Archive for the ‘social media’ Category
Monday, September 30th, 2013
Brisbane businessman Michael French turned the raging floods in that city in 2011 into a successful online business by filling a niche that so many people don’t know they need until it’s too late.
Photo credit; johndal on Flickr
While he watched flood waters near his home, French worried about the state of his office, which held his digital marketing company only a few kilometres away. That’s when the idea for his Bizeo app hit him.
Essentially a dashboard app, Bizeo monitors all available data from servers to engines on key machinery, to temperature to exchange rates and social media for a business that is experiencing an emergency like a flood.
“Business owners spend a lot of their time running around checking on things, but this does it for them, and gives them a single indicator that everything is alright,” French says. “Bizeo monitors the status and data across your whole enterprise, and watches everything at once.”
As many Brisbane businesses struggled in the aftermath of the floods, French realized he could add even more functionality to the app.
“Our cashflow was struggling as our debtors blew out and our sales pipeline struggled as many Brisbane groups went under,” French says. “Bizeo now plugs into your CRM, accounting and social media systems.”
Bizeo received a $200,000 grant from Commercialisation Australia last year and French used those funds to hire a business development manager, and file for intellectual property protections such as trademarks and patents and is currently working with clients in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Mexico and London.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, Bizeo, Brisbane, business, disaster, floods, London, Melbourne, Mexico, Michael French, natural disaster, online, Sydney
Posted in Australia, business, Facebook, internet usage, online business, smartphone, smartphones, social media, Success story, technology, trademark, Twitter, web-based | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 24th, 2013
Brands can be badmouthed, bullied, beaten up and bruised by anyone online but there are ways to fight back and repair the damage.
Photo credit; Joshin Yamada on Flickr
The Australia Business Review recommends that you:
Apologize if the problem has been caused by your actions or those of your staff and put it on your social networks, your website and anywhere else your customers can see it. Make it honest and straightforward.
Remove negative remarks if possible, even if that means having to hire a lawyer to help you remove them from other sites. Remove the ones that you have control over.
Drown the negativity with SEO by burying them with SEO campaigns until they don’t show up on Google’s search results until the 10th page (most people don’t dig this far back into search results).
Re-Direct attention away from the negativity by doing something positive and promoting it, like holding a contest or donating to charity.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, Australia Business Review, bad reputation, branding, business, damaged brand, online
Posted in Australia, business, controversy, E-mail & the internet, Facebook, internet bullying, internet usage, media, online business, Public Relations, search engines, social media, social networking, Twitter | No Comments »
Friday, September 20th, 2013
MEDIA monitoring company iSentia has acquired social media creative agency Two Social.
Rich Spencer, founder of Two Social, said the company helped organisations understand “if, why, how and when they should engage through social media and, most importantly, how to leverage these channels to achieve business objectives”.
Last year iSentia acquired social media monitoring group BuzzNumbers.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, BuzzNumbers, iSentia, online, TwoSocial
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, online business, social media, social networking | No Comments »
Monday, September 16th, 2013
From its humble beginnings as a five-person operation above a Perth hairdresser just a few short years ago, Moko has come a long way.
Photo credit; Richard Patterson on Flickr
And it is now set to try and crack the United States college market with its mobile social media advertising platform, plus a $US1 billion capitalisation on the world’s biggest technology stock exchange.
Next month, the Western Australia company will launch a service to connect advertisers with 5 million American college students, the ready-made audience that gave Facebook its start.
Although this means it will be competing with Google and Facebook for a portion of the $US7.65 billion ($A8.5 billion) US mobile advertising market, this is the first stage of a plan to list on Nasdaq, according to chief executive officer and founder Ian Rodwell.
Its first major deal with the American Collegiate Intramural Sports (AMIS) association gives it an initial audience of 5 million university students (out of 21.6 million) at 200 colleges across the country.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, mobile advertising, Moko, online, Perth, social networking, Western Australia
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, internet usage, investment, media, online business, Online Sales, social media, social networking, Success story | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 10th, 2013
A recent report shows that Australia now leads the world in the pace of online business start-ups. Internet start-ups have increased 200% from 2010 and 2012, four times the pace in the United States and Britain.
With so many new startups popping up, Dynamic Business has released a set of tips for Australians who want to get in on all the startup action:
Manage your time. Whether you’re an early riser or prefer burning the midnight oil, find what works best for you. Running a store can require a lot of time and energy, but it’s important to separate your stress. Don’t let the worries of one job impact another and develop (and stick to) a routine that maximises productivity.
Think easy. Great designs are nice, but if your online store isn’t intuitive for customers, all bets are off. Re-evaluate the functionality of your homepage and make sure customers can get to where they’re trying to go.
Focus on quality. Use high-resolution product images and take the time to write detailed product descriptions from a customer’s perspective. If you want customers to spend the time reading it, spend the time writing it!
Try new forms of marketing. One of the most critical aspects for any online store is marketing, but it can be costly. Content marketing, such as blogging, is a great, low-cost alternative and offers small businesses a big bang for your buck.
Find your inspiration. Ultimately, success often boils down to having the passion and drive to keep things running through the highs and lows. When the going gets tough, remember what inspired you to start your own business. If you’re doing something you love, your passion will shine through and motivate to push on.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, online, startup
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, innovation, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, social media, social networking, technology, Woo Plugins, WooCommerce, WooCommerce Extensions, WooCommerce Themes | No Comments »
Monday, August 26th, 2013
The Australian Business Review has published a comprehensive strategy to using LinkedIn to market your small business using the social networking platform.
Currently available in 44 countries and 17 languages LinkedIn remains a relevant platform the world over, the publications says.
To read more on this story and see the Australian Business Review’s tutorial for using LinkedIn to market your business, click here.
Tags: Australia, Australian Business Review, business, LinkedIn, online
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, social media, social networking, technology | No Comments »
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.
Tags: Australia, business, online, Set That
Posted in Australia, business, Facebook, innovation, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, social media, social networking, Success story, Twitter | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 30th, 2013
The Fetch, an online community for professionals to share and discover what’s happening in their city, has been going strong since Kate Kendall started it in Melbourne in 2011.
It has now expanded to include 10 cities from around the world.
“I still classify it as a start-up in beta mode, so I guess it’s been fairly flexible and it’s grown quickly,” says Kendall of The Fetch.
Kendall now runs the business alternating between Melbourne and Silicon Valley in the USA.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, Melbourne, online, The Fetch
Posted in Australia, business, innovation, online business, social media, social networking, Success story | No Comments »
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.
Tags: Australia, business, customers, Facebook, social media, Twitter
Posted in Australia, business, Facebook, online business, Online Sales, selling online, social media, social networking, Twitter | No Comments »
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/
Tags: business, Facebook, online, tab, woocommerce
Posted in dynamic content, Facebook, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, OPMC, social media, social networking | No Comments »
