dcnorris's Gooruze Blog

Getting Insight From Google Insights

dcnorris — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:50:00 -0700

Whenever Google launches a new tool or service there’s much chatter and blogging. What I’ve found though is that many bloggers just give you the news and don’t really discuss the implications.

One interesting tool that was launched earlier this month was Google Insights For Search.

You can type in a search phrase or a number of phrases and then see the trends of usage of this term over time.

Some fun examples; You can see how the phrase ’Beijing Olympics’ has massively ramped up in August (well, no surprise there then). Or how about the decline in interest for ’Tony Blair’ over the last year?

I think there are more interesting applications for an e-commerce business to consider.

Here’s 3 suggestions to get you started.

1. Competitor Analysis

There’s usually a positive relationship between a company’s brand recognition and the number of searches it gets on it’s own “brand” terms. You can use this to your advantage by comparing the volume of searches your own company brand is getting compared to your competitors.

For example, compare the following 4 flight/rail companies for UK searches over the last 4 years: British Airways, Eurostar, Ryanair and Easyjet. You can see the search spike relating to the launch of the new Eurostar terminal in November 2007, but much more obvious is the share of interest that BA has lost to Easyjet and Ryanair over the years.

2. Regional Demand

If you are entering a new market it’s useful to see where in that country your potential customer base exists. In which cities will you find your new customers?

For example, in the online restaurant reservations business, if you were to search for ‘restaurants’ by French region you’d see (as expected) that Paris is a top location. Which city would you have guessed as next most important? Of the other major cities it’s not Bordeaux, Nantes or Lyon where there are most diners online, it’s Toulouse and Nice. If you cross reference this data with population data, you get a good market research tool.

3. Seasonal Trends

Many businesses are seasonal in nature. If you a a growing business (and I hope you are), determining what parts of your monthly figures can be attributed to growth and what are caused by an underlying seasonal trend is difficult to gauge. Say we did well in August. Is that because more people are in the market for our product generally in August (compared to July) - or did we actually take a bigger share of the market?

For example, if you are a retailer selling gifts, what sort of trend do you see for gifts? A little spike in February (Valentine's Day), a big spike in November (Christmas). No surprises there then. If you are unsure of your seasonal demand trends, this is quite a quick and easy way to take the pulse of your consumer base.

So - there you are, a couple of different ways to use this great new tool. I'm sure there are many more. Please feel free to leave a comment if you've gained insights in other ways.

Mobile Online Restaurant Booking From fonefood (lastminute.com)

dcnorris — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 05:24:00 -0700

Booking a restaurant online on your mobile.

I'm excited. Today sees the launch of fonefood, a new beta mobile restaurant booking service from lastminute.com.

You want to find or book a restaurant. Nowadays one of the easiest ways to do that is online. You don't need to wait for the restaurant to be open, you don't need the restaurant to answer your call. You can book there and then online and in real-time.

Increasingly though people are taking the internet with them in their pockets and more of us expect to be able to get online anywhere at anytime.

That's what's great about fonefood. You can book tables on the move! You're on the train, you're in a taxi, you're at the airport. Wherever you happen to be it's easy to search and book with your web enabled mobile phone.

fonefood is available at http://m.lastminute.com/fonefood

Try it out. You are given descriptions of nearby restaurants, with currently over a thousand available deals, discounts and promotions. It uses Google Maps to show restaurants near your chosen location. Once you’ve chosen a restaurant there is no need to call, you just book directly on your mobile (for free!) and receive an instant confirmation via SMS. (This is especially handy if you're abroad and don't speak the local language).

It is available in 12 countries and gives users access to over 6,000 restaurants. The restaurant reservations technology is powered by Livebookings Network.

lastminute.com even put a cool little video together on Youtube to market the service....

I love progress!

How Much Should I Get Paid?

dcnorris — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:44:00 -0700

Increasingly, employees want to make sure that they work on a good team, and on the winning team. It's not enough to get a great job title, a fancy office and a big salary.

Good people need to work with good people. Success breeds success.

Personally, I believe in really working hard on getting the right people on board. If you recruit well, everything else follows. However, it's not just about you finding a person to do the job well. The best candidates need to find a company and team that they really want to join. It's a marriage every time you hire. If done well, the divorce rate is low (few people leave).

So, I was very interested to see a website that is helping prospective employees find out about prospective employers. It's called glassdoor.com.

Sign up to the site and you can rate your current and previous employers. You can also find out salary ranges for each company by job type. The catch? To read reviews or to see salaries, you need to add a review or leave your salary details.

If this takes off, we could have a free, easy to access salary benchmarking service. Working out whether you get paid the market rate becomes easier and easier. HR teams will have a cheaper source of compensation data for benchmarking. Asking for a pay rise though will still be nerve racking.

I'm cautious. I certainly won't be posting my current salary or giving feedback on my current company, mainly because there's only one of me (COO) and so it'd be pretty obvious who left the comments. I would probably leave comments on previous employers though, given that the risk of getting into a comprimising situation is lower.

It's defintely one to watch. I think it will take off in the UK simply because we're so nosy about each other.

In the long term it could change the job market in that workers will have a totally transparent view of what it is like to work for a company before joining them. That can only be a good thing: employers will create a reputation by actually being an effective organisation, not by marketing HR hype.

Asia By Bike

dcnorris — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:45:00 -0700

This is why I love the internet.

Good things being done by good people. Who was it that said "happiness is only real when shared"?

My brother and wife are off soon on an epic cycle journey from Kyrgyzstan to Vietnam.

You can check out the neat site that they created here: Asia By Bike.

I'm looking forward to following their progress, online (of course!)

Court Says You Don't Own Your LinkedIn Contacts

dcnorris — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:24:00 -0700

From Telegraph.co.uk...

"A former employee of recruitment firm Hays has been ordered by the High Court to hand over business contacts built up on his personal page of the social networking site LinkedIn...

...Mark Ions, a "middle ranked" consultant operating in Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh, allegedly used his LinkedIn network to approach clients for his own rival agency called Exclusive Human Resources, which he set up in May last year, three weeks before resigning from Hays Specialist Recruitment.

Mr Ions' solicitor told the court that Hays encouraged his use of the site and that once Hays' contacts accepted his invitation to join his network they ceased to be confidential as they could be contacted by anyone in his personal network.

Mr Justice Richards last week ordered Mr Ions to disclose his LinkedIn business contacts requested by Hays and all emails sent to or received by his LinkedIn account from Hays' computer network.

Mr Ions was also ordered to disclose all documents, including invoices and emails, that showed any use by him of the LinkedIn contacts and any business obtained from them."

This is a groundbreaking case and for anyone involved in sales, commerce or business development, it provides case law that should be noted.

If you use your LinkedIn network, during working hours, on your employer's IT network, for the purposes of soliciting business from your employer, you should be aware that in the eyes of the law, the fact that you use a "personal" email account, this doesn't let you off the hook.

Employment law is what it's always been - designed to protect employers from rogue employees - and the law just caught up with the latest technology.

Don't Be Mediocre, Be A Generalist

dcnorris — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:27:00 -0700

Here's a problem. Most e-commerce websites suck. They're average, sub-optimal.

They suck. If they were high street shops you'd see what I mean. Some would not be signposted. My mother would not be able to find anything she wanted in the store, let alone figure out how to pay. They might not even be found if you called directory enquiries. Lighting would be poor, there would be no space to park and you'd be unsure if you were being served by rip-off merchants or a legitimate business.

Sure, there are some great websites out there. A few. However, because web customers are in many ways "invisible" to the businesses that are trying to serve them, site managers running these sites get away with mediocrity.

Small businesses or large businesses, the problem is the same.

In small businesses you need an all rounder running your web business: he or she needs to be able to do a bit of everything and do it really well to be effective. These all-rounders are few and far between. So - good websites for small businesses are few and far between.

In a large web business, you end up with different "specialists" taking on different roles. You get the design team, the merchandising team, the online marketing team, the tech team, the product planning team, the analytics team, etc. They are all brilliant at what they do. Brilliant.

Just why does the site that you end up with suck if they are brilliant? The really great websites are the ones where the teams do "joined up thinking". The site design team know something about SEO. The analytics team knows something about PPC. The product planning team understand affiliate marketing. If they all understand the basic principles behind all of the main disciplines, you'll do fine. If not you can end up with mediocrity. Division of labour brings pockets of excellence and general mediocrity.

The solution to me is clear: every person involved in delivering the website and running it should be familiar with the basics of how all the main disciplines work.

I will give somple examples of what are these "key disciplines" that are needed to overcome mediocrity and suggest 5 tips on how to acquire those skills. I don't for a moment suggest that anyone can be an "expert" in all of these areas. What I am suggesting is that everyone in an ecommerce business that can affect the business results needs to be a "generalist" and be fluent in the basic principles.

This is true whether you are a one-person site manager doing everything or whether you are a specialist in a big company.

Consider ecommerce websites to be like high street shops. If you are running a traditional "bricks and mortar" business, you need to do three things...

1. Attract customers
2. Persuade them to buy when they come through the door. (And ideally, maximise this so that they
buy more than they would normally have done).
3. Encourage them to come back to shop again and become a regular "repeat customer".

Quite simply, running a website / web service is all about customer acquisition, conversion and retention.

Acquisition

Retail is all about selling the right product to the right person at the right time. So to get this right, there's some preparation needed in terms of customer insight / research, developing a brand, building a proposition, product planning & strategy, business case modelling. Then once you have a product you need a communications plan, (including, but not excluding online PR). On a technical side, you need to understand search engine optimisation (3 core pillars; site structure, content and reputation), search engine marketing (paid search), affiliate marketing, social media optimisation, RSS, blogs, ad serving.

Conversion

Here, the most important discipline is user-centred design, also information architecture, followed closely by merchandising techniques and understanding effective calls to action. Think about good error handling, optimising shopping "funnels", accessibility, compelling copy writing, tactical promotions and you might just have scratched the surface.

Retention

Plenty to learn about here too, from email marketing to direct mail (CRM), use of confirmation emails, special offers, customer database management and that's just scratching the surface.

And more...

Underpinning all of the above is a good understanding of web analytics (for traffic sources, keyword analysis, conversion tracking - and a whole lot more).

And to get stuff done, to make it all happen they also need to understand a little about technical things like technical architecture, software development methodologies, project management techniques, be a great tester.

To add some real flavour to the mix, key principles of many academic disciplines come in useful, economics, sociology and psychology.

And to be effective in business generally, you need to know about HR issues for the countries in which you operate, be a great manager, have good negotiation skills, know a little bit about contract law.

If you find someone who does all of the above well and them let them loose on your website - now you're talking! Also, point them my way, I'd love to meet them!

So - if you're just starting out...

5 tips to become a great E-commerce "generalist"

1. Work with great people

We learn so much from working with other people. Put yourself with the best you can find and learn from them. Soak it up.

2. Apply yourself

This industry is only about 10 years old. Most of the so called experts became experts by just applying themselves and learning from their mistakes. You can too.

3. Attend training

If you can, go on specialist training courses. There are few places such as e-consultancy.com where you can get a kick start

4. Read, read and read

You can never read enough. Some of my favourite books are listed here if you need ideas.

5. Have a go

For me this is the most important advice of all. Have a go! I didn't know anything about setting up RSS feeds until I had to do one for this blog. Figure it out, and just try.

One day, most websites will be great. Until then, if you are a "generalist", go make some money!

"The General"

Do I Know You?

dcnorris — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:49:00 -0700

This really made me laugh.

One of our senior guys (he shall remain nameless) showed us the perils of working in such a fast growing company.

We share our offices with many other companies, we're on the 6th floor...

He said, "I guess there are quite a lot of people that have joined us lately. On the way up in the lift this morning I spoke to a girl that I was convinced is working for us. I introduced myself and asked her if she was enjoying her new job. She answered a little hesitantly. Actually, she looked slightly shocked but I thought she was just a little apprehensive about speaking to one of the bosses. However, I was a little perplexed when she walked out of the lift on the 4th floor and said, “Bye-Bye, nice to meet you John”

(Names chamged to protect the guilty).

Q & A on Restaurants and E-marketing

dcnorris — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:39:00 -0700

I recently had a chat with the guys at e-consultancy.com about Livebookings Network (My day job).

We talked about which types of restaurants are making the best use of online marketing and what other opportunities are out there for its aggregated reservations model...

Livebookings has been around for a while now, as has the idea of online bookings for restaurants. How well has the idea caught on with consumers and what types of restaurants have made the biggest strides on the web?

Livebookings Network as it currently exists has been around for two years, having been created in 2006 by the merger of two restaurant reservation system providers – Livebookings in the UK and Loghos in Sweden. The ambition then was to build the business model and prove it would work in our core markets of Sweden and the UK.

Having done so, the plan was to go for a second round of funding and take the business model further geographically. That’s what we are now doing. We are now focusing on expanding through Europe – to France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and throughout the Nordics.

Our most mature market is London. There, there is a wide range of very sophisticated, fine dining restaurants that are looking to maximise their covers. It is obviously better to get two guests per chair in an evening than one, as it doubles your turnover. So a lot of those restaurants are using complex software solutions to manage their reservations and many of them are then connected to online distribution networks, such as ours.

The more advanced restaurants are also using a lot of online promotional activity to drive bookings, such as special offers to fill their shoulder periods. It is often difficult for restaurants to fill every session throughout the week so if you can put together offers for those periods, such as between 6pm and 7pm for the pre-theatre dining crowd, you have more chance of maximising your profitability.

What about consumers?

Consumers are getting used to the idea of booking online. The majority of our bookings come through a la carte bookings but we do see major spikes in booking levels when we run a significant promotional campaign around events. Many bookings also come from secretaries that are reserving tables for their bosses.

In terms of how big the market is, we do know that around 62% of UK consumers are searching the web to decide which restaurant to visit, according to a study conducted by the American Express Hospitality Monitor last year. So that’s a lot of people deciding which restaurant to book online.

Our mission is to make sure that when people have made that decision, our services are in front of them. We focus on a B2B model, rather than spending a large marketing fund on creating an audience for our own site. We focus on people that already have the audience and visitors that are willing to book.

Read the rest of the article at e-consultancy...

Copywriting Using Personality Types

dcnorris — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:12:00 -0700

One of the most useful tips on copywriting I've seen in recent years was from "Call To Action" by Bryan Eisenberg and Jerrfey Eisenberg (2005, Wizard Academy Press).

They start from the assumption that when you sell a product or service, different buyers need different information depending on their personality.

The Eisenbergs describe 4 personality types. I am really going to oversimplify this, but in essence the different personality types are best reached through different communications.

The Competitive. This person wants accomplishment. Goal oriented folks, who want to know why your product will solve their problem.

The Spontaneous. This type of person likes the personal touch, hates cold hard facts. They like to know why your service/product is the right fit for their need. This person wants acceptance. The approach best used with these types is to provide assurances, guarantees, an emphasis on personal service.

The Humanistic. Creative types who enjoy helping others and socialising. They want to know who else has used your service to solve their problems. They value testimonials, reviews and the knowledge that others have already used your product successfully.

The Methodical. These types like accuracy. Facts. Figure, statistics, methodology. They like logical information displayed in detail.

The Eisenbergs give an example of one paragraph that addresses all 4 types in 3 sentences.

"Our approach is personalised to meet your objectives. The bottom line is that your results are guaranteed. Explore our methodology to discover how thousands of clients just like you have been delighted"

Here's the same sentence with the personality types that are addressed highlighted...

"[Our approach is personalised to meet your objectives]*2. The [bottom line]*1 is that [your results are guaranteed]*1. Explore our [methodology]*4 to discover how [thousands of clients just like you have been delighted]*3"

1 = Competitive
2 = Spontaneous
3 = Humanistic
4 = Methodical

I thought I would give this a go myself.

I found this copy about Hummus Bros, one of my favourite lunch spots in Soho.

"Hummus Bros is about feeding you homemade hummus with mouth watering toppings, scooped off your own individual bowl with warm pitta bread, and accompanied by refreshing salads and juices. We focus on taste, value for money, freshness and simplicity. We are proud to be the only place in the UK to concentrate solely on what we love most - hummus."

So, here's my attempt to re-write it using the personality type approach...

"Tasty, great value for money, fresh and simple. There's a reason why the Soho locals fill our seats every lunchtime. Take homemade hummus and add your choice of a range of hot or cold healthy toppings to create your personal feast. Add brown or white pitta bread (hot or cold, small or large) and accompany with a refreshing salad or juice and enjoy with friends. We guarantee you will leave you feeling nourished and satisfied and will want to come back for more. We are proud to be the only place in the UK to concentrate solely on what we love most - hummus."

Here's where the personality types are addressed:

"Tasty, great value for money, fresh and simple. [There's a reason why the Soho locals fill our seats every lunchtime]*3. Take homemade hummus and add your choice of a range of hot or cold healthy toppings to [create your personal feast]*2. Add [brown or white pitta bread (hot or cold, small or large)]*4 and accompany with a refreshing salad or juice and [enjoy with friends]*3. [We guarantee you will leave feeling nourished and satisfied]*1 and will want to come back for more. We are proud to be the [only place in the UK]*1 to concentrate solely on what we love most - hummus".

1 = Competitive
2 = Spontaneous
3 = Humanistic
4 = Methodical

What do you think? Does it work better? Comments welcome.

I would imagine that better copy should lead to better conversion.

Timing Is Everything

dcnorris — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 05:17:00 -0700

Email marketing can be a powerful tool. Like all tools, you need to use it carefully.

This example wasn't a disaster, but it did make me laugh...

I was sitting on the Eurostar train in Paris, waiting for it to leave and my Blackberry buzzed to let me know I had new emails. So, without much else to do at the time, I checked the email.

It said "Just got back from Paris? Tell Ted all about it."

Great timing eh? I know the new train link is fast, but it's not that fast!

The email continued....

"You've walked down sun-filled
boulevards. Dined in some of Europe's
finest restaurants. Watched the sun set
over a city, spread before you like a
bejewelled cape.

Now you're back in the real world
and bursting to tell everyone about
your experiences. Even Ted from the
accounts department.

Try telling Ted and you could win a
weekend break to the Eurostar
destination of your choice"

It should have read....

"You've walked down crowded metro
platforms. Dined in one of Paris'
cheap creperies. Dodged the rain
through narrow pavements to get back
to a cheap hotel room.

Now you're heading back home to your
real world and dying to see your family
again. Work is over for another week
and Ted from the accounts department can wait.

Tell Ted how little you spent on your trip
and you could go back again soon to the
same fleapit for another meeting, (but
you'd rather not if you had the choice)"

Two lessons learned:

Email marketing should always
- have content relevant to the audience
- be sent at an appropriate time

I don't mind though, it made me laugh.

Restaurant Online Marketing Workshops

dcnorris — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:34:00 -0700

According to the American Express Hospitality Monitor, 62% of customers search the Internet to decide which restaurant to visit.

If you are in the restaurant business, there's a great new free workshop that you can go to start learning about how to get your business online. Not only is online marketing now an essential part of the marketing mix, but it is the most cost effective and successful form of marketing that a restaurant can engage in.

Livebookings Network are running a series of workshops around the UK, focusing on providing practical advice to restaurateurs on the topic of online marketing.

London, Thursday 24 April

Topics being covered...

Email Marketing - Creating and measuring email campaigns to your existing restaurant customers, capturing valuable data and delivering promotions.
Expert speaker: Matthew Kirby, UK Managing Director, Fishbowl Marketing, www.fishbowluk.com

Search Engine Marketing - Basics and benefits of search engine optimisation for restaurants looking to attract traffic to their websites and capture more customers as a result of improved search engine rankings.
Expert speaker: Warren Cowen, Chief Executive Officer, greenlight search engine marketing, www.greenlightsearch.com

Effective Web Design - Implementing effective web design, the importance of maintenance and maximising opportunities available through your website.
Expert speaker: Keith Davie, Creative Director, Salad Creative, www.saladcreative.com

Time: 9.30am coffee, croissants and networking
10am start – 11.30am
Venue: Slug and Lettuce, 80-82 Wardour St, London, W1F 0TF
Cost: FREE to Livebookings Network members. Membership is free.
£25+VAT for non-members (includes breakfast)

If you sign up to the Livebookings Network on the day, you are refunded the cost of your Workshop place.

Booking: Book Online: www.livebookings.co.uk/workshops

I Must Be Getting Old

dcnorris — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:49:00 -0700

According to recent research by Jakob Neilsen, older web users take longer to complete web tasks. In fact, he's actually calculated a decline of 0.8% per year for every year you get older after the age of 25.

He says "The human aging process starts around age 25 and causes erosion of cognitive resources, loss of visual acuity, degraded reaction times, and reduced dexterity. People need more time for the same mental operations; they have less memory capacity and take longer to process the same perceptual input."

That makes me feel really great as I approach my 39th birthday. Ouch.

So, am I 8% slower than I was 10 years ago? Wow, I wonder if that's true?

Well, I just know I'm faster overall. Maybe my brain is slower, but I am sure that 10 years of internet usage have brought massive gains from experience. Slow brain maybe, but a very efficient one!

See Middle-Aged Users' Declining Web Performance for the full article.

The Ego Has Landed

dcnorris — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:26:00 -0700

Another day, another new social networking site invite in my inbox.

Naymz.com... is this Linkedin Version 2? What a crappy name. It's sounds like "waynz wurld". Anyway, I'm test driving it at the moment, simply because it gives me yet another link to my blog therefore might just help with the SEO. You never know.

Enough cyncicism. It could just take off because it hooks into that perfect incentive mechanism: the ego.

Here's how it works: I link to loads of people. They link to me. The more people that link to me and endorse me, the bigger my reputation (and ego I guess). As you grow in stature, you gain points. Top tier users (rating 9 and 10) get a free Google promotion.

Let's see if it booms or dies. One to watch.

News: Livebookings Network wins £6.5 million of investment led by Balderton Capital

dcnorris — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:36:00 -0800

Online restaurant marketing and reservations will be boosted by new investment.

Today, Livebookings Network welcomed a £6.5 million financial injection led by leading global VC firm Balderton Capital.

This investment will add fuel to Livebookings’ drive for international growth and will strengthen plans to recruit talent from countries all over the world. The funds will also be used to build the success founded in existing markets (UK and Nordics), in addition to the development of Livebookings’ tech infrastructure.

Niklas Ekland, CEO says “With this investment, we can further expand our partner network and extend our reach as hungry guests go online to make their next reservation.”

London-based Balderton Capital is one of Europe’s largest venture capital organisations, with an investment strategy focussed on finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies.

Notable investments include

Bebo (the leading social networking site)
Betfair (online betting exchange)
Codemasters (video games developer and publisher)
Habbo Hotel (teen social networking site)
MySQL (open-source database business)
Setanta Sports (the European sports broadcaster)

Tim Bunting (partner at Balderton Capital) said, "Livebookings is a fantastic, easy-to-use service for the restaurant sector. By bringing together
booking agents, restaurants and diners, it fulfils a vital reservations and marketing role. We’re really looking forward to working with the Livebookings team as it builds the business across Europe.”

The Livebookings Network is a global marketing and real-time restaurant booking service. With millions of reservations made since its conception in 2001, Livebookings has successfully welcomed almost 17,000 restaurants into the network.

There will be more than a few million reservations made in the next few years. Watch this space...

Review: Flock, Social Firefox In A Box?

dcnorris — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:54:00 -0800

Is Flock really a new web browser?

Flock, a new browser that is built around "social" browsing, is an interesting alternative to the mainstream Internet Explorer and Firefox.

It pitches itself as a "social web browser"

Actually, you could argue that it's not a new browser at all because it's built on Firefox technology. Look closely and it's really just Firefox with a skin. It's a mash-up. A good one.

Firefox has been successful because of all the custom "add-ons" that you can choose to use according to your needs. If you a developer for example, there's great tools to help check code, optimise for SEO, and many more. Firefox has succeeded in this area because it has an open source development community that continuously add to the features available without adding weight to the basic browser. You can download the basic version which doesn't have too much complexity and just add on the bits that suit you.

Flock however could be seen as a "social Firefox in a box". Take all the great web 2.0 add-ons for Firefox, package them up in a neat user interface, and it actually looks like a different product.

What sort of features do you get?

Neat sidebar options, for example for your favourite RSS feeds

Add feeds by just clicking an icon in the address bar

People sidebar: If I sign into my Facebook account, all of my friends appear in my sidebar with easy to access actions such as send a message

A clean homepage "My World" that includes your favourites, your feeds, favourite media

Web clipboard, so you can copy as store snippets from useful web pages

Instant blog posting from your browser

Coming soon: webmail in the browser

Yahoo! search in installed by default, there's tabbed browsing. It's all good.

Well, it's good to a point.

If I only used one computer and one web browser, I could easily see myself being a fan of Flock. The trouble with Flock is that you need to configure the browser on each machine you download it onto. So - say now I start getting all of my favourite RSS feeds in one place, I have to do the same thing again on each browser that I download and configure.

Also, I have to work for a living. Going to a web browser pre-loaded with a whole load of distractions isn't great for productivity.

I can see myself using Flock at home and Firefox at work. To keep my favourites in one place I'll probably still use Google bookmarks, that way I can access them on any machnine. If I had a Flock account where I could store all of my settings in one place, now that would be better.

It goes to show: in the future, any successful software needs to be truly portable.

Growth In Online Restaurant Reservations - Why?

dcnorris — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:13:00 -0800

What is driving the increase in online reservations for restaurants?

Demand is being driven from both customers and from restaurants.

From Customers

From calls to clicks, the world is changing. According to The 2007 American Express Hospitality Monitor 62% of UK consumers search the internet to decide which restaurant to visit. Restaurants, that’s over half your potential customer base.

When they find the restaurant they want, how do they book? How they book and how they want to book are two different things. Many customers book on the phone because they have to. Restaurants that can be booked online are booked online. Why? Because web booking is quick, it’s easy, and it’s free.

From Restaurants

The phone is great. But wouldn’t it be good if the phone only rang when you are there and when you’re not busy? The worst time to take a booking by phone is when you’re at your busiest.

The best time to take a booking online however is anytime. Anytime means: when you’re closed as well as when you are too busy to answer the phone. You can’t answer the phone 24 hours a day 7 days a week, but the internet is open for business anytime.

Looking at our 2007 data, at Livebookings Network we've found that 18% of online bookings are made between 10pm and 10am - that’s 18% of bookings you might have otherwise lost. On the other hand, 44% of online bookings are made during busy service times. The most popular hour of the day to make a booking online is between 1 and 2pm - that’s when you want to be focussed on service, not answering the phone.

More and more customer reservations behaviour is changing and the internet is proving to be an important channel that is being adopted by both restaurants and their customers in increasing numbers.

Get More Traffic To Your Blog From Facebook

dcnorris — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 01:42:00 -0800

One way to get visitors to your blog is to get your blog posts in front of an audience that might want to read them.

And one place that your audience might just be hanging out is on Facebook.

If you have a Facebook profile, there's a neat application that you can add to dynamically display your blog posts on your profile.

First of all get an RSS feed set up for your blog. A good place to do this if you haven't already done so is at www.feedburner.com.

This will give you an RSS feed URL for your blog.

Then, log into Facebook and go to the Blog RSS Feed Reader application and add it to your profile.

In the configuration, add the details of your RSS feed url (For example, mine is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/davidnorris), and configure how you want the feed to appear on your profile.

Then, every time you add a blog post it will appear on your mini-feed. It takes your blog to your audience rather than asking your audience to come to you.

Checking my Google Analytics account, I can see I'm now regularly getting referrals from Facebook as a result. Nice.

Virtual Flowers, Whatever Next?

dcnorris — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:48:00 -0800

Now you can send your loved ones a "digital bouquet" of flowers.

This is weird. Call me old fashioned, but there's something lacking when your flowers are sent by email!

What's even more weird is that you might want to actually pay for it!

In the States, www.bokayme.com/ are offering you the chance to send your loved one a digital bouquet. Woopy-dee-doo! AND -you can pay $3 to customise your bouquet. Bizarre.

Still, it will create lots of inbound linking for their parent company, news chatter, blog posts, viral marketing.

It's Not What You Know, It's Who You Know

dcnorris — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:38:00 -0800

How recruitment is changing to use social networks and "Web 2.0" technology to source candidates.

The recruitment business has always been about matching supply and demand. Candidates and Employers.

In the old days, this would involve newspaper and magazine advertising to source potential candiates. Then along came the internet, which allowed for three important changes:

1. Aggregation of supply
Websites sprung up that posted jobs from many different employers and agencies, allowing for a one stop shop for candidates.

2. Employer direct advertising
With the internet employers can advertise directly themselves with ease and source lots of candidates with a simple online listing.

3. Candidate driven demand
Candidates can search for jobs using search engines. This allows employers and agencies to advertise using paid search (e.g. Google Adwords) to fish for candidates that were stating their interest.

There have been a few winners in this first round of the internet revolution. A good example is Monster.co.uk, a jobs listing site that when I checked last had over nearly 2000 jobs in London for just one sector: IT/Software Development.

HR Managers and the recruitment industry have adapted to this new world. Can they adapt to what's coming next?

Get A Haircut And Get A New Job

The next round of change is being driven by online social networks and "web 2.0" (community driven) applications.

Here's 5 examples of what's coming next...

What connects them all is that increasingly we will be referring each other for jobs and sites will facilitate this.

1. Niche Community job boards
Specialist communities have built up over the last few years. Owners of these sites realise that their audience might be interested in jobs in that sector. An example that I've found to be successful was http://www.e-consultancy.com/jobs/ which is an online marketing and ecommerce resource. I posted a job here for just £99. I only got a few candidates, but one of them was the one we hired. Result.

2. Linkedin.com - professional networking site
Linkedin is a networking site that allows you to keep in touch with your professional contacts. It's like an online contacts list that is automatically kept up to date. There's over a million users in the UK. By my calculations, there's probably only 200,000 that are "power" users.

Anyway - linkedin has job ads. As an employer I can list a job for only about £100 (Monster is about £500). What's clever is that when a user logs in, jobs in their "network" are shown. I've found many of the jobs advertised that I've seen when I log in to be highly relevant: they're in the right sector and are interesting job roles.

What's also clever is that if you apply for a job, Linkedin will tel you how you might be connected to someone at the hiring company. You know "John Smith" who knows a "Jane White" at "Company X" where company X is the job opportunity. It gives you a chance to knock on a few doors, ask John to have a chat with Jane to find out more about the job, put in a good word for you. The power of a personal introduction is always and will always be a useful door-opener.

3. Facebook pages and applications
Facebook has a number of jobs applications. Companies are trying to find one that works. I'm not sure that Facebook is the right place for job hunting, but lots of companies have tried to make it work.

There are two main types of applications: "refer a friend" and "search for a job". The trouble is with the "search for a job" type applications is this: why would you want a "David added the search-for-a-job application" message to appear on your profile, especially as so many of your "friends" are probably your colleagues. Who can you trust these days?

Refer-a-friend type applications are potentially interesting, but the whimsical nature of Facebook means that it doesn't lend itself to a decent referral audience. If you are going to refer a friend you need to put some effort into it. See Zubka.com, below.

4. Zubka.com - referral reward site
This is a very interesting start-up and it's private equity backers are the same guys that backed eBay, Betfair and Bebo.

Zubka’s approach is that a user will log on to their website, see a job that they think that their friend may be interested in, and make a referral. If the friend gets the job, the user gets a fee. The fees are substantial. For a £50,000 role, the referrer stands to make £3,600 if the candidate is successful. That's a pretty big carrot. It does require some effort from the referrer, but not too much. 10 minutes work could land you a couple of grand.

5. Notchup.com - get paid to interview for jobs
Taking things one step further is Notchup.com. Let's see if this one works out, but it sounds interesting. Here, you register and employers can invite you for interview.

What's great is that they PAY YOU to go on the interview. How great is that? According to their "interview calculator, I'm worth $610 an interview. Could be worth an afternoon off? I haven't really test driven this site myself, so I'd be interested in feedback from anyone that has.

So - what success have you had with finding candidates or jobs through community based websites?

I'd be interested to know. Comments welcomed....

What, Why, Who, When and How

dcnorris — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:51:00 -0800

The 5 senses of getting things done.

Think about it, at a very basic level, a lot of human communication really is about these 5 simple words.

What - describes the situation (past, present future) and whether you want it to change or stay the same.

Why - the logic (or not) that explains the situation or need

Who - person or groups of people that are responsible, need to know, are to blame, are the audience, stakeholders, participants or enablers

When - is this now, in the past or in the future, specifically; either a date or a time

How - How did it happen, how does it happen, or how will it happen?

When you are putting a project together and you want to "get stuff done", it's good to always remember these 5 words. Whether it's building a website, running a marketing campaign, setting goals for an employee or making changes to a system or process, these 5 words are to a project what the 5 senses are to us in everyday life.

To be effective we use our senses all the time. Sometimes we use our sight more than our smell, sometimes our hearing more than our touch. If you want to get things done, you need to use your 5 communication channels of What, Why, Who, When and How.

So every time you write an email asking for something, write a project plan, or present a business plan, make sure you've thought about all 5.

Say I want to ask my tech team to build a new webpage for a promotion. Sure, I can say "what" I want. However, if I miss out "why" I might not quite get what I wanted.

Adding "why" allows my audience to understand the reasons driving the "what", and makes it more likely that they understand the context. Also, if you tell someone why you want them to do something, they're more likely to do it than if you don't.

What if I miss out "when"? Of course, that's pretty obvious, I might get it late (at which point I'm going crazy), or the page is useless.

I might not know "who" needs to build the page, (my CTO might decide that), but I can say "who" the audience is and "who" the stakeholders are. This will help the tech team to gather further information that will make the project a success.

Again, I might not have all of the answers to "how" it will get built, but I can give my own "how" we will prioritise it, "how" we will get information and content, "how" we will market it and link it through the site, "how" we will pay for it or get paid for it.

What, Why, Who, When and How

A good communication includes as much useful detail as possible for each of these 5 words.

Think about it next time you write a project plan or ask for something in an email.

You might just get what you wanted.