Archive for the ‘Facebook’ Category

Fresh fruit and vegetables over the internet? Why not?

Wednesday, September 18th, 2013

Loveday fruit and vegetable growers Megan and Mark Whateley shut down their roadside produce stand in the Riverland region of South Australia and have opted instead to make sales online and deliver the produce directly to consumers’ front doors.

The convenience of online purchasing has proved popular for people in metropolitan areas.

Photo credit; Umstwit on Flickr

Photo credit; Umstwit on Flickr

“We know it’s quite a popular thing in other country areas and in Adelaide, we’re not sure that anyone else has trialled something like this up here, so we’re going to give it a go,” Megan said.

The couple decided to start off slow with just a Facebook page but will soon launch a website to go along with it.

“Friends of ours would buy from us and we thought there was a bit of a need for it and we trialled it with a few people and it’s grown fast,” Megan said.

The service has appealed to the younger demographic including working families.

“It’s just the convenience, working people, busy families, mums, they can just have everything brought to their door,” Megan said.

“It’s what people are looking for, a lot of shopping is done from the comfort of your home, without leaving the house.”

The family grows primarily sweetcorn, broccoli and cabbage for South Australian and interstate markets.

To read more on this story, click here.

Set That sets itself up for success

Monday, August 5th, 2013

Set That has impressed some big players enough to land some lucrative online partnerships.

International retailers like Bloomingdale’s, Marks & Spencer, StrawberryNET and John Lewis, and Australian brands, including Styletread, zanui, Surfstitch and The Iconic have hopped on the Set That bandwagon.

Set That lets consumers explore “sets” of products that have been compiled and curated by other site users to find a suitable product to buy. The user’s profile and shopping preferences are drawn upon to create a customised shopping experience.

The most unique aspect of the website is the financial rewards offered for building and marketing sets through online social media. Set creators are able to earn up to 2% commission, either banked into their PayPal account or donated to charity, for an item that generated a sale as a result of their set.

More than 100 stores have already committed to the site and co-creators, Aussie mums Kim Westwood and Liz Tehan, are in early talks with investors in Australia and abroad.

Projections for Set That are to have 300 registered stores by the end of 2013 with that number increasing to more than 3000 by 2015.  The stores are anticipated to showcase 1.5 million products to 200,000 users this year and 15 million products to 2.5 million users by 2015.

To read more on this story, click here.

SEO out, social media in as ways to attract customers for online business

Monday, July 8th, 2013

SEO, the once all-powerful method of attracting online customers, has been demoted to co-star in the online marketing realm, as social media takes over the starring role.

According to Mark Gustowski, the global business development manager of Pyksis, SEO is just a small facet of online marketing now when trying to grow your customer base.

Much more effective is social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, Tumblr and LinkedIn because they offer the opportunity for customer engagement.

Using Twitter as an example, Gustowski says companies can now actively look for potential customers using these social media tools. An online retailer of virus protection software, for example, could use the hashtag (#) search function in Twitter for finding people who have been hit with a virus (#computervirus or #virus) and then further narrow the search to a certain geographical region and then talk one-on-one with those potential customers via Twitter by tweeting to them.

The important thing to remember, Gustowski says, is that social media is all about engagement rather than the ‘hard sell’ and customers should be approached in a conversational manner.

To read more on this story, click here.

WooCommerce Facebook Tab plugin for selling through Facebook

Friday, April 26th, 2013

WooCommerce developed this plugin in order to get your business to achieve the maximum sales and increase your sales potential through Facebook. This plugin allows you to showcase and sell your products through Facebook, it is a very nice plugin to have on the Facebook page for your business.

 

You can view a demo of this product at http://www.facebook.com/pages/WooCommerce-Product-Demo/231596936918949?id=231596936918949&sk=app_326942167339765

 

You can buy this product directly from the Woothemes store at http://www.woothemes.com/products/facebook-tab/

 

 

Google releases “Wallet”, rivals likely to follow

Monday, May 30th, 2011

Google became the first company to allow people to use their smartphones as credit cards when they released “Wallet”, and it is expected their rivals will follow suit.

Not everything went smoothly for Google though, with EBay filing a lawsuit accusing Google of stealing trade secrets to build the platform.

Apple, Amazon.com, eBay and Facebook are all believed to be working on similar technology, also allowing consumers to use smartphones to pay for goods or services.

You can read more at the sydneymorningherald.com.au

 

 

 

 

Internet boom 2.0 is here

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

Thomson Reuters Deals Intelligence data has revealed upwards of US $5 billion of venture capital investment has been injected into growing web companies in the first 4 months of this year.

This means 2011 is on course to be the busiest in dollars terms since way back in 2000, when the web was really starting to take off. More than US $55 billion was shared back then.

Valuations for Facebook (US $70 billion) and GroupOn (US $15 billion) are believed to be one of the reasons for the growing investments in web start ups.

You can read more at the sydneymorningherald

 

Facebook and Twitter help with disaster relief

Friday, January 14th, 2011

In a different post from the usual involving Facebook and Twitter, the social media sites have been useful in allowing people who are stranded in flood-stricken areas to connect with relatives and friends.

Facebook was used to post Queensland Premiere Anna Bligh’s updates and messages of hope throughout the crisis.

Twitter is also credited with helping to sort out emergency housing locations and information, and provide updates on police information.

View the full article here.

You have been served – by Facebook!

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

Police in Victoria used non-traditional means (where traditional means had otherwise not been a success) to serve a man with court papers via Facebook, reports Sydney Morning Herald today.

A local magistrate allowed the service of the court documents by Facebook, then Senior Constable Walton read out the court order in private messages. After the final message was sent, Victorian Police were able to contact the man who confirmed he had received the messages.

The end result was that the woman who was being harassed by this man, was able to get a desired outcome by being able to serve him with these documents, although Facebook itself was of no assistance to the Police.

Internet bullying, stalking and intimidation are taken very seriously. ‘In this instance we were able to deliver justice through the same medium as the crime committed’ says Senior Constable Walton.