Blog

By Stefan Sojka

We operate in an industry that is built on an incredibly complex array of technology.  One of the most frustrating aspects for us and our customers is just how many different opportunities there are for technology to go wrong – on or off-line – with computers.

There are literally thousands of links in any chain between people on the Internet – even inside a single computer!  There are dozens of service providers.  Some we know about:

• Your ISP
• Your domain name registrar
• The company who built your computer
• The company who built your Website visitor’s computer
• Your Web developer – us

…and some we don’t:

• The owner of the submarine cable or satellite
• ISP installation contractors
• Server maintenance company
• Domain name authority
• Browser software developer community
• International Internet standards bodies
• Network router suppliers, like Cisco Systems
• The list goes on and on.

Besides all of the above, a successful Internet experience depends on the people at either end of the exchange.  Here are some issues that can and do happen along the way:

• Sound is used, but the end user doesn’t have speakers
• Visitors to a Website run an ancient browser, so the site doesn’t display correctly for them
• People run security software with settings that disrupt even safe activity
• An ISP’s DNS server has issues, causing some sites to be inaccessible
• An ISP like Telstra can get a massive surge of Spam and slow everything down
• Software gets installed and causes a conflict
• Website hosting software gets upgraded and some functions stop working due to a different configuration
• This list also goes on and on!

Over the past 15-20 years we have seen it all.  One day we will probably write a book about it.  Suffice to say we have come to accept technological issues as part of day-to-day life in the computer world.

When things go wrong, we are often the first people to hear about it, even if it is not our fault.  Sometimes we are not informed, when we should be – as customers think that perhaps their ISP is to blame.

What we would like to say about all of this is that we hope you understand a little about the scope of the industry we are all participating in.  We hope you accept that it is in the very nature of something so complex that things will go wrong.

In saying this, we are always here to help.  If you need advice or are becoming frustrated with a technical issue or service issue, please let us know.  We might just be able to help you work out where the real problem lies and who the real culprit is.  Sometimes it is something we can fix.  At the very least we can point you in the right direction.

If after we investigate a problem, we find it is our fault, we are bound to sort it out for you at no charge.  If it turns out to be one of the other many links in the chain beyond our responsibility, we will either recommend a solution, or arrange to fix it for you.  In these cases, we will charge a service fee for our time.

As one of your business service providers, we are here to help you manage this very complicated maze of technology that impacts – and helps – your business.  Nobody likes the ‘issues’ part of the equation – it certainly doesn’t seem very productive.  However, by effectively managing these inevitable problems, we do get to enjoy the huge benefits of the technology for all the times things are running smoothly.

With your understanding and our support, we can all move forward in this exciting digital world.

By Stefan Sojka

The following questions were sent via email to a range of digital media consultants, Stefan included, for an article about social media marketing in NETT magazine.  The answers were combined and edited to create the article, which took the form of a round-table discussion.  Here are Stefan's un-edited responses, as sent via email:

1. Across different companies, there’s a wide range of people responsible for social media marketing, such as PR firms, marketing departments, IT departments, executives, HR departments, ad agencies or even the receptionist who has a lot of friends on Facebook.  Who do you think should be in charge of social media marketing, and why?

Social media marketing must originate at the executive level, with the formulation of policy and guidelines founded on a deep understanding of the medium.  The traditional boundaries between personal and corporate communications do not exist and you will never control every single posting on every Website by every staff member, customer and potential customer.  Accepting this as the fundamental ‘Rule #1’ might force you to rethink your policies and guidelines considerably.

In a way, no-one is in charge of social media marketing – it’s a bit like the mechanical bull at the local pub that everyone is taking turns having a ride on.  The complaints department should go first, then customer support.  If customer complaints and issues are dealt with swiftly and comprehensively and a company posts as much helpful information as possible on-line, your ride will probably last a lot longer than the company spruiker.

In the end it will be a complex mix of players that will affect your social media marketing, from opinion leaders you’ve never heard of (who might already be working for you without you knowing) to the professional PR firm whose role it is to find out what is going on out there, make recommendations and orchestrate a diverse range of strategies, to be undertaken by whoever suits the role.  This is a world of networks, Google searches, videos, blog posts and comments.  You have to be active across all of it, with as much honesty and integrity that you can muster.

2. Should managers try to control what their staff say on social networks?  Should they allow them to access social networks during work hours?

You can’t control it, and you can’t ever expect to – the more you try, the more it will probably backfire.  However, employees need to realise that their own behaviour can easily backfire, too. What is a potential employer going to think if she/he reads what you are writing about your current boss?  What managers can do is encourage good communication skills, positive attitudes and lead by example.  What you give is what you get.  The more enlightened and constructive your social media contributions, regardless of what people say back, the better off you and your business will be.  You can build a successful business and a big following online, simply by blogging helpful, educational, informative material.

Access during work hours is controversial.  I allow it in my office, but I remind my staff how easily distracting and time-consuming it can be – and I also make sure I keep them so busy that they don’t have much time!  Chat is a nice relief in between work tasks and some of my team use it to source instant professional advice from their learned friends.  However, blogging, FaceBook and YouTube can become full-time occupations on their own.  There is a never-ending stream of material to view, read and respond to, so it is generally best left to after hours.

3. Do you think it’s acceptable to use the following techniques  – and why?
a) ‘Trusted avatars’ – pretending to be a real person not affiliated with a company to spruik that company’s products/services

This can work, but is quite risky, since it is difficult to do well.  I would rather be up front, make connections with integrity and hope for positive responses than get caught out and end up the victim of a humiliating public ‘outing’ campaign in a popular forum.

In small business, I think it is quite reasonable to participate in any conversation and admit that you own a business – it’s usually the first question anyone asks me – “What do you do?”  That is if they don’t already know, because they can read my profile.  So long as I can maintain a conversation that doesn’t always revert to me offering special discounts on selected products if they buy before the end of the month, most people will accept that I am a business person and be okay with that.  If they want to do business with me, they will ask.  There is no need to pretend.

b) ‘Seeding conversations’ – posing questions about a product and then answering the question using trusted avatars or sock puppets

This depends on the context, but this can work.  Kevin Rudd does this very well – he loves posing questions and answering them himself!  There would only be certain situations on-line where it would not appear contrived.  You can always point people to your Website's FAQ page.  Better to engage real people to ask real questions and provide genuine answers.  This can also backfire, if it looks and sounds like you have brought a ‘plant’ into the audience with you.  You might both get outed.  Larger companies can get away with this more, because it is more believable that many people would be out there asking and answering questions about their products.  Still, the answer should come from a genuine employee, like someone from customer support who identifies themselves and has a genuine reason for being in the conversation.  Seek out relevant existing conversations and blogs and participate as a genuine contributor.

c) Buying lists of ‘friends’ on social networks

We have done this in the past for clients with mixed results.  If the ’friends’ are sourced with a high likelihood of actually being interested in your products or services, it can work well, as you may get a proportion of them remaining friends and responding positively.  Chances are, however, that most of these kinds of ’friends’ are scammers and spammers anyway, looking for overnight Internet stardom by collecting thousands of random followers.  You might just end up wasting a lot of time trawling through all their spammy posts when you could be concentrating on your own valuable communications with a genuine audience.  Collect friends by all means, but be careful which circles you mix in – just like in the real world.

4. If you’re marketing a product, how do you introduce yourself into someone else’s conversation?  How should you declare your interest when you do?

I see two ways of achieving this.  The first is to ensure your profile/avatar information is honestly and accurately filled out.  That way, anyone can immediately click on it and discover what you are all about.  The second way is to bring it up at whatever time is appropriate, either by mentioning it in your post, or by answering truthfully when asked.  Be prepared, however, that the other person may then go off and Google you.  Also make sure that whatever you said prior to your self-interest being declared will not harm your reputation or credibility, once your identity is revealed.

By Stefan Sojka

The meteoric rise of Facebook into the frontal lobes of the Internet may have killed the whole concept of Website design.  It is interesting to note how much more popular FaceBook has become than MySpace, when MySpace promised so much more flexibility with design and customisation of your MySpace page.

FaceBook's Web design is essentially as plain and boring as you can get, yet nobody seems to mind or complain.  Why?

My guess is that it is because most people are not Website designers.  If you give them the tools to customise their Web page design, chances are they will make it look horrible.  Flashing stars, fireworks and clashing primary colours abound on MySpace Web page designs.  FaceBook's approach is to focus exclusively on the content; text, images, links and actions all done within the same boring desiign framework.

From a social networking point of view, this makes a lot of sense.  It keeps Facebook clean and user-friendly and basically prevents anyone from ruining it.  But do we really want an Internet with no design?  Of course not.  That's like saying all movies should be video versions of stage plays, or all food ought to fulfill basic nutritional needs and that's all.  Design is a fundamental faculty of human experience and evolution.

One must keep something in mind when it comes to Facebook's design/brand – it is Facebook's, not the members'.  They own the site, they profit from it – it suits them to have it the way it is and it works for them.  If they ever change it, it will be because they believe it will be more profitable to do so, not because they they think it will be cool to have more design flexibility for their users.  If they keep it, it will be for the exact same reason – it is more profitable to keep it that way.

Even though Facebook might be huge right now, it is not the entire Internet.  It is not the answer to all the world's problems.  It doesn't fulfill every human need.  It is a Website where people can post content, designed to maximise profits for Facebook.

The rest of the world, the non-Facebook world – you know; businesses, community organisations, individuals, social networks, associations and Websites – still exist, still have a future and are still quietly working away on their missions, goals and objectives.  Those objectives are most likely very different from Facebook's.  They may be to make the world a better place, not to rule the world.  They may be to make just enough money to have a good life, not to become the richest man in history.  They may be to have just enough members that each member feels an equal part of the entity, not just one of a billion 'users' feeding a marketing machine.  For them, design might still play a very important role.  Specialist Websites, special interest groups, small businesses, international organisations and media outlets all continue to require appropriately and artistically designed Websites.  Sure, they may all end up posting their links on the bland mass social media outlets, but they are links to the rest of the Web – the exciting, organic, ever-changing Internet, where ideas abound and new paradigms are created on a daily basis.  Facebook has killed Website design at Facebook, but click on any link that anyone posts on their news feed and you will discover a Web that is alive and well.

By Stefan Sojka

There is often a grey area surrounding computer programming as to who owns the rights to any intellectual property involved.  Before you enter into any Web development project, make sure you and the Web developer are very clear about the rights surrounding the project.

Some programming is provided with a limited single-use licence, since the code itself is owned by the programmers or the company the programmer works for.  Some programming may be owned by you, if you enter into the development under that arrangement – that you will have complete ownership and full rights to the code and any intellectual property.

Sometimes it becomes a legal and ethical minefield, because, while you may own the rights to the business process you are asking a programmer to develop, you may still not own their code.  This makes it very difficult if you want to take your business elsewhere.

Don't forget also that any Website or computer application depends on a whole range of third party software to run, such as server software, operating system, security software, firewalls and many other products.  Almost always your application will be dependent on all these tools to operate and you will be leasing, sub-leasing them or perhaps taking advantage of open source products.  Either way, you will not be in full control nor have full ownership of the entire ecosystem of products and services that you will be depending on.  Much like you might own a car but depend on roads, traffic lights and street signs to get around, owning or using a computer program puts you inside a much larger infrastructure that you can't always control, much as you would like to think you can.

In all matters of this nature, we recommend consulting a lawyer before taking any action.  As part of our digital media and technical consulting process, we can provide you with the range of considerations you need to be aware of.

Internet copyright law is still very much an evolving topic, so it is very helpful to have an experienced company working with you to highlight any issues that could potentially arise.

Think of how you use Google.  My guess is that when you search for something, you look at many different Websites and maybe even try a number of different search terms to get what you are looking for.  Google is so fast now, that it is possible to conduct 4 or 5 searches in a minute, including the time it takes to click on a few results, check out the sites, assess them, hit your back button, check out some more sites and try another search.

We are all ‘just looking’ and not necessarily going to buy from almost every Website we visit.  This translates to a lot of traffic for each site leading to very few sales.

It’s like a mall full of people rushing around madly, poking their heads into shops for a few seconds, then backing out and moving on to poke their heads into the next shop.  They may come back to a shop they liked, but only after much investigation of everything that is on offer in this giant virtual mall we call the Internet.

Understanding this is critical to how you deal with your Website.  You must realise that a sale is made not just in one visit, but maybe after someone has checked you out, left, checked others out, returned, checked you out some more, left again, checked out even more others, then maybe returned to do business with you.  So, you must be able to captivate their interest and give them a reason to remember you and return.

You also need to try to make sure that every other site they might look at will seem to them to be a lesser choice – less professional, less friendly, less trustworthy and less value for money.

Otherwise, you risk losing a large chunk of potential business to your competitors.  Every factor must be taken into account – from the very basic ‘getting found in Google’ element to the design and layout, imagery, messaging, signs of credibility and success, positioning of your business to indicate the type of people you service (to filter out or pre-qualify leads) and ease of use, so the visitor will find as little resistance as possible going from finding your site to making contact.

Your Website home page is a shop front without a shopkeeper.  It is critical to lure in those window shoppers and get them to stick around long enough to engage with you.

Cyrius Media Group has been attracting customers to our clients for over a decade, bringing in millions of dollars worth of new business.  Find out how we can apply our insights and knowledge to your Website today.  Contact Us.

It's time to turn the Internet industry on its head and take control of our own data.  Google has essentially gotten where it is today by copyright piracy of every Webpage it's spiders could get their legs on, and piracy of our intellectual property – the usage data we create as we interact online.

I advocate total self-control and self-management of all our intellectual property, which includes our content and all our usage data – every single click and keystroke – where we decide who uses it and how much we want them to pay us to use it.

We might need to employ newly established agencies to help us manage our valuable intellectual property, but they would be agencies who work for us as individuals and help us control who accesses us with their marketing, who accesses our information, content and data and what price they should pay us to use what we create.

The current paradigm allows piracy offences in orders of magnitude greater than the piracy the general public is accused of perpetrating against the record and movie industries.

Until that changes, along with new citizen-focused laws designed to protect us from such blatant piracy, I suggest keeping as much of your own content as you can on your own hard-drives or servers, under your own protection and control.  Or at least get yourself a great publishing deal!

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/googles-drive-to-dominate-your-digital-life-20120425-1xk41.html#ixzz1t21MjJyp

The Internet is increasingly becoming the predominant place for marketing and public relations (PR) to be conducted.

In the networked world, everything is in the public space, so everything is publicity – good and bad.  The role of Online PR is to maximise positive publicity, minimise negative publicity, create a buzz and set up a business to attract interest from journalists, bloggers and ordinary Internet users.

Here is a great video about Online PR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOzylUcfUeQ

Online Public Relations (Online PR) activities can involve:

• Blogging
• Activity in discussion boards
• Responding to negative comments and resolving issues
• Digital press releases
• News announcements on your Website
• Utilising online PR news wire services
• Writing articles
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Developing online networks
• Posting information on social media Websites
• Direct contact with journalists and bloggers
• Running competitions
• Initiating discussions and calling for responses to polls, surveys, articles or interviews
• Re-posting links
• Documenting all publicity received as news announcements and links on your Website

Benefits of Online PR:

• 
Generate publicity for your business, on- and off-line
• Build brand awareness
• Build your reputation
• Counteract any negativity about your business
• Increase traffic to your Website
• Establish yourself as an expert in your field
• Grow your business

Online PR is an exciting area of work, because the Web is constantly changing and evolving, with new opportunities and channels opening up all the time.  Traditional PR is still valid, but anyone who ignores or underestimates the value of the new media landscape does so at their own expense.

Do you want to sell something online?  Accept payments from customers and clients?  Operate an online store selling a range of products?  Welcome to the world of eCommerce.

Online shopping is a booming business – just think of eBay, Amazon and the hundreds of sites, big and small, that we all visit or know about.

There is a misconception that setting up an online shop is easy – mostly perpetuated by the companies who want you to use their shopping cart software.  Sure some software is relatively easy to set up, but an eCommerce project is a lot more than just the shopping cart.  Just like a real shop, there are countless considerations:

• Domain name
• Design and branding
• Layout
• Catalogue
• Features
• Currency
• Payment methods
• Payment gateways
• Security
• Hosting
• Choice of software
• Policies surrounding such things as refunds, privacy and delivery
• Suppliers and stock
• Quality control
• Order fulfilment and processing
• Website updating and maintenance
• Customer relationship management
• Marketing the business
• Competitiveness and size of your market
• Overall traffic levels of people searching for your type of product
• Copy writing
• Photography
• Postage and delivery
• And many more aspects too numerous to list.

Cyrius has been responsible for setting up a number of successful online stores, so we know everything that is involved.  To get your online shop up and running, you need to work with a company who can guide you, advise you and manage the entire production process to ensure it is a success.

What we do:

• Full assessment of your needs and goals
• Research your market
• Determine the right solution and budget
• Design the Website
• Produce the Website
• Market the Website
• Provide ongoing consultation on every aspect of the project and your business, to ensure your plans are realised

To get your eCommerce project up and running, or to rescue a project that has run in to trouble because it was not managed professionally from the beginning, contact us.

Here are a few quick tips to get your social media happening.

Customise your Account
Sites like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook all provide some level of control for users to customise their pages.  Make use of all available features, such as background image, avatar, colour scheme, titles & descriptions, applications, etc., to ensure you are optimising the service's features and branding it as much as possible.

Link your Accounts
Most social media sites allow you to link your various accounts to each other in various ways.  So, for example, you can post comments on Facebook and they will instantly appear on your Twitter account.  The more connected your accounts are, the easier they are to manage and the less work you need to do. 

Keep in mind, however, that different social media sites have different formats and often different types of audiences, so don't rely exclusively on linked accounts.  Make sure you take the time to work each account separately and treat your audience according to the format and style of your presence.  Twitter, for example, has limited space in which to post, while Facebook is more flexible. Simply posting all your Tweets on Facebook is not going to cut it.  Assess the appropriateness of each post according to its relevance and suitability for the medium. Linking accounts is great for quick posts for cool links, quick one liners or alerting people to a new video you just posted, but not so good for ongoing conversations and contextual topics.     

Follow & Friend Popular Opinion Leaders who Complement your Business
This must be done carefully and sparingly, but you can build personal relationships with highly influential people by engaging them in conversation, commenting on their posts and joining their other followers in conversation.  If you can build strong ties, then you will get a flow-on effect to your own account and increase the possibility of influential people mentioning you, raising your profile and credibility.

Use YouTube More
People often forget about just how powerful YouTube is, with so much hype surrounding Twitter & Facebook these days.  YouTube is owned by Google and as such, has a very strong presence in search results as well as using Google's searching and indexing algorithms to rank and filter YouTube videos and channels.  YouTube is highly evolved as a service with many fantastic features, such as 'Insights' with valuable real stats to measure the success of your strategies.  YouTube has many networking tools, like subscribers, tagging, linking and friends, to build a vibrant community around your content.  On top of all of this, YouTube is an easy way to embed videos on your Website and for others to do the same.

Be Consistent and Keep it Interesting
This can be challenging, but is the essential ingredient to any successful social media strategy.  You need to develop a habit of posting regularly and developing your style and content as much as possible.  Experiment with what generates a response.  Telling people what you are having for dinner is probably not going to work as well as asking a relevant and interesting, or controversial question about your topic of interest or your particular industry.

Formulate a Strategy
Don't just do random posts here and there – turn your social media activity into a formalised and disciplined business activity.  Set aside time or hire someone on a regular basis, to manage your social media assets.  Keep track of all your logins and passwords, diarise upcoming milestone dates to run specific campaigns leading up to an event, launch or sale.  Determine which key words you might like to use to enhance your search engine ranking, then use those words in your posts and on your own Website.  If you want to use social media for your business, you need to treat it as a business activity... BUT

Don't Try To Sell Too Hard
Social media is great for business, but it is social media.  No one likes spammers, annoying salesmen and shameless self-promoters.  While it is acceptable to post promotions and advertising on your own company channel, it is not so cool to go around posting comments on everyone else's channels to check out your Webpage and buy your stuff.  Social media is about one-on-one relationships, so you need to focus on building those, rather than thinking it is some kind of free-for-all advertising medium.  The businesses who build trust, share knowledge, help people and make friends online can do very well indeed.

Monitor and Analyse Your Strategy
There are many tools available, including Google Analytics, TweetStats and countless other free and paid services to track your accounts.  Treat your social media like any other marketing strategy, that needs to be measured, costed and valued to see if it is worth it for the ROI.  The more information you can gather, the more efficient and targeted you can become as you see what activities and sites drive the most traffic and sales, what key words and phrases are getting you great traffic and how your strategy is trending and evolving over time.

Don't Forget Your Website
Social media can be all you need to build your business, but your Website is the ultimate location for your customers.  There is no point getting people all excited about your business on Facebook, then losing them all when they hit your Website and find something that is not professional or up-to-date.  Websites drive traffic to social media, with 'Like' buttons and Google's '+1' too.  You don't own or fully control social media sites, but you do have full control over your own Website.  Make sure you maintain a site that is rich with information, including your social media feeds, and clearly communicates your expertise, professionalism and how much you care for your customers.

Social Media can play a significant role in your business activities these days.  Taking it seriously and engaging with a professional and considered approach will ensure that you make the most of the networking opportunities that abound.

An article from the New York Times about the experiences of JC Penny and their rather embarrassing foray into questionable Search Engine Optimisation practices.

It highlights the rather contradictory issues surrounding Google, including how their search engine works, how their Pay-Per-Click adverts and client relationships create a grey area for organic SEO and make you wonder in general about Google's overall quality and survivability in a world where everyone is desperate to be number 1.  Spamming Google is obviously bad, but somehow if you are paying for it, filling the Internet with adverts is somehow acceptable.

Quality content is what it should be all about, but with bottomless pockets, what is to prevent the links we follow being controlled almost exclusively by big business and cosy relationships between them and the Search Engine giants?

Go to the New York Times article...

Your comments are most welcome.