Archive for the ‘social networking’ Category
Monday, October 14th, 2013
Photo credit; Naomi King on Flickr
In a reversal of sorts, two women who hail from Napa Valley in California made the move to Sydney to open an online fashion boutique.
While Silicon Valley might seem like the obvious choice for the women, Tessa Mini and Natalia Nowak, moved to Australia instead and were inspired by what they consider Australian women’s fashion consciousness to create Passionista Boutique, run out of their Sydney apartment.
“We package everything, we write all the slips, it’s our baby,” Mini said.
“At first we couldn’t afford a model,” she recalled, so Mini and Nowak modeled the clothing themselves. “I did the entire website myself,” Mini said, and “we do all digital marketing mainly from Instagram and Facebook.”
“We get a steady flow — about five orders a week,” Mini said. Their goal is to grow the business, selling closer to 20 items a week, she said.
Passionista sells a range of clothing including jackets, dresses, tops and accessories. Prices range from $25 to $65 in U.S. dollars. The business ships internationally.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, fashion, Instagram, Napa Valley, Natalia Nowak, New South Wales, online, Passionista Boutique, Sydney, Tessa Mini
Posted in Australia, business, Facebook, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, social media, social networking, Success story | 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 »
Thursday, August 1st, 2013
Founded in 2010 by Catherine Prosser and based in Canberra, StageBitz is a web-based system designed to simplify prop management for production professionals, allowing them to manage the lifecycle of prop sourcing, maintenance and tracking.
“Each year millions of props, scenery and costume items are created at a cost of billions of dollars,” Prosser says. “Many of these items are used only once, resulting in a massive waste of time, effort, resources and money for the industry. This is a common and constant problem faced by the entertainment industry in Australia, USA, the UK and the world over.
“StageBitz solves this problem by providing a collaboration platform in the cloud for directors, designers, makers, buyers and managers to capture the design, technical and usage information they need to get their projects up and running. It also provides an automatic company inventory feature which will allow companies to manage their assets as well as hire or sell unwanted items online.”
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, Catherine Prosser, online, production, props, StageBitz, theatre
Posted in Australia, business, innovation, internet usage, online business, social networking, Success story | 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 29th, 2013
Yotpo, the free social networking review plugin for ecommerce sites, is now available for WooCommerce sites.
Yotpo sends automatic emails to your customers a certain number of days after their purchase and prompts them to review the product. On average, Yotpo claims to convert 8% of customers into reviewers, which may not sound like much, but is a ot higher than the industry average of just 1.2%.
Yotpo also makes it easy for reviewers to share their reviews on their social networking accounts, which in turn drives traffic to the sites using Yotpo.
Unlike other plugins that promise to drive traffic to your site but don’t actually prove it, Yotpo has its Campaigns feature, which lets you keep track of exactly how what Yotpo has done for your site.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, customer reviews, reviews, woocommerce, woothemes, Yotpo
Posted in Australia, business, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, social networking, Woo extensions, Woo Plugins, WooCommerce, WooCommerce Extensions | No Comments »
