Online Reputation Management: I spy a bandwagon. July 21, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, brand, commerce, googlicious ,When individuals and companies working as web designers, web programmers, in public relations and search optimisation experts all begin to start dropping the same buzzwords and approach into their promotional material, you know there’s a bandwagon rolling…
The latest big bandwagon is Online Reputation Management which now appears in the famous ‘Web 2.0 Buzzword Bingo’. It’s popping up in hundreds of blogs highlighting how ‘if you Google Company X, the first page is full of people dumping on them‘ and invariably points to the author, or their associates as the expert who can fix the problem, and make this bad coverage disappear. A search in Google for the term ‘online reputation management’ finds over 4.6 million entries, and the sponsored ads are full of phrases like ‘Remove Bad Information’, ‘Fight Negative Publicity’ and ‘Defend Your Reputation’.
The organic listings within that search contain content from many seasoned Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) ad Search Engine Marketing (SEM) experts and there are a few respected and familiar names I recognise there like Lee Odden and Andy Beal, who has also written ‘Radically Transparent‘. However, there are also a lot of links to those who are clearly doing their best to game Google’s search results, and offer to do the same for you, in a fairly cynical ‘digital dirty laundry cleaner’ approach.
Now, that’s a fair enough business model, and good luck to those seeking to take advantage of a new opportunity… (more…)
Less red tape and more red carpets for Europe’s Entrepreneurs? July 18, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, commerce, e-government, startup ,
Image via WikipediaSocietas Privata Europaea (SPE) is a proposed EU-wide company type designed specifically for small to medium sized companies to operate in EU member countries, which could be enacted as soon as 2009. This is a core part of the Small Business Act for Europe, which the European Commission unveiled at the end of June, based on ten guiding principles and proposing policy actions for both the Commission and Member States.
Here are some of the headlines in what is being planned:
- An SPE formation should be effected within 7 days.
- A cap on obtaining business licences and permits of one month.
- Lower VAT for services supplied locally.
- SMEs can set up their company in the same form, no matter if they do business in their own Member State or in another.
- Cut the administrative burden by 25% by 2012.
The press release begins with the wonderful phrase “a step towards a Europe of entrepreneurs, with less red tape and more red carpet for Europe’s 23 million SMEs“. [English Version] [Dutch Version] A set of Frequently Asked Questions also helps to explain the benefits of this initiative.
The lawyers, accountants, international tax experts, company formation outfits and administrative bureaucrats will hate this, as they have long grown fat from the cumbersome and often antiquated legislation and regulations that small businesses are forced to deal with, often irrespective of their size, and the necessity to follow separate, complex, and expensive company formation rules and registrations in each country. I would not be too surprised to see attempts from these types of organisations to slow down and undermine this initiative, as it of course lessens their role, and reduces the number of intermediaries involved when a company expands and works in more than one country.
However, the European entrepreneurs of today and tomorrow will love this - and it is in the long-term interests of every member nation in Europe to support this type of initiative. This is how one creates the jobs of tomorrow. It is a sad fact that long-term enlightened thinking has not always been a strong point for politicians and entrenched vested interests in Europe, so it is up to enterepreneurs across Europe to applaud, support and spread the word about this initiative.
Does your web site really suck when viewed on an iPhone? July 11, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, brand, mobile, mobile search ,Does your web site work well on portable devices? Or does it work at all? Mobile search (and specifically mobile search for local content) is growing rapidly, so your visibility and LEGIBILITY will be more and more important.
The iPhone currently the subject of much frenzy and queueing as the 3G Version goes on sale today, has an advantage over most mobile browsers with its high resolution screen at 160 pixels to the inch, as opposed to a more common 96 dpi for an LCD computer monitor, and has an easy to manage zoom facility, so one can view any website fairly well - but do you know what your site actually looks like when it’s viewed?
iPhonemy.com is an elegant, simple site that allows you to answer this question - you can download free software (for Mac users) or have a screen shot of your site viewed on this software sent to you. For WordPress users, there is also a link to a plugin that automatically senses when an iPhone or mobile phone is viewing your site, and displays your site with a specific mobile-friendly theme.
It’s worth remembering that a mobile phone is also a wallet - and it’s always there, and almost always switched on… Informa Telecoms & Media predicts spending on mobile advertising as a whole to reach £5.6 billion by 2011.
What does your site look like on an iPhone? Find out at iPhonemy.com Web Site
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Firefox 3 - Download that works, and counts, in Europe June 17, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, share, social media, thenextweb ,Web Browser Firefox 3 is out today, but it’s been the victim of its own success, as the main web servers that should allow you to download this browser have been overloaded. The plan was to have a record-breaking number of downloads of the web browser today, but it seems that everyone’s trying to grab it all at the same time, as it was not ‘rolled out’ as midnight hit around the world, but went live, everywhere, at the same time. or rather, failed to go live. Oops.
A number of mirror sites allow one to use FTP transfer to download Firefox, but for the less technical (and for those worried that their download won’t count in the record-breaking attempt) this is not what they want. Help is at hand, as, the European site is definitely live and kicking, so you can grab the Firefox Browser there now. I’ve been using the browser for just over an hour, and find it quick, compatible with my key add-ins, and stable. And it’a also a 100% organic browser!
Dowload Firefox 3 from http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/
TwitterCounter.com: Vanity Publishing for Twitter users. Count me in! June 13, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : social media ,My friend Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, who also organises the Next Web Conference, is always coming up with brilliant ideas, and then making them work online. His latest idea is already proving to be popular.
Twittercounter lets you show off the number of Twitter followers you have.
You just type in your Twitter username at twittercounter.com and copy and paste the code that appears into your web site or blog, and you have the perfect way to brag about how many people hold on to your every word. Boris explains some of the rationale behind the growing importance of twitter followers at The Next Web Blog - and notes the very important fact that a twitter feed is also a great way for people to follow a blog. So Twitter is more like the new RSS feed, which is itself the new page hit count.
But What’s Twitter good for?
Nikki Pilkington has also been considering the twitter phenomenon, and has added her Ten Tips for Using Twitter for Business Part 1 and Part 2 at 299 Steps to Web Site Heaven - which in itself is a great blog.
Update: Twittercounter is now getting big in Japan!
BusinessWeek: Don’t Link to Us! May 9, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : social media ,Old media (that’ll be BusinessWeek) get a deserved knee in the groin for their utter stupidity in their user agreement.
Interview with Raymond O’Hare, Director, Microsoft Scotland April 25, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : Live, Seminars, Utterances, mobile, share, sound, streams ,
Raymond O’Hare, Director, Microsoft Scotland, spoke to David Petherick for http://thenextweb.org/ about how Microsoft are working to enhance Scotland’s future, following the Herald’s ‘Shaping Scotland’s Digital Future’ Debate in Glasgow.
See http://www.sundayherald.com/…talfuture/ for additional information about the discussion held earlier that day. Further coverage will appear in http://theherald.co.uk/ on 30th April 2008.
He touches upon education, politics, common standards, collaborating with competitors, and has a word or two for "those currently in power".
Photograph Caption:
24-April-2008, The Teacher Building, Glasgow
At Lectern: Raymond O’Hare, Regional Director, Microsoft Scotland
Seated, L-R Steven Thurlow, Technical Director, Graham Technology
Gordon Thomson, Operations Director, Cisco Scotland & Ireland
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A chat about W00tonomy with Tony Purcell April 15, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : Live, Utterances, brand, digital biographer, mobile, share, social media, sound, streams ,
I had a chat with Tony Purcell of W00tonomy, and though it’d be nice to share it…
Tony has started the first ‘content marketing’ company in Scotland, with the wonderful name of W00tonomy, and found out a little more about where they add value where strategy meets online marketing in the social media sphere.
See http://www.w00tonomy.com/ for more information.
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Amazon’s CTO, Werner Vogels reveals more about ‘The Kindle’. April 4, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : Live, Utterances, authors, digital biographer, mobile, share, sound, streams, thenextweb, thenextweb2008 ,I had the pleasure to talk to Werner Vogels at The Next Web on Friday last week in Amsterdam, and asked him about what’s next for Amazon’s ‘Kindle’ product…
Dr. Werner Vogel, Chief Technology Officer at Amazon.com, talks about The Kindle. And what’s next, of course…
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Robert Scoble at The Next Web, Amsterdam
Posted by David Petherick in : Live, Utterances, mobile, share, sound, streams ,
I spoke to Robert Scoble in Amsterdam at http://2008.thenextweb.org/
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The Next Web 2008 begins… April 3, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, Conferences, digital biographer, social media, thenextweb, thenextweb2008 ,I’m currently in the break-out area for The Next Web at Westergasfabriek The Next Web Conference, for which registration opens in about 30 minutes. I am here early to grab a few interviews while people are still working out whether I’m worth speaking to or not…
And you know - I’m excited. There’s a buzz already in the hotel yesterday where a lot of delegates are camped, and a few gatherings have already taken place - an ebuddy party and a pownce people meetup to name just two. I of course stayed in with my slippers and pipe, a chocomel and my rss reader. A local free newspaper had an article about QR codes on Wednesday, which made me smile, as I’ve had 400 stickers made up which show a QR code that links to this blog - and have absolutely no other identifying markings.
I am hoping to do a few interviews using sound & the odd little video, and the next web awards are looking very interesting. Watch thsi space, and of course the blog at http://thenextweb.org
I am an Author for “Age of Conversation: Why Don’t People Get It?”. March 24, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, authors, blonging, brand, digital biographer, share, social media ,274 authors, and I, are going to write a sequel to the hugely successful ‘Age of Conversation‘.
The details about this book, along with a full list of authors, and links to their blogs or sites, is here on Drew McLellan’s blog, and at Gavin Heaton’s Servant of Chaos.
I’m really flattered to be on the same page as some of those names - as one commented suggested, why not just call it “Who’s Who in Social Media?”.
By the way, you should buy the Age of Conversation from Amazon on March 29th, as 1) We’re aiming to get it into the Amazon Bestsellers list and 2) Aiming to raise a sh*tload of cash for charity.
Interesting but useless fact: there are Ten David’s on the author list, Eight Pauls, Three Matts, and Five Johns…
121 Chat: Steve Garnett @ Salesforce.com March 9, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : Live, Utterances, mobile, share, sound, streams ,
At London’s startupcamp.org, I had the opportunity for a one-to one chat with Steve Garnett, formerly with Oracle and Siebel Systems, and asked him about what salesforce.com has planned to further integrate and enhance SaaS (Software as a Service) from the perspective of a web 2.0 entrepreneur.
The interview is just uner 7 minutes in duration, and was conducted for http://thenextweb.org/
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Ten Top Tips for your Online Profile: Tip #10 February 16, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : Live, Utterances, mobile, share, sound, streams ,
The tenth in a series of Ten Top Tips to make your online profile work harder than you do…
Tip 10: Call to action
If you don’t ask people to do things - guess what - they don’t do anything. So remember that if you want people to contact you or buy from you or talk to you - you need to ask them to do it.
Your online profile is your first, and often your last chance, to make a positive and credible impression online. It’s a combination of a sales pitch, a personal presentation, a business card, a brochure, a personal statement, a list of recommendations, a mini web-site, and a wave from across the room. It has a lot of work to do.
Is your profile doing you proper justice and working as hard for your business as you do?
This series of tips will help you to get your online profile(s) working hard for you.
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