VideoBloom.com is a fantastic new start-up based in Colorado USA.
I've had a passion for all things visual since the Internet become a large part of every day living and finally, from memories of my early career encoding postage stamp 'video mush' onto basic websites, VideoBloom has come along and provided businesses with a tangible way to use online video, with management tools that any half-brain can use!
The site is set up so that you can trail the technology with a free user account.
Please check it out and see what you can achieve with online video- at last!!
www.videobloom.com
Tuesday 26 February 2008
LinkedIN Insight
Some interesting insight from the founder of LinkedIN
Most interesting and noteworthy for entrepreneurs is the idea that with so LITTLE time available in the modern lives of busy people, there is only room for realistically one or two online platforms... Consider then, the ebays, amazons and a daily news resource as a banker for one of these spots! How is yours going fit in? Not impossible, but think about just how useful its got to be from the outset!!
http://www.podtech.net/home/3223/catching-up-with-linkedins-reid-hoffman
Most interesting and noteworthy for entrepreneurs is the idea that with so LITTLE time available in the modern lives of busy people, there is only room for realistically one or two online platforms... Consider then, the ebays, amazons and a daily news resource as a banker for one of these spots! How is yours going fit in? Not impossible, but think about just how useful its got to be from the outset!!
http://www.podtech.net/home/3223/catching-up-with-linkedins-reid-hoffman
Friday 22 February 2008
From FYINI.com- No Money No Excuse!!
If you are procrastinating about starting, growing, streamlining, or improving your business, it's time to stop with the excuses. Lack of resources can be the making of great start-ups.
That's Tim Ferriss's message on his www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog. Ferriss's book The 4 hr work week is topping the best seller charts stateside with its revolutionary approach to time management and running a small business on autopilot. More on that next month. For now, read on and take action....
Alibaba.com, a start-up which pairs non-Chinese companies with Chinese suppliers,rode its IPO to a $26-billion valuation. Its founder, Jack Ma, explains his secret for success:
There were three reasons why we survived. We had no money, we had no technology, and we had no plan. Every dollar, we used very carefully.
Read that one again.
Excuses not to jump into the unknown are a dime a dozen. In the case of entrepreneurship, the "I don't have" list — I don't have funding, I don't connections, etc. — is a popular write-off for inaction.
Little do most people know how often lack of resources is the ingredient that creates great companies.
It forces you to be clever, to dissect problems instead of throwing cash at them, and to innovate instead of imitating better-funded competitors.
The Florida-based PR agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky is a great example of this, as are a few little enterprises you might recognize — Microsoft and Nike come to mind — that started with less than $10,000 in funding.
There is often an inverse relationship between the amount of funding and the ultimate success of companies.
More than a few Silicon Valley angels and entrepreneurs have embraced this concept. In "VC's New Math: Does Less = More?" from the Wall Street Journal, Peter Thiel of PayPal fame, who has invested in ventures ranging from Facebook (join the 4HWW group here, 433 people strong) to the film Thank You for Smoking, exemplifies the new breed:
His company also reflects how a new type of venture capitalist is emerging, as start-up costs for Internet companies decline sharply. Many start-ups now need a bankroll of no more than a few hundred thousand dollars to get rolling, compared with the millions of dollars required a few years ago.
Keep in mind that the hundreds of thousands still refers to funding, which can now be secured with a good idea and a little testing with rentable Amazon infrastructure that costs in the hundreds (not thousands).
How to re-evaluate your "weaknesses"?
1. Write down the positives of whatever you've been viewing as a negative. Don't know anyone? You'll be a fresh face and won't have any strikes against you. No funding? It will force you to find the neglected options and set trends instead of following them.
I focused on blogs for The 4-Hour Workweek launch because I essentially had no other options. If I'd had a huge budget and free reign over the publisher, I can almost guarantee I would have succumbed to outside peer pressure and put the bulk into print or ineffectual PR firms. Hunger and desperation can be good things.
2. Consider the negatives of the opposites. What if you had too much funding? It would create a false sense of security and breed complacency, both of which are more fatal to a start-up than bootstrapping. It could also overexpose you before your product or service is ready. It could give investors too much influence over big decisions. Don't assume more of something is 100% positive. It never is.
3. Look for dark horse role models. "I can't start a company — I'm too old." Coronel Sanders started KFC after 40. The excuse doesn't hold up. Can't compete in sports because of a bum leg? Sprinter Oscar Pistorius has no lower legs and is aiming for the Olympics. You? For each reason for inaction you come up with, ask: has anyone overcome these or worse circumstances to do what I want to do? The answer is: of course.
Embrace your lack of resources, your weaknesses.
Far from a handicap, these are often the pressure points that will take you the furthest... if you're able to use them instead of excuse them
That's Tim Ferriss's message on his www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog. Ferriss's book The 4 hr work week is topping the best seller charts stateside with its revolutionary approach to time management and running a small business on autopilot. More on that next month. For now, read on and take action....
Alibaba.com, a start-up which pairs non-Chinese companies with Chinese suppliers,rode its IPO to a $26-billion valuation. Its founder, Jack Ma, explains his secret for success:
There were three reasons why we survived. We had no money, we had no technology, and we had no plan. Every dollar, we used very carefully.
Read that one again.
Excuses not to jump into the unknown are a dime a dozen. In the case of entrepreneurship, the "I don't have" list — I don't have funding, I don't connections, etc. — is a popular write-off for inaction.
Little do most people know how often lack of resources is the ingredient that creates great companies.
It forces you to be clever, to dissect problems instead of throwing cash at them, and to innovate instead of imitating better-funded competitors.
The Florida-based PR agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky is a great example of this, as are a few little enterprises you might recognize — Microsoft and Nike come to mind — that started with less than $10,000 in funding.
There is often an inverse relationship between the amount of funding and the ultimate success of companies.
More than a few Silicon Valley angels and entrepreneurs have embraced this concept. In "VC's New Math: Does Less = More?" from the Wall Street Journal, Peter Thiel of PayPal fame, who has invested in ventures ranging from Facebook (join the 4HWW group here, 433 people strong) to the film Thank You for Smoking, exemplifies the new breed:
His company also reflects how a new type of venture capitalist is emerging, as start-up costs for Internet companies decline sharply. Many start-ups now need a bankroll of no more than a few hundred thousand dollars to get rolling, compared with the millions of dollars required a few years ago.
Keep in mind that the hundreds of thousands still refers to funding, which can now be secured with a good idea and a little testing with rentable Amazon infrastructure that costs in the hundreds (not thousands).
How to re-evaluate your "weaknesses"?
1. Write down the positives of whatever you've been viewing as a negative. Don't know anyone? You'll be a fresh face and won't have any strikes against you. No funding? It will force you to find the neglected options and set trends instead of following them.
I focused on blogs for The 4-Hour Workweek launch because I essentially had no other options. If I'd had a huge budget and free reign over the publisher, I can almost guarantee I would have succumbed to outside peer pressure and put the bulk into print or ineffectual PR firms. Hunger and desperation can be good things.
2. Consider the negatives of the opposites. What if you had too much funding? It would create a false sense of security and breed complacency, both of which are more fatal to a start-up than bootstrapping. It could also overexpose you before your product or service is ready. It could give investors too much influence over big decisions. Don't assume more of something is 100% positive. It never is.
3. Look for dark horse role models. "I can't start a company — I'm too old." Coronel Sanders started KFC after 40. The excuse doesn't hold up. Can't compete in sports because of a bum leg? Sprinter Oscar Pistorius has no lower legs and is aiming for the Olympics. You? For each reason for inaction you come up with, ask: has anyone overcome these or worse circumstances to do what I want to do? The answer is: of course.
Embrace your lack of resources, your weaknesses.
Far from a handicap, these are often the pressure points that will take you the furthest... if you're able to use them instead of excuse them
Monday 11 February 2008
Skype me baby!
For a few years now even tech-savvy middle-weights have steered clear of something called ‘Voice over IP’ and the scary implications of talking computers, empowered and now demanding networks of constant chat! We all had the nightmares of server farms, springing to life and oddly clod and over-wired pc-soldiers to take over the universe! Or maybe that was just me!
Regardless of whether you’ve shared in my strange dreams, we can rest easy! Some clever people ‘over there’ (read: Luxembourg via London & Tallinn) have branded VO/IP into an easy to understand concept that even your granny could use it- once she’s finished on eBay that is..
Skype is at once harmless, without hint of threat or cynicism or anything righter of right which scares the masses currently. Just great fun branding and free calls over the Internet!
So what is exactly is this ‘skype’ business?Skype is a ‘peer-peer’ Voice over IP network founded by none other than the men behind Kazaa, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. Such was its popularity, that Google jumped the queue (or found it first, given their searching powers!) and bought the Skype Group in October 2005 for several gazillions of techno smarties (or ‘dollars’ to you and me).
Skype users essentially make telephone calls and video calls via their computer using Skype software and the internet. On the unusual basis that the system provides free communication between users of Skype software, this is certainly unique.
Sensibly, the product also allows Skype users to communicate with users of regular landline and mobiles. This software is currently available free of charge and can be downloaded from the company website.
Voice over IP has been available for years, why is this version so popular?Like many other ‘rebel technologies’ Skype is software of the people, of the young, the students, the creative, the affected (basically anyone under 25 who hasn’t got a mortgage to occupy their head space yet!) But also mad keen on Skype are the trendy 20/30/40 something’s, feeding on the latest cool gadget, something to take over when we bore of the I-POD. The only division is ironically within the technical community itself, where there is a debate over the ethics, (0’s and 1’s have ethics??) the legality (uh-oh, scary oddly-clod Computer monsters!) and the security (pc monsters!!) of the Skype technology. Like all things that are ‘cool’ Skype does things differently.
The fact that most of us don’t understand the differences such as ‘that Skype operates on a peer-to-peer model, rather than the more traditional server-client model’. or that the ‘Skype user directory is entirely decentralised and distributed among the nodes in the network’, seems to play into their hands, which means that we just consume and enjoy, which, let’s face it, is all we really want from our phones (plural these days!)
What’s next?
Like most ‘web 2.0’ technology, development teams already have the phase 2 of Skype ready and waiting to roll out. Look out for the following:
Skype Casts, Skype Zone and Skype SMS.
What they all do? Who cares, as soon as somebody we regard as even slightly ‘technically-wicked’ starts banging’ on about them, we’ll be hooking up, logging on and consuming the latest tech-cool offering. Well done those Skype people- isn’t wonderful when highly complex Internet technology is presented on a plate- remember your marketing basics, its the hole you sell, not the screw!
Gimme Gimme Gimme…
Find out more and download Skype for free at:
http://www.skype.com
Regardless of whether you’ve shared in my strange dreams, we can rest easy! Some clever people ‘over there’ (read: Luxembourg via London & Tallinn) have branded VO/IP into an easy to understand concept that even your granny could use it- once she’s finished on eBay that is..
Skype is at once harmless, without hint of threat or cynicism or anything righter of right which scares the masses currently. Just great fun branding and free calls over the Internet!
So what is exactly is this ‘skype’ business?Skype is a ‘peer-peer’ Voice over IP network founded by none other than the men behind Kazaa, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. Such was its popularity, that Google jumped the queue (or found it first, given their searching powers!) and bought the Skype Group in October 2005 for several gazillions of techno smarties (or ‘dollars’ to you and me).
Skype users essentially make telephone calls and video calls via their computer using Skype software and the internet. On the unusual basis that the system provides free communication between users of Skype software, this is certainly unique.
Sensibly, the product also allows Skype users to communicate with users of regular landline and mobiles. This software is currently available free of charge and can be downloaded from the company website.
Voice over IP has been available for years, why is this version so popular?Like many other ‘rebel technologies’ Skype is software of the people, of the young, the students, the creative, the affected (basically anyone under 25 who hasn’t got a mortgage to occupy their head space yet!) But also mad keen on Skype are the trendy 20/30/40 something’s, feeding on the latest cool gadget, something to take over when we bore of the I-POD. The only division is ironically within the technical community itself, where there is a debate over the ethics, (0’s and 1’s have ethics??) the legality (uh-oh, scary oddly-clod Computer monsters!) and the security (pc monsters!!) of the Skype technology. Like all things that are ‘cool’ Skype does things differently.
The fact that most of us don’t understand the differences such as ‘that Skype operates on a peer-to-peer model, rather than the more traditional server-client model’. or that the ‘Skype user directory is entirely decentralised and distributed among the nodes in the network’, seems to play into their hands, which means that we just consume and enjoy, which, let’s face it, is all we really want from our phones (plural these days!)
What’s next?
Like most ‘web 2.0’ technology, development teams already have the phase 2 of Skype ready and waiting to roll out. Look out for the following:
Skype Casts, Skype Zone and Skype SMS.
What they all do? Who cares, as soon as somebody we regard as even slightly ‘technically-wicked’ starts banging’ on about them, we’ll be hooking up, logging on and consuming the latest tech-cool offering. Well done those Skype people- isn’t wonderful when highly complex Internet technology is presented on a plate- remember your marketing basics, its the hole you sell, not the screw!
Gimme Gimme Gimme…
Find out more and download Skype for free at:
http://www.skype.com
The Joy and Frustration of Automation
Technology makes the lives of professionals everywhere simpler. Us ‘marketers’ for example can gain greater control of customer relationships, better utilise our mailing lists, target lists and even internal communications through the latest software which keeps coming down in price and offers more and more.
The speed of communication between ourselves and our clients, the volume that we can reach and the visibility achieved is something that we could only have dreamed about ten years ago.
However, the challenge was set down by the lateral thinkers – ‘technology can do many things, but there’s nothing personal in IT’
‘Ah-ha’ we said triumphantly, ‘we have technology that personalises mass email campaigns, we have technology that makes direct mail splash your name all over it, we have ways to send targets advertising that we know (via technology) these people want to see’.
But perhaps we’re still missing the trick, if we’re honest with ourselves. Just because we can extract some key data that let’s us communicate on a slightly more personal level, doesn’t mean that we’re doing something that is welcomed or valuable to the customer. We’re still harbouring control and we’re still making assumptions on their behalf that have minimal bearing on the truth.
But is that good enough anymore? Is that the way the world still is? As sure as ‘txt msg’ short-hand is the language of today’s young people, you can rest assured that we need to do more than use automated name fields and template-fuelled bulk offerings across our marketing mix to give value and to make customers happy.
It’s the old question of who’s in control of your business. Do you still think that it’s you? Even if you’ve passed that stage and realised that customers control your business, are you really doing enough to find out who they are, what they like and whether or not your product is right for them?
We all need to wake up to ourselves and get personalisation right. Use technology to collect, to cross-reference and organise, but do the slog-work too and never give up on the personal touch. Permission-based marketing is one thing and its one thing that works well. But to outstrip the competition, you need more than that. You need knowledge of customers likes, dislikes, lifestyle (if B2C) and business plan (if B2B!) and even their enthusiasm to buy, not a grudging resignation to purchase something because they have to!
I heard once that ‘you should wound a potential customer and then give them the plaster to put over it’. That’s fine if you want the one big sale and a reputation that turns milk, but most of us would surely rather sleep soundly at night knowing that through clever and well-thought out strategy and by using the best of what technology has to offer coupled with a personal touch that’s second to none, we gave our customers exactly what they wanted.
Technology could spell the end of marketing as we know it. Automation, automation, automation. Or, it could offer the opportunity to change marketing for the better by using technology as a strong component of the strategy but to also reinvigorate marketing’s true purpose which, to my mind is to throw the spotlight on the truth and offer customers solutions that they need, want and are enthusiastic about. No technology on its own can generate imagination and joined-up professional thinking to deliver on what our businesses promise.
The speed of communication between ourselves and our clients, the volume that we can reach and the visibility achieved is something that we could only have dreamed about ten years ago.
However, the challenge was set down by the lateral thinkers – ‘technology can do many things, but there’s nothing personal in IT’
‘Ah-ha’ we said triumphantly, ‘we have technology that personalises mass email campaigns, we have technology that makes direct mail splash your name all over it, we have ways to send targets advertising that we know (via technology) these people want to see’.
But perhaps we’re still missing the trick, if we’re honest with ourselves. Just because we can extract some key data that let’s us communicate on a slightly more personal level, doesn’t mean that we’re doing something that is welcomed or valuable to the customer. We’re still harbouring control and we’re still making assumptions on their behalf that have minimal bearing on the truth.
But is that good enough anymore? Is that the way the world still is? As sure as ‘txt msg’ short-hand is the language of today’s young people, you can rest assured that we need to do more than use automated name fields and template-fuelled bulk offerings across our marketing mix to give value and to make customers happy.
It’s the old question of who’s in control of your business. Do you still think that it’s you? Even if you’ve passed that stage and realised that customers control your business, are you really doing enough to find out who they are, what they like and whether or not your product is right for them?
We all need to wake up to ourselves and get personalisation right. Use technology to collect, to cross-reference and organise, but do the slog-work too and never give up on the personal touch. Permission-based marketing is one thing and its one thing that works well. But to outstrip the competition, you need more than that. You need knowledge of customers likes, dislikes, lifestyle (if B2C) and business plan (if B2B!) and even their enthusiasm to buy, not a grudging resignation to purchase something because they have to!
I heard once that ‘you should wound a potential customer and then give them the plaster to put over it’. That’s fine if you want the one big sale and a reputation that turns milk, but most of us would surely rather sleep soundly at night knowing that through clever and well-thought out strategy and by using the best of what technology has to offer coupled with a personal touch that’s second to none, we gave our customers exactly what they wanted.
Technology could spell the end of marketing as we know it. Automation, automation, automation. Or, it could offer the opportunity to change marketing for the better by using technology as a strong component of the strategy but to also reinvigorate marketing’s true purpose which, to my mind is to throw the spotlight on the truth and offer customers solutions that they need, want and are enthusiastic about. No technology on its own can generate imagination and joined-up professional thinking to deliver on what our businesses promise.
Friday 8 February 2008
Let's rid the world of 'marketing fluff' together
Welcome!
My blog 'MarketingMeansBusiness' is here to propose, discuss and debate the true values associated to marketing in the business world today.
Having worked in Media, Web, Software and Telecommunications industries, from Ireland through the UK and USA, I have acquired strong opinions of how marketing can play a key role in every business, some of them controversial, and some of them totally unique.
There are millions of small businesses out there that need advice on how to use marketing techniques to help them ultimately become more profitable.
Over the coming weeks and months, my aim is lay down simple steps to help these businesses, from the conception of the idea, the pitch, the planning, the strategy, the finance and successful development of sales and partnerships on a local and global level.
I will be drawing on a world of other resources and expertise. Hopefully you will find a common thread or two through each of them and draw your own conclusions.
I also will be unashamedly ranting about views on marketing, marketers self-destruction and other issues surrounding business success in todays global markets.
Stay tuned and keep in touch!
My blog 'MarketingMeansBusiness' is here to propose, discuss and debate the true values associated to marketing in the business world today.
Having worked in Media, Web, Software and Telecommunications industries, from Ireland through the UK and USA, I have acquired strong opinions of how marketing can play a key role in every business, some of them controversial, and some of them totally unique.
There are millions of small businesses out there that need advice on how to use marketing techniques to help them ultimately become more profitable.
Over the coming weeks and months, my aim is lay down simple steps to help these businesses, from the conception of the idea, the pitch, the planning, the strategy, the finance and successful development of sales and partnerships on a local and global level.
I will be drawing on a world of other resources and expertise. Hopefully you will find a common thread or two through each of them and draw your own conclusions.
I also will be unashamedly ranting about views on marketing, marketers self-destruction and other issues surrounding business success in todays global markets.
Stay tuned and keep in touch!
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