Four good reasons why customers like brands to have online communities and use social media: Consumers are interested in sharing their experiences – both bad AND good. People like to tell others about the brands and products they like – in one study up to 60% of those questioned said
The Guardian reported recently how reviews for the production of the Wizard of Oz at London’s Southbank Centre on the discussion board of Whatsonstage.com, the “leading online forum for ordinary theatregoers” were tepid at best, until suddenly three rave reviews appeared. Only 75 minutes later it was revealed that staff
Today I learned how to solve outgoing email problems. The problem: Email was coming into a new installation of Thunderbird but outgoing mail was throwing up an error message. We checked: The details of the outgoing mail server The usernames and passwords of the relevant accounts The security requirements of
The first program I really felt I needed to carry around with me was Audacity – it was a program I was using a lot to introduce lecturers to podcasting, and it wasn’t installed by default on the University’s computers. So here’s a great idea – keeping a selection of
The BBC reports today on the number of “mums” starting their own businesses. Apparently the number of women working for themselves has leapt by nearly 20% since 2000, according to official figures, and now tops a million. It’s not surprising that more and more people – and not just mums
Twitter is a quick messaging or microblogging service. Basically it’s like a web-based texting or short message service. You have 140 characters to say something briefly. Your series of short messages or “tweets” becomes a record of what you are doing and thinking that other people can “follow”. Many Twitterers
I avoided it for a long time – who needs another obsession? – but after the NLab Social Networks Conference, I decided I had to have a part of this, and yes it’s become a regular practice. I follow and am followed by various other people interested in social networks
It’s amazing how often I am in places where I can find an unsecured wifi network – especially in the business sectors of cities where you’d think companies would know better. Here’s the most cogent reason yet for making sure your personal or business wifi is properly secured: Mumbai police
I’m just finalising the materials for my next blogging course – How to Blog. We call it “an online course with everything you need to know to start blogging – in just 2 hours a week (for 9 weeks).” There are places on the next course still available and participants
A new search engine launched this week which claimed to be a challenger to Google. Cuil (pronounced Cool) was developed by former Google search experts. It claims to combine the biggest Web index with content-based relevance methods, results organized by ideas, and complete user privacy. The launch was not without