which is, after all, a large part of what records mgt is about). Consider the concepts underpinning these and think what they could mean for information classification in the future…
Applications designed for mobiles can take advantage of built-in features like the microphone and the camera. For instance… Snap-Tell (http://snaptell.com/) use the camera to record a photograph of a CD, video, or book, then identify the artist or author and display that along with reviews of the piece and information on where to buy it…
Devices we commonly carry with us increasingly have the ability to know where they (and, consequently, we) are, and to record our coordinates as we take photographs, talk to friends, or post updates to social networking websites…
Whatever the technology that embeds the capacity for attaching information to an object — and there are many — the result is a connection between a physical object and a rich store of contextual information. Think of doing a web search that reveals not pages of content, but the location, description, and context of actual things in the real world…
Some food for thought for the weekend…
