Is Technology Changing the Way we Conduct Business?

 Internet, Small Business, SMEs, Technology shifts  No Responses »
Apr 292013
 

It is argued that fundamental shifts in technology are activating massive changes in business particularly around how information is accessed, captured, managed and shared.

These changes have implications for everyone in all aspects of our lives.  We are now wired 24 hours a day with everything at our finger tips.  The Internet connects us like never before and hand held devices means we are constantly blurring the lines between personal and business.

Due to increased mobility, emails can be responded to from home or the local coffee shop.  Information travels faster and workers are expected to respond in an instant.  We are so far away yet so close as barriers of distance disappear.

More businesses are setting up online so their target audience becomes global instead of local meaning that their market share can grow.  However, competition becomes increasingly more intense with additional competitors.

What does this all mean now and for the future?  We will be learning and adapting for many years to come.

How do people think technology is changing business for them?

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to ‘tweet’ or ‘repost’ this article or leave your comments….

 Posted by on 29 April, 2013 at 10:50 am

Traditional Media Finally Moves into the 21st Century

 Internet, Newspapers, Offline Media, Online Content, Online Media, Pay Walls, Technology shifts  No Responses »
Jun 272012
 

The recent announcements of both Fairfax and News Limited about job cuts in their respective newspapers has crystallised the reality of offline/online media.

The offline media in the way of newspapers has been struggling for a long while and Fairfax in particular has been slow to react to the certainty of the Internet.  Although I don’t believe newspapers are finished, they will definitely change in many facets, in terms of delivery, format and structure.

More and more people now receive their news online and will probably increase as younger individuals consume news.  Newspapers, however, will still have a very large place in our society and therefore they need to make money from their online business ventures.  Obviously creating pay walls and moving into the paid subscription mode seems to be the apparent answer. But is it?

There are two main points here:

1)     consumers have been consuming free content on the Internet for over a decade now

and

2)     consumers have never paid for the real cost of newspapers – advertisers have

The main question is will consumers be happy to pay for content online?  The bigger question, however, is not whether consumers will pay for content but what is the business model for creators of content, producers and those who deliver it on the Internet?  The old business model no longer works and finding a replacement has to date been challenging.  But traditional media needs to find a way to survive.

Because there is a diverse and wide range of content online, simply having just a subscription model may not work.  Part of the new model probably requires finding a mix of revenue models not just one and weighing up the costs of losing readers.

Some creativity and thinking outside the box is needed as there is a huge opportunity to create online outlets outside of newspaper channels that are viable and respected, which produce quality content that the public wants to read.  It is only a matter of time until this happens!

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to ‘tweet’ or ‘repost’ this article or leave your comments….

 Posted by on 27 June, 2012 at 11:18 am

Approaching Social Media with the Right Mindset

 Internet, Online Marketing, SMEs, Social Media, Social Media Tips, Social Network Sites  No Responses »
Apr 052012
 

You can’t approach social media with a traditional media mindset, or you’ll never see a return on your investment in the medium. Here’s how social media users expect you to connect with them.

Technology is rapidly evolving and growing and history shows that as new technology emerges, old techniques are applied because this is all that is known.

Currently, this is happening with social media which means marketers are misinterpreting its purpose and the expectations of its users. This misunderstanding mainly comes down to looking at social media with traditional media mindset – and this needs to change.

Social media centres around the user, not the product, so the established method of pushing a message in a one-way direction just doesn’t work. Incentives, freebies and giveaways will succeed in the short term but in the longer term if the user isn’t being heard and acknowledged, these will no longer hit the mark.

The catch is that although technology changes rapidly, people change slowly and as a result, social media is being approached in the same way as traditional media. Instead, we need to think in terms of traditional and social mediums merging. How does traditional media support emerging social media tools and help it to develop and grow?  And vice versa – what can social media teach us that can be applied to traditional media outlets?

If you think in these terms, you’ll come to understand social media as simply another tool to support business objectives, be it in a different way.

Here are some tips for approaching social media in the right way:

  • Social media is about people: It’s the subtle building of relationships. As you create relationships online, you need to gain trust first and then marketing comes later, much later. This is one of the most common mistakes made by marketers and advertisers – they want to sell straight away and when they don’t succeed they blame the medium.
  • Integrate social media with other marketing forms: Very few brands do marketing in isolation. Marketing activities need to be unified across all channels, and so social media needs to be included in your overall strategy rather than be regarded as a separate entity. It needs to be seen as just another channel, as the best results will be achieved this way.
  • Experimentation, innovation and uniqueness: Social media is a switch from a monologue to a dialogue, therefore consumers expect to be listened to and answered. Businesses that best understand this will experiment and innovate by listening to their users and interacting with them and finding the right balance between their values and market feedback.

History shows that people eventually adapt to new technologies. Investing in social media is important, but it requires new skills and approaches to be a success. Those that don’t think outside the box and rely on traditional methods will have difficultly gaining traction and those who maintain control of the message won’t succeed in getting any message across.

Experiment until you find what suits your business requirements.

What do others think?

 Posted by on 5 April, 2012 at 8:10 am

Social Media Policy Essential in the Workplace

 Internet, Social Media in the Workplace, Social Media Policy  No Responses »
Feb 092012
 

A recent Fair Work Australia decision shows that all businesses must have a social media policy.  In the decision involving a Linfox employee, the Fair Work Australia Commissioner said that it was “not sufficient” for Linfox not to have a social media policy in this current digital age.

Read more about the decision: “Not good enough to have no social media policy”.

This poses the question of how many employers actually take social media seriously?  Social media is now blurring the lines between what is public and private information.  It is essential that employers understand that social media is an important issue, and provide guidelines for employees around what is acceptable/not acceptable content to publish.

There are a number of issues involving social media, employers and employees.  Here are some questions to consider:

  • Should employees have access to social media platforms in the workplace?
  • If so, how & when?
  • If not, will this affect employee morale?
  • What about outside work hours?
  • What about employees who are responsible for developing social media platforms on behalf of the employer?

 The social media issue is multifaceted, problematical and every hard to control.

Any employee who publishes content about their employer on their personal social media platforms needs to remember that this information is public information.  It is different to venting your spleen at the pub with mates where only a handful of individuals will hear what you say.  Once something is posted online it can go ‘viral’ and therefore you loose control of who actually sees the message.  If this information is negative it can affect an employer’s reputation and therefore employees need to be careful what they say.

Employers can’t control employees using social media platforms outside work hours.  This is fine if nothing is written about the employer, however, guidelines are needed in respect to what employees can say/not say when publishing personal comments about their employer.  It is an issue that needs to be taken seriously by employers or experience the consequences.

For more information, this article I wrote a couple of months ago may be useful – “Social Media and the Workplace”.

What do others think?

 Posted by on 9 February, 2012 at 1:31 pm

Online Piracy

 Cyberspace, Illegal Downloads, Internet, Internet Freedoms, IP rights, Open Internet, Piracy, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Feb 022012
 

There has been a lot in the news lately about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) which is an anti piracy bill put before the USA House of Representative.  The Senate equivalent is Pipa (Protect Intellectual Property Act).  Read more about it in this article: Q &A: Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

What seemed assured a safe passage bill has seen US senators walking away from the bill (Senators Back Down on Online Piracy) after considerable online opposition particularly by Wikipedia and Google.

It has become an argument about Internet freedoms versus protecting intellectual property (IP) rights, which is backed and supported by Hollywood – old media vs new media (Google, Facebook). IP rights should be respected and protected, however, applying this kind of legislation means that those who claim their IP rights have been infringed could request a court order to stop payment facilities (i.e PayPal) from conducting business with websites who are infringing among other things.  The powers would be sweeping, potentially with considerable collateral damage.

 However, is the argument that simple?  Anyone who knows anything about the Internet knows that it can’t be compared to offline media.  It is so fundamentally different, vast and interconnected with a multiple of information changing constantly.  The issue to me seems to be that the ‘old media’ business model that is being applied to the Internet does not work.  A new business model is needed for the Internet that balances IP rights but also protects Internet freedoms and allows innovation to thrive and prosper.  The world no longer exists in a small economy but a vast online environment where anyone can be connected to anyone.  Media companies need to understand this and adapt instead of trying to control.  If they continue to force the issue, they will also loose.

Any thoughts?

 Posted by on 2 February, 2012 at 1:00 pm

Internet Tracking Debate

 Data Collection, Internet, Online Identity, Privacy, Surveillance  No Responses »
Jan 242012
 

I’m back after the summer break and hoping to bring you some interesting thoughts this year on the current issues of the Internet, starting with Internet tracking.

It seems that Internet users are becoming savvier about covering their tracks while online.  It is common place for users to be tracked anonymously as they visit websites.  The tracking follows you from one website to another compiling information about you which is stored for what purpose who really knows.  More people are using technology that allows them to keep track of who is following them.  This gives users a sense of control.  Read more in the following article: “More Net Users Covering Their Tracks”.

Some of the tracking software being used (which is free to download) includes Ghostery and Adblock who are also increasing their usage.

More and more people are becoming increasingly uncomfortable knowing they are being tracked and that information is being collected and stored about them.  Companies say it is so they can send tailored personal advertisements, however, the issue of consent is the real key.  Even though there is no identifying information to the data they collect, do companies have the right to track you without you knowing they are doing it, what information they are collecting and how they are storing the data?  These are all extremely important questions as we grapple with modern communications.

Further, there are issues on the way companies’ link the shared information which potentially could allow users to become identifiable and disclosure policies which are unclear and not easily visible.

No one knows what will happen to this data in the years to come.  More clarity is needed so that users have a choice whether to be tracked or not.  What do you think?

 Posted by on 24 January, 2012 at 2:24 pm

Issues for the Online Environment

 Illegal Downloads, Internet, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Online Anonymity  No Responses »
Dec 012011
 

Here are two articles you might enjoy reading if you are interested in the online environment!

Why Online Anonymity is an Illusion

and

Court says ISPs can’t be Forced to Monitor Illegal Downloads

These articles provide many discussion points: whether anonymity online should be allowed and how it is problematic for defamation, and whether ISPs should block their users from downloading songs illegally.

The rights and behaviours of users, content providers,  ISPs to name a few are not so clear cut. The online environment is still emerging so it will be interesting to see where the future takes us.

So have a read and leave me your thoughts and opinions on what are very interesting subject matters when it comes to the Internet.

 Posted by on 1 December, 2011 at 2:44 pm

Facial Recognition: is this Total Surveillance?

 Internet, Privacy, Surveillance, Technology shifts  No Responses »
Nov 242011
 

 There was a great article in yesterday’s The Age, Facial Recognition: The Case for and against ‘Total Surveillance’.

Facial recognition technology is about to become the most significant technology that we have seen for a long time.  It is state of the art in terms of recognising and identifying people and this will be particularly useful when it comes to crime, airport security and so on.  The person being identified won’t know they are being watched as the technology doesn’t require the person looking into a camera.

This may all go well for criminal issues but how about the average person who has never done anything wrong in their life?  Unlike other forms of recognition or identifiers, the additional aspect of face recognition means that it forms a biometric identifier which cannot be undone if your face has been hacked.  This raises serious issues in terms of privacy and identity issues.

Have a read of the article which states the ‘for’ and ‘against’ arguments and let me know what your thoughts are.

 Posted by on 24 November, 2011 at 4:15 pm

Online Privacy is Merely an Illusion

 Cyberspace, Data Collection, Internet, Privacy  No Responses »
Nov 112011
 

Privacy means different things to different people.  When it comes to modern technologies, this impacts on our privacy.  GPS navigation, smart cards, electronic transport tolls all have some elements which affect our privacy.  In the online environment it is even more complex particularly when it comes to personal information, which is only one aspect of privacy.

What happens when you pointlessly browse while online?  We all do it when we are little bit bored at work or have nothing to do at home.  It usually doesn’t mean anything and we don’t think much of it.  However, most likely as you surf the web, you are being tracked.  This apparently anonymous data is being collected by your web browser and is actually harvested and reconstructed by many companies.  A recent article “Online Privacy Leaks Worsen; “Do Not Track” Gains Steam” shows that more and more companies know more about us than first thought.

Increasingly more sites are sharing your information with other sites for behavioural advertising purposes and “opting out” doesn’t necessarily stop the data collection. This is different to the social media privacy debate which I wrote about in Dynamic Business.

For those that are okay with companies collecting profile information based on browsing behaviour and for those that don’t use the Internet at all, there is no need to worry.  But what about for the rest of us?  At the moment, it is up to the individual to be proactive to protect themselves.  The best we can do is to take up the “Do Not Track” on your web browser.  Also be attentive to terms and conditions of companies when buying online or filling in surveys.

So what do people think?  Would like your thoughts and opinions.

 Posted by on 11 November, 2011 at 11:12 am

Spam Email

 Cybercrime, Electronic Junk Mail, Email Spam, Internet, Malware, Phishing  1 Response »
Nov 082011
 

You have probably noticed that the amount of electronic junk mail (spam) that you receive is increasing.  Although the unsolicited (and unwanted) bulk messages are usually recognised in the form of email spam, it can be applied to other digital media: spam in blogs, instant messaging, mobile phone messaging to name a few.

Because sending these bulk messages operates at a low cost base, there are literally numerous spammers and the volume of spam is increasing exponentially.  As their outlay is minimal, even if only 2 out of 1000 people respond and fall for the scam, it is still worth it for spammers.

Although spam is annoying and frustrating, it is the criminal element that is very distressing and harmful.  These spam e-mails can introduce viruses and spyware into your computer and increasingly are sent via “zombie” networks which install a backdoor which provides access for malicious purposes.  Viruses, Trojan horses, malicious software or malware infection or simply deceptive marketing are all ways that spammers attempt to deceive you. The aim being to acquire an individual’s sensitive information (which is know as phishing) such as usernames, passwords, credit card details. The main purpose is to perpetrate cybercrime, usually “identity fraud”.

For those that are proactive, spam can be kept to a minimum because technology is well advanced to be able to support this. Further follow the common sense tips below to avoid being scammed.

Never Reply to Spam Emails

It may be tempting to vent or teach them a lesson but it will only confirm your email address.  Don’t “unsubscribe”, just “delete”.

Don’t Follow Links in Spam Emails

This is one way that you may become victim of spyware or malware.  Your personal information could be sent to a spammer or your computer may be ‘zombied’.  This basically means that a computer connected to the Internet has been compromised by any number of things (i.e virus, Trojan horse).

Make sure your Computer Protection is Up to Date

Have current anti-virus and firewall protection plus a spam filter.  Always install security updates for your operating system and if your Internet Service Provider has some sort of anti-virus software that you can subscribe to, do so.

Do not open Emails from Addresses you do not Recognise

If you do not recognise the sender do not open the email.  For example, financial institutions don’t send out emails so do not open emails from these institutions.  If unsure contact your financial institution.

For further information try the Australian Communications and Media Authority website who is responsible for enforcing the legislation related to spam.

Let me know what you think….

 Posted by on 8 November, 2011 at 7:21 pm
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