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	<title>iNet inSights - Internet Answers that Give you the Advantage</title>
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	<link>http://www.inetinsights.com</link>
	<description>Internet business blog from the UK Internet consultant Jaimie Dobson</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:47:00 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Sorry, I Don&#8217;t Do Email!</title>
		<link>http://www.inetinsights.com/business-life/sorry-i-dont-do-email/</link>
		<comments>http://www.inetinsights.com/business-life/sorry-i-dont-do-email/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:40:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jaimie Dobson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business Life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customers and Clients]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Clients]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.inetinsights.com/?p=1209</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In today&#8217;s business world most people have the staple tools needed to conduct business with other people on a daily basis.
Such tools inevitably include the obligatory diary (electronic or otherwise), a pen, a notepad (electronic or otherwise), a telephone (landline and mobile), a car or some other form of vehicle and of course a computer [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fbusiness-life%2Fsorry-i-dont-do-email%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fbusiness-life%2Fsorry-i-dont-do-email%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><div id="attachment_1160" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 435px"><a href="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/iStock_000000867016XSmall.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1160" title="Email - A Staple Business Tool" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/iStock_000000867016XSmall.jpg" alt="" width="425" height="282" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Email - A Staple Business Tool</p></div>
<p><strong>In today&#8217;s business world most people have the staple tools needed to conduct business with other people on a daily basis.</strong></p>
<p>Such tools inevitably include the obligatory diary (electronic or otherwise), a pen, a notepad (electronic or otherwise), a telephone (landline and mobile), a car or some other form of vehicle and of course a computer of a description with an internet connection and associated email account.</p>
<p>Fifteen years ago you could have probably omitted the email account for some folk and any connection to the Internet would have been on dial-up rather than broadband. Twenty years ago pagers were the &#8216;away from the office&#8217; communication tool of choice for many unless you were either a Yuppie or a keen early adopter who owned a mobile phone. Computers whilst becoming more common place, hadn&#8217;t quite penetrated through to every nook and cranny of business life as they do today and Lotus Smartsuite ruled the roost when it came to office software applications.</p>
<p>Today, technology has spread throughout the business world and is not purely the domain of early adaptive geeks. You don&#8217;t need me to tell you that I&#8217;m sure.</p>
<p>Take a straw-poll of business bodies in a room to find out who uses a Blackberry™, iPhone™ or other type of smart-phone to email and surf whilst on the move and I&#8217;ll wager that most of the hands will go up. Similarly, notebook computers and netbooks are outselling desktop computers by a large margin and mobile internet access is common place through 3G and WiFi coverage. Tweeting and messaging through the social networking sites (<acronym title="Social Networking Websites">SNS</acronym>) is the new kid on the block and are deemed to be a more flexible and superior substitute for email by some.</p>
<p>Phew!</p>
<h2>Voice-Mail Hell</h2>
<p>So I was amazed at the outcome which resulted from being trapped in the hell of a voice-mail loop with an associate of mine. You know the score; someone leaves you message on your voicemail, you return the call, missing the person but getting diverted to their own voicemail and so the circle continues. Nightmare!</p>
<p>This went on for a couple of days with this particular bloke, both of us listening to a one sided message from the other. Frustration gradually creeping into the tone of our delivery.</p>
<p>So, as one does, I thought; &#8220;I know, I&#8217;ll send this guy an email with the information he requires!&#8221; Out came his business card, &#8220;ah yes an email address&#8221;. Tap, tap, tap! Gone!</p>
<p>That should illicit a response.</p>
<p>Er, no! Nothing!</p>
<p>Another day goes by without contact, but at least I was safe in the knowledge that he had the information he needed on email.</p>
<div id="attachment_600" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 400px"><a href="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/angry-man.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-600" title="I don't do email" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/angry-man.jpg" alt="" width="390" height="324" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">I don&#39;t do email</p></div>
<p>Then, one morning the phone goes. It&#8217;s him, sounding angry now!</p>
<p>&#8220;In my defense&#8221;, I retorted, &#8220;because I couldn&#8217;t get to speak to you &#8211; I dropped you an email instead. Did you get it?&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t do email!&#8221; bounced back the reply. &#8220;I will check it later and get back to you if I didn&#8217;t&#8221;. I called him later regardless to check. Yes, he&#8217;d got it and was happy with the details I&#8217;d emailed to him <strong>two days</strong> previously.</p>
<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s okay, we got there in the end.&#8221;</p>
<p>So in a world where email is a staple commodity of business, this fellow obviously still lives in the late 1980&#8217;s. Just imagine how more efficient he could become and less frustrated into the bargain, if he just &#8220;did email.&#8221;</p>
<p>Which beggars the question of course; if the subject in this post &#8220;doesn&#8217;t do email&#8221;: then WTF does he have an email account for?</p>
<p>Now texting, there&#8217;s another story!</p>
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		<title>Google Spits its Dummy Out!</title>
		<link>http://www.inetinsights.com/search-engines/google/google-spits-its-dummy-out/</link>
		<comments>http://www.inetinsights.com/search-engines/google/google-spits-its-dummy-out/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:59:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jaimie Dobson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web Browsers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.inetinsights.com/?p=1199</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Internet Explorer, the decreasingly omnipotent web browser from Microsoft with its old version 6 has been causing Google some issues recently and as result the search giant has spat its dummy out and is phasing out support for the old browser.
The story started earlier last month when many of Google&#8217;s gMail accounts, run by Chinese [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fsearch-engines%2Fgoogle%2Fgoogle-spits-its-dummy-out%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fsearch-engines%2Fgoogle%2Fgoogle-spits-its-dummy-out%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><div id="attachment_1201" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 440px"><a href="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/spit-the-dummy.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1201" title="Google Spits Its Dummy Out" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/spit-the-dummy.jpg" alt="" width="430" height="207" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Google Spits Its Dummy Out</p></div>
<p><strong>Internet Explorer, the decreasingly omnipotent web browser from Microsoft with its old version 6 has been causing Google some issues recently and as result the search giant has spat its dummy out and is phasing out support for the old browser.</strong></p>
<p>The story started earlier last month when many of Google&#8217;s gMail accounts, run by Chinese human rights campaigners, were hacked using a security flaw in IE6. This led to Google threatening to withdraw from the Chinese market following the &#8220;sophisticated and targeted&#8221; attacks, which it said originated in China.</p>
<p>Microsoft, who apparently had known about the issue &#8220;since early September&#8221; 2009 reacted quickly to issue a security patch update. However this wasn&#8217;t good enough for Google and they&#8217;ve now stated that they&#8217;ll no longer be supporting version 6 of the browser after the 1st March 2010.</p>
<p>In otherwords, if you use Google products (gMail, Google Docs etc) or visit Google websites which includes not only their main search site, but websites such as YouTube (a Google company), Picasa and Blogger.com to name but a few, then don&#8217;t expect them to work or display correctly all the time if you continue to use Internet Explorer version 6.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s what they&#8217;ve emailed their Google Apps users with on this matter;</p>
<p>&#8220;<em>Dear Google Apps admin, </em></p>
<p><em>In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 ​as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.</em></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><em>We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.</em></p>
<p><em>Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.</em></p>
<p><em>Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.</em></p>
<p><em>In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.</em></p>
<p><em>Thank you for your continued support!</em></p>
<p><em>Sincerely,</em></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><em>The Google Apps team</em>&#8221;</p>
<p>Oh dear! Toys definitely out of the cot on this one then!</p>
<h2>Who Can Blame Them?</h2>
<p>For those not in the know, version 6 of Internet Explorer is pretty old hat when it comes to web browsers and even though it was only launched in August 2001 and replaced by version 7 in October 2006, it is ancient technology when it comes to the Internet and as such it produces some strange results when used to view some modern coded websites.</p>
<p>So on one hand, a company like Google trying force the User to drop useage of version 6 of the browser is a good thing in mine and many peoples&#8217; books. However on the other hand, as my day to day experiences demonstrate; IE6 is very much alive, well and kicking in many organisations such as government departments, the NHS and many large corporations and academic institutions.</p>
<p>Rolling out a software upgrade across such a large User network as the NHS is no mean feat and if such organisations are still running Windows 2000 as many of them are; then the browser upgrade will on the whole, only come during an operating system upgrade. A big job.</p>
<p>However I would say kill IE6 regardless!</p>
<p>Isn&#8217;t it time your Users were able to benefit completely from the full &#8220;Internet&#8221; experience? If the answer is yes, then it&#8217;s time for a change. At best switch to Firefox but at least get an upgrade, flaws and all, to the current version of Internet Explorer which is version 8.</p>
<p>You know it makes sense!</p>
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		<title>Expo..se Yourself to Curry Favour</title>
		<link>http://www.inetinsights.com/sales-and-marketing/expo-se-yourself-to-curry-favour/</link>
		<comments>http://www.inetinsights.com/sales-and-marketing/expo-se-yourself-to-curry-favour/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:17:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jaimie Dobson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business Networking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sales and Marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.inetinsights.com/?p=1190</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Last Thursday was a busy day of networking and presenting as I made an exhibition of myself at the GRID* Enterprise Expo in Bradford.
The day started off in the dark at 7 am with a busy business networking breakfast courtesy of proNet which was immediately followed in the same building by a small business Expo [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fsales-and-marketing%2Fexpo-se-yourself-to-curry-favour%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fsales-and-marketing%2Fexpo-se-yourself-to-curry-favour%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><p><a title="iNet inSights - personal pitch at proNet by proNet Business Networking, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joinpronet/4313933309/"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2718/4313933309_3808d253e3.jpg" alt="iNet inSights - personal pitch at proNet" width="430" height="286" /></a><br />
<strong>Last Thursday was a busy day of networking and presenting as I made an exhibition of myself at the GRID* Enterprise Expo in Bradford.</strong></p>
<p>The day started off in the dark at 7 am with a busy <a class="tip" title="Business Networking Meeting" href="http://www.joinpronet.com" target="_blank">business networking breakfast courtesy of proNet</a> which was immediately followed in the same building by a small business Expo organised by those folks at the <a class="tip" title="Bradford Grid" href="http://bradfordgrid.com" target="_blank">Bradford Grid* Park Lane</a>.</p>
<p>Despite early pre-match nerves regarding low advanced bookings, minds were set at rest on the day as numbers through the doors proved to be plentiful and steady.</p>
<p>iNet shared exhibiting floor space with support agencies such as Bradford Kickstart, Business Link and service providers ranging from HSBC, a couple of marketing companies, an IT provider, an accountant and a HR consultancy to name but a few.<br />
<a title="Jaimie Dobson of iNet inSights at the Bradford Grid Expo by John Steel Photography, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/37725747@N07/4316389768/"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2771/4316389768_3aacc29e8e.jpg" alt="Jaimie Dobson of iNet inSights at the Bradford Grid Expo" width="430" height="286" /></a></p>
<h2>Wide Range of Interests</h2>
<p>Interest from those that came to say hello ranged from a health counselor who wanted to know about the the ins and outs of blogging, through to a web designer start-up wanting advice on the logistics of running a web design business and a private healthcare provider wanting to get to grips with LinkedIn.</p>
<p>Mid-way through the event I contributed one of the mini bite-size seminars that were being run throughout the day by talking to a packed room of small business owners about the ways in which they can promote their website for free. This presentation may be viewed again on our <a title="Little Known Ways to Promote Your Website" href="http://www.slideshare.net/inetengineers/little-known-ways-to-build-website-traffic" target="_blank" class="tip">slideshare account</a>.</p>
<h2>Pleasantly Surprised</h2>
<p>Traditionally I&#8217;m not a great lover of exhibitions (both as an exhibitor or as an attendee) &#8211; however, this one proved to be a good one as not only did we run a busy stand but we picked up a few enquiries as well.</p>
<p>Lovely jubbly!</p>
<h2>Currying Favour</h2>
<p>Being in Bradford, the curry capital of Britain in my book; exhibitors and attendees were treated to a scrumptious curry buffet meal at lunchtime. None of this pre-made, politically correct manufactured rubbish either, the real McCoy with a bit of a kick to it. (You can tell I&#8217;m a curry fan).</p>
<p>What else would you expect in Bradford!</p>
<p>What a way to curry favour with local businesses? Great networking, a great mini-Expo and a great lunch.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone at the Grid* for their hard work in pulling it all together.</p>
<h2>Photos</h2>
<p><a title="Bradford Grid Enterprise Expo by John Steel Photography, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/37725747@N07/4316397782/"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/4316397782_0373b28b4d.jpg" alt="Bradford Grid Enterprise Expo" width="430" height="286" /></a><br />
The above pictures were taken by <a class="tip" title="John Steel Photography" href="http://www.johnsteelphotography.com" target="_blank">John Steel Photography</a>. You can view more of John&#8217;s pictures of the proNet networking event <a class="tip" title="proNet Business Networking in Bradford" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joinpronet/" target="_blank">here</a> and of the Expo day <a title="Bradford GRID Expo" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/37725747@N07/sets/72157623188882023/" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
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		<title>Tell Me Your Twitter Success Stories</title>
		<link>http://www.inetinsights.com/social-networking/twitter-social-networking/tell-me-your-twitter-success-stories/</link>
		<comments>http://www.inetinsights.com/social-networking/twitter-social-networking/tell-me-your-twitter-success-stories/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:30:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jaimie Dobson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.inetinsights.com/?p=1182</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m reaching out to my network, which of course includes you, my blog readers; for some real life success stories on how you are using or have used, Twitter for the benefit of your business.
Why am doing this? Well quite simply I want to use your stories as practical, real-life case studies during my Twitter [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fsocial-networking%2Ftwitter-social-networking%2Ftell-me-your-twitter-success-stories%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fsocial-networking%2Ftwitter-social-networking%2Ftell-me-your-twitter-success-stories%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><div id="attachment_469" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 440px"><a href="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/twitter-bird.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-469" title="Twitter Bird" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/twitter-bird.jpg" alt="" width="430" height="258" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Business Success Stories on Twitter - What&#39;s Yours?</p></div>
<p><strong>I&#8217;m reaching out to my network, which of course includes you, my blog readers; for some real life success stories on how you are using or have used, Twitter for the benefit of your business.</strong></p>
<p>Why am doing this? Well quite simply I want to use your stories as practical, real-life case studies during my Twitter and social media workshops.</p>
<p>Yes I know that a quick Google search will unravel a number of such examples; but these are either related to the big multi-nationals such as Dell who use it to improve &#8220;brand recognition&#8221;, small US based businesses who are relevant to we <acronym title="United Kingdom">UK</acronym> folk, or ropey <acronym title="Multi-Level-Marketing">MLM</acronym> schemes who&#8217;s claims I wouldn&#8217;t believe anyway! All of these I feel are distant from my own business and those of my clients.</p>
<p>Instead, I&#8217;m after some real-life examples from real business that are based here in the <a class="tip" title="Defn of Blighty" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blighty" target="_blank">Blighty</a>. Some stories that people can empathise with.</p>
<p>I want to know how <strong>you use</strong> Twitter to boost <strong>your own business</strong> either in terms of increased sales, improved communications, improving your network (which may in turn lead to more sales), recruiting or increasing your knowledge etc.</p>
<h2>Tangible Examples</h2>
<p>Ideally I&#8217;d like to see some tangible examples that one can put a value on. So please post your examples as a comment to the bottom of this post or if you&#8217;re feeling a bit shy, you can send them through to me <a class="tip" title="Send Your Examples to Me" href="http://www.inetinsights.com/contact-me/">via this website</a>.</p>
<p>To get you thinking, here&#8217;s some possible ways in which some business types may be using Twitter to boost their businesses.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Authors</strong>You may be an author and use Twitter to directly sell your books or improve awareness of a new book launch. How does that work?</li>
<li><strong>Public Relations</strong>PR professionals. How are you using Twitter successfully for your own or your clients&#8217; businesses?</li>
<li><strong>Creative Industries</strong>In the design, web development or photography sectors? Twitter is great for sharing knowledge with your peers, but how else are you using it?</li>
<li><strong>Recruitment</strong>Perhaps your job or your business is involved in the recruitment of people. Tell me why Twitter is good for your business when it comes to getting a placement.</li>
<li><strong>Leisure Industry</strong>Many restaurateurs, holiday companies and even nightclubs and music venues are active on Twitter. But why? What do they get from it? If this is this you, tell me more.</li>
<li><strong>Virtual Assistants.</strong> Having a virtual assistant is all the rage these days for the time strapped business owner and I see plenty of them on Twitter. If you&#8217;re on of them, I&#8217;d love to know how Twitter helps you grow your business.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Measurable Results</h2>
<p>This list isn&#8217;t exhaustive of course, it&#8217;s just there to get you thinking. So whatever business you&#8217;re in, if you use Twitter to give a measurable and beneficial results for your business, then I&#8217;d love to hear your story.</p>
<p>Post your comments below.</p>
<p>Many thanks for your help and don&#8217;t forget, you can follow me on Twitter at <a class="tip" title="iNet inSights on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/inetinsights" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/inetinsights</a></p>
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		<title>Stir Crazy? Are You Nuts?</title>
		<link>http://www.inetinsights.com/business-life/stir-crazy-are-you-nuts/</link>
		<comments>http://www.inetinsights.com/business-life/stir-crazy-are-you-nuts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:24:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jaimie Dobson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business Life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Networking]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.inetinsights.com/?p=1175</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My regular blog readers and Twitter followers will know that over the last couple of weeks or so I&#8217;ve been housebound as far as work is concerned because of the atrocious weather conditions which in themselves have   been exacerbated by the combination of  ungritted roads and sub-zero temperatures. 
Subsequently I have now [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fbusiness-life%2Fstir-crazy-are-you-nuts%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fbusiness-life%2Fstir-crazy-are-you-nuts%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><p><strong>My regular blog readers and <a class="tip" title="Jaimie Dobson on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/inetinsights" target="_blank">Twitter</a> followers <a class="tip" title="Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow" href="http://www.inetinsights.com/business-life/let-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow/">will know</a> that over the last couple of weeks or so I&#8217;ve been housebound as far as work is concerned because of the atrocious weather conditions which in themselves have   been exacerbated by the combination of  ungritted roads and sub-zero temperatures. </strong></p>
<p>Subsequently I have now gone stir crazy!</p>
<p>Amazing when you think about it really! I live in one of the most densely populated areas of Britain with the major cities of Leeds, Bradford and Huddersfield on my doorstep; yet my own car hasn&#8217;t ventured more than a mile from home over the last couple of weeks due to the snow and ice. It seems the whole country is in the same boat and as a result everything has ground to a halt if the TV coverage is to be believed.</p>
<p>Now it has to be said that I&#8217;m used to working from home, having done so for a number of years (<a class="tip" title="Work Form Home - Are You Crazy?" href="http://www.inetinsights.com/business-life/work-from-home-are-you-crazy/">a subject I&#8217;ve blogged about before</a>). However despite all the banter over <a class="tip" title="iNet inSights on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/inetinsights" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a class="tip" title="Become a Fan of Our Facebook Page" href="http://www.facebook.com/inetinsights" target="_blank">Facebook</a> (mainly about the weather to be honest) with my network of associates; the craving to speak to another human being, above and beyond my partner on a face-to-face basis, was starting to build and I began to recognise the signs of cabin fever as it took a grip.</p>
<div id="attachment_1174" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 440px"><a href="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/wibble.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1174" title="Wibble!" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/wibble.jpg" alt="Wibble!" width="430" height="378" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Wibble!</p></div>
<p>So it was a welcome relief to attend my first business networking meeting of the year, namely; <strong>proNet</strong> which met at a local hotel on Tuesday of this week (meetings are every two weeks by the way). <a class="tip" title="proNet Business Networking Group " href="http://www.joinpronet.com" target="_blank">proNet is a business to business networking group</a> that meets over breakfast and proves to be a great source of not only business leads, but actual contact with other human beings. An important issue for we home workers who might not otherwise get to meet kindred spirits when it comes to business.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s an aspect that office and factory workers take for granted and is one of the first things new start-ups, used to to the social environment of a shared workspace, say they miss when entering the world of solitary self-employment.</p>
<p>So its <a class="tip" title="Business Networking Meetings" href="http://www.joinpronet.com" target="_blank">networking events</a> like <strong>proNet </strong>that help fill the void left by the lack of regular human contact that we as animals, need in order to maintain our sanity and motivation. With that in mind I&#8217;m now can&#8217;t wait for the snow to melt, my routine to return to normal and the opportunities of additional human contact through business networking events.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll think I&#8217;ll keep those pencils in my drawer for a little while longer.</p>
<p>Wibble!</p>
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		<title>Boost for Bradford Businesses at Expo</title>
		<link>http://www.inetinsights.com/sales-and-marketing/boost-for-bradford-businesses-at-expo/</link>
		<comments>http://www.inetinsights.com/sales-and-marketing/boost-for-bradford-businesses-at-expo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 09 Jan 2010 11:46:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jaimie Dobson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business Networking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sales and Marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.inetinsights.com/?p=1166</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The first major business event of 2010 in Bradford will be held at the Park Lane Centre on January 28 and its an event iNet inSights is supporting and exhibiting at.
The event will include a networking breakfast featuring an &#8220;ask the experts&#8221; Problem Platform, an exhibition, free information and advice sessions and several workshops and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fsales-and-marketing%2Fboost-for-bradford-businesses-at-expo%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fsales-and-marketing%2Fboost-for-bradford-businesses-at-expo%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><div id="attachment_1167" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 440px"><strong><a href="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/430-park-lane-centre-bradford.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1167" title="The Park Lane Centre, Bradford" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/430-park-lane-centre-bradford.jpg" alt="The Park Lane Centre, Bradford" width="430" height="287" /></a></strong><p class="wp-caption-text">The Park Lane Centre, Bradford</p></div>
<p><strong>The first major business event of 2010 in Bradford will be held at the Park Lane Centre on January 28 and its an event <a class="tip" title="iNet inSights" href="http://www.inetinsights.com">iNet inSights</a> is supporting and exhibiting at.</strong></p>
<p>The event will include a <a class="tip" title="Breakfast Networking Groups" href="http://www.joinpronet.com" target="_blank">networking breakfast</a> featuring an &#8220;ask the experts&#8221; Problem Platform, an exhibition, free information and advice sessions and several workshops and bite-sized interactive sessions on key issues affecting local business people right now.</p>
<p>&#8220;<em>Bradford Expo has been designed to give people that &#8220;buzz&#8221; they&#8217;re looking for to get things moving in the new year,</em>&#8221; says Charlotte Bourke from <a class="tip" title="Bradford Grid" href="http://bradfordgrid.com" target="_blank">Bradford GRID*</a>, one of the organisers.</p>
<p>The Expo starts at 7.30am with a <a class="tip" title="Breakfast Networking Event" href="http://www.joinpronet.com" target="_blank">breakfast networking event from Pronet</a>. This will include a Problem Platform, a knowledge transfer slot, informal networking and the opportunity to make a 60-seconds pitch about your business to the rest of the room.</p>
<p>This will be followed by an exhibition in the main hall at the Park Lane Centre, where specialists will be offering information and advice on</p>
<ul>
<li> Bookkeeping and accountancy</li>
<li>HR and recruitment</li>
<li>Banking and finance</li>
<li>Marketing, advertising and PR</li>
<li> Internet marketing solutions and training</li>
<li>Legal matters</li>
<li>IT solutions</li>
<li>Social enterprise</li>
<li>Business advice, coaching and mentoring (from Bradford Kickstart and Yorkshire Business Link)</li>
<li>Personal development and training</li>
</ul>
<p>In addition there will be a series of short, drop-in workshops on these and related topics.</p>
<p>Admission to the Expo is £10 on the door or £5 in <a class="tip" title="Book Tickets Online" href="http://bradfordexpo.eventsbot.com" target="_blank">advance online</a> with all visitors entered into a free prize draw &#8211; drawn at the end of the event at around 2pm.</p>
<p>Each of the &#8220;experts&#8221; on the day has offered a free 2hr consultation as prizes.</p>
<p>Charlotte Bourke says: &#8220;<em>We believe this is the first event of its kind in Bradford that provides local business people with the opportunity to acquire valuable knowledge and information to sustain and grow their business, do some networking, bring along colleagues, contacts and clients and get that little bit of extra support we all need in times like these</em>.&#8221;</p>
<p>To book a ticket into the Expo click on the button below to book online.<br />
<a title="Register Now" href="http://bradfordexpo.eventsbot.com"><img class="aligncenter" style="border-width: 0px;" src="http://www.eventsbot.com/images/Reg-2.jpg" alt="Book Now" /></a><br />
To book at place at the business breakfast networking meeting go to: <a href="http://pronetbradford.eventsbot.com" target="_blank">http://pronetbradford.eventsbot.com</a> or drop an email to <a href="mailto:membership@joinpronet.com%20">membership@joinpronet.com </a></p>
<p>Photo Credit: <a title="John Steel Photography" href="http://www.johnsteelphotography.com/" target="_blank" class="tip">John Steel Photography</a></p>
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		<title>Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!</title>
		<link>http://www.inetinsights.com/business-life/let-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow/</link>
		<comments>http://www.inetinsights.com/business-life/let-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:50:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aman Sihint</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business Life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cloud Computing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.inetinsights.com/?p=1158</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Unless you live in a cave without a TV, internet connection or even a window; then you&#8217;ll have noticed that the UK is currently covered in a blanket of snow which is causing major disruption to the working populous and economic damage to the tune of £600 million a day according to the FSB (video [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fbusiness-life%2Flet-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fbusiness-life%2Flet-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><div id="attachment_1161" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 440px"><strong><a href="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/uk-snow.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1161" title="It's been snowing" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/uk-snow.jpg" alt="" width="430" height="269" /></a></strong><p class="wp-caption-text">It&#39;s been snowing</p></div>
<p><strong>Unless you live in a cave without a TV, internet connection or even a window; then you&#8217;ll have noticed that the UK is currently covered in a blanket of snow which is causing major disruption to the working populous and economic damage to the tune of £600 million a day according to the <acronym title="Federation of Small Business">FSB</acronym> (video clip below).</strong></p>
<p><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="430" height="264" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0xopxEuhJ-U&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1&amp;" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="430" height="264" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0xopxEuhJ-U&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1&amp;" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></p>
<p>Airports are shut, schools are taking &#8220;snow days&#8221;, cars are being abandoned left, right and centre and millions of commuters are staying at home rather than brave the elements to get into work. Who can blame them?</p>
<h2>Work from Home</h2>
<div id="attachment_1163" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 435px"><a href="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/iStock_000000867016XSmall1.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1163" title="Working from Home" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/iStock_000000867016XSmall1.jpg" alt="" width="425" height="282" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Working from Home</p></div>
<p>I work from home as a matter of course; my daily commute takes me up the stairs into my office at the back of the house and as such, I&#8217;m little affected by the current atmospheric behaviour. To be honest, my car hasn&#8217;t moved off the drive since before New Year&#8217;s Eve and if the present weather continues, it&#8217;s unlikely to.</p>
<p>As you&#8217;d expect, I&#8217;m all tooled up when it comes to working from home. I have a decent broadband internet connection which allows me to connect seamlessly with my remotely placed associates, I&#8217;m mobile courtesy of my Blackberry and I can share and access files amongst my peers and clients thanks to the delights of <a class="tip" title="Cloud Computing Related Posts" href="http://www.inetinsights.com/tag/cloud-computing/">cloud computing</a>.</p>
<h2>Remote Working</h2>
<p>However, many of my clients don&#8217;t have this luxury as they are tied to their office. So if they can&#8217;t get in, they can&#8217;t work (a luxury in itself some would say!).</p>
<p>But it doesn&#8217;t have to be this way; and if there&#8217;s one thing the current conditions have conveniently demonstrated is that more and more companies are grabbing and using the available technology such as <acronym title="Virtual Private Networks">VPN&#8217;s</acronym>, <a class="tip" title="Blog Posts on Cloud Computing" href="http://www.inetinsights.com/tag/cloud-computing/">cloud computing </a>and <acronym title="Internet Protocol">IP</acronym> telephony to deploy an infrastructure that allows their employees to work remotely from the office.</p>
<p>Great for snow days!</p>
<p>Evidence of this can be seen from the public <a class="tip" title="Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/" target="_blank">Twitter</a> stream. People are talking about the weather yes (as we <abbr title="British">Brits</abbr> like to do anyway), but people are also proudly boasting that the commuting adversity is not an issue for them as they are &#8220;working from home&#8221;.</p>
<h2>Get Tooled Up</h2>
<p>So if you&#8217;re in business for yourself working out of an office or if you run an office based business that employs people; how badly are you affected by the snow? Is their scope for yourself or your employees to work remotely from home in the event of continuing snow days?</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re not already tooled up to cope then perhaps you should be. Think of all that productive time being lost because of a few flakes of snow!</p>
<p><a href="mailto:hello@inetinsights.com">Drop me an email</a> if you&#8217;re interested in talking to someone who can get your people all tooled up with the right <acronym title="Information Technology">IT</acronym> infrastructure that allows them to take guilt free snow days.</p>
<p>So much global warming huh?</p>
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		<title>How to Control Who Sees What in Your Facebook Profile</title>
		<link>http://www.inetinsights.com/social-networking/facebook/how-to-control-who-sees-what-in-your-facebook-profile/</link>
		<comments>http://www.inetinsights.com/social-networking/facebook/how-to-control-who-sees-what-in-your-facebook-profile/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:43:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jaimie Dobson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Networking]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.inetinsights.com/?p=1144</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ 
If you use Facebook for a mixture of business and pleasure; then you&#8217;re best controlling who sees what on your profile if you don&#8217;t want to embarrass yourself or lose credibility with your clients and business associates. But how do you go about it? 
I&#8217;ve been on Facebook, the omnipotent social networking site for [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fsocial-networking%2Ffacebook%2Fhow-to-control-who-sees-what-in-your-facebook-profile%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fsocial-networking%2Ffacebook%2Fhow-to-control-who-sees-what-in-your-facebook-profile%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><p><a href="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/facebook.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-560" title="Facebook" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/facebook.jpg" alt="" width="430" height="252" /></a><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>If you use Facebook for a mixture of business and pleasure; then you&#8217;re best controlling who sees what on your profile if you don&#8217;t want to embarrass yourself or lose credibility with your clients and business associates. But how do you go about it? </strong></p>
<p>I&#8217;ve been on <a title="Jaimie Dobson on Facebook" href="http://www.facebook.com/jaimie.dobson" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, the omnipotent social networking site for about two and a half years now and most people who like me, use it for work and domestic purposes; have accumulated an eclectic mix of old school buddies, business clients, networking associates and historical work colleagues not to mention a small pool of virtual friends with various family members seeking me out along the way.</p>
<p>The danger of maintaining this type of &#8216;relationship soup&#8217; on something like Facebook is that one&#8217;s <a class="tip" title="Facebook Wall" href="http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=443#/help.php?page=820" target="_blank">Wall</a> can easily become a mosaic of business orientated blog posts, embarrassing pictures of yourself naked in some compromising situation through to family day-outs with your kids. Then there&#8217;s the banter between you and your mates in public message threads. Does everyone you know really need to learn what you think about so-and-so football team, that girl on X-Factor or in the case of one of my FB friends (who is also a business associate of mine) their somewhat bigoted religious views? Gulp!</p>
<h2>Work Around</h2>
<p>However there is a way around this, a method that allows you to post merrily away without offending anyone, embarrassing yourself or alienating some of your Facebook friends. A way to ensure that all friends from the various threads of you life, can mingle together simultaneously on your Facebook profile, without one &#8220;type&#8221; of friend seeing what is happening with the other &#8220;types&#8221; of friends you may have.</p>
<p>The answer is &#8220;Friends Lists&#8221; and &#8220;Privacy Settings&#8221;</p>
<h2>Here&#8217;s The Idea:</h2>
<ul>
<li>You <strong>create a Friend List</strong> for each type of &#8216;Friend&#8217; you may have. For example you could have one for &#8220;Business Associates&#8221;, one for &#8220;Networking Associates&#8221; and one for &#8220;Family&#8221;.</li>
<li>You <strong>segment or group your friends</strong> together by deciding what type of &#8220;Friend&#8221; they are i.e. a family member, business associate or networking associate etc and by adding them to the appropriate list.</li>
<li>Under your Facebook account&#8217;s <a class="tip" title="Facebook Privacy Settings" href="http://www.facebook.com/privacy" target="_blank">Privacy Settings</a>, you then <strong>assign different viewing access levels</strong> to each list. In other words, you specify what &#8220;Friends&#8221; within a particular list can and cannot see, when it comes to activity on your Facebook Profile.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Here&#8217;s How&#8230;</h2>
<p>1. Go to your <a class="tip" title="Facebook Friends page" href="http://www.facebook.com/friends/" target="_blank">Friends Page</a> when logged into Facebook. On the left hand side you will see the default Lists already set-up in your account. Click on the <a class="tip" title="All Your Connections on Facebook" href="http://www.facebook.com/friends/#/friends/?filter=ac" target="_blank">All Connections</a> filter in the top-left of the page. This will bring up a &#8220;Create New List&#8221; button at the top of the page.</p>
<div id="attachment_1145" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 440px"><a href="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/create-new-list.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1145" title="Creating a new Friend List on Facebook" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/create-new-list.jpg" alt="" width="430" height="305" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Creating a new Friend List on Facebook</p></div>
<p>Start creating lists that you feel are appropriate by clicking this button. You can see the lists I have created below as an example.</p>
<div id="attachment_1146" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 209px"><a href="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/lists.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1146 " title="Facebook Friend Lists" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/lists.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="316" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Facebook Friend Lists</p></div>
<p>2. When you&#8217;ve created all the lists you want (more can be added later if required), it&#8217;s time to start adding your Friends to your lists. This is done by simply editing the List or by choosing a List name from the &#8220;Add to List&#8221; drop-down option next to a Friends name in the list under the <a title="All Connections" href="http://www.facebook.com/friends/#/friends/?filter=ac" target="_blank">All Connections</a> filter. Any particular Friend may be added to more than one list at a time, however I would recommend keeping one Friend to one list for simplicity.</p>
<div id="attachment_1147" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 440px"><a href="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/addtolist.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1147" title="Add your friends to a list" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/addtolist.jpg" alt="" width="430" height="156" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Add your friends to a list</p></div>
<p>3. Once you&#8217;ve assigned all your Friends to a particular list go to the <a title="Facebook Privacy Settings" href="http://www.facebook.com/privacy" target="_blank">Privacy Settings</a> page on your account. Click into the first item you see which is called &#8220;Profile Information&#8221;. On each element of your profile you can choose what aspects different list members can see.Choose the &#8220;Customise&#8221; option and then type in the name of a <strong>Friend List</strong> that you want to add as an exception. <a href="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/customise.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1148" title="customise" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/customise.jpg" alt="" width="430" height="67" /></a></p>
<p>4. Click the Save Setting button and you&#8217;re done.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/hidefrom.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1150" title="hidefrom" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/hidefrom.jpg" alt="" width="430" height="242" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Top Tip: Click on the Preview Profile button (top right) to see how your profile looks to different types of people. </strong></p>
<p>Post comments as to how useful you find this technique.</p>
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		<title>UK Online Spending Tops £5bn During November</title>
		<link>http://www.inetinsights.com/ecommerce/uk-online-spending-tops-5bn-during-november/</link>
		<comments>http://www.inetinsights.com/ecommerce/uk-online-spending-tops-5bn-during-november/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:56:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jaimie Dobson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[eCommerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[E-Commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Online Shopping]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.inetinsights.com/?p=1141</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Figures just released by IMRG reveal that UK consumer spending for November 2009 was up by a quarter compared to the previous month and by 11% against 2008.
This news comes just after the BBC reports of critisism levied by the consumer advisory group Which?, who claim that many online retailers are breaking the law when [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fecommerce%2Fuk-online-spending-tops-5bn-during-november%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fecommerce%2Fuk-online-spending-tops-5bn-during-november%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><p><a href="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/retail-footfall.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-347" title="Retail Location and Footfall" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/retail-footfall.jpg" alt="" width="425" height="282" /></a></p>
<p><a class="tip" title="IMRG" href="http://www.imrg.org/8025741F0065E9B8/(httpNews)/7329DE3FCBD5DED9802576930034D42C?OpenDocument" target="_blank"><strong>Figures just released by IMRG</strong></a><strong> reveal that UK consumer spending for November 2009 was up by a quarter compared to the previous month and by 11% against 2008.</strong></p>
<p>This news comes just after the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8421714.stm" target="_blank">BBC reports</a> of critisism levied by the consumer advisory group <a class="tip" title="Which Magazine" href="http://www.which.co.uk/" target="_blank">Which?</a>, who claim that many online retailers are breaking the law when it comes to complying with the <a title="Distance Selling Regulations" href="http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/legal/distance-selling-regulations/" target="_blank">Distance Selling Regulations</a>.</p>
<h2>Not Surprised</h2>
<p>Neither of these stories surprise me if I&#8217;m honest.</p>
<p>Even though my household generally lives its life online, when it comes to Christmas shopping we&#8217;re traditionalists at heart; preferring to trawl around the retail parks rather than click away when it comes to filling our Christmas stockings.</p>
<p>However this year the allure and convenience of online shopping won us over particularly when faced with the pressures of limited time due to work commitments, apathy at leaving the house (brought on by bad weather and a touch of the lurgy) coupled with the need to watch the pennies this year. I suspect others are the same to a lesser or greater degree on all these counts, hence the shift towards the e-tailing platform by many shoppers.</p>
<p>As for Which?. They were critical of the websites&#8217; of many major chains including <a class="tip" title="Marks and Spencer" href="http://www.marksandspencer.com/" target="_blank">Marks and Spencer&#8217;s</a> and <a class="tip" title="Game" href="http://www.game.co.uk/" target="_blank">Game</a>, who quite frankly, should know better and are suitably resourced to ensure they are compliant.</p>
<p>However it&#8217;s not the big names that we need to worry about when it comes to making sure we as consumers, are suitably protected by the law when purchasing online. After all, should it ever &#8216;kick-off&#8217; then you&#8217;ve got a lot to lose Mr <abbr title="Marks and Spencer">M&amp;S</abbr> and besides, we <em>all</em> know where you live!</p>
<p>Instead it&#8217;s the smaller retailers, the virtual businesses, the &#8216;drop shippers&#8217; and the back bedroom entrepreneurs who at best, are misinformed or oblivious to their legal obligations; or at worst, are deliberately out to deceive us; that we need to worry about.</p>
<h2>Low Barriers to Entry</h2>
<p>The problem, some would say, is that the barriers to selling online are very low and policing is practically non-existent.</p>
<p>Think about it!</p>
<p>For as little as a couple hundred quid or so, anyone can download a free shopping cart such as <a class="tip" title="OS Commerce" href="http://www.oscommerce.com/" target="_blank">OS Commerce</a>, fill it full of products then bolt-on a <a href="http://www.paypal.co.uk" target="_blank">PayPal</a> account or even a simple web form that captures credit card details and Bob&#8217;s your uncle! You&#8217;re online selling! Minimal technical skills required and no real business behind it all, is needed.</p>
<p>To be fair there already is a whole raft of legislation when it comes to selling online. This ranges from the Distance Selling Regulations mentioned above, the <a class="tip" title="PCI Standards Council" href="https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/index.shtml" target="_blank">PCI standards</a> and the <a class="tip" title="Trade Descriptions Act" href="http://www.connexions-direct.com/index.cfm?pid=176&amp;catalogueContentID=358" target="_blank">Trade Descriptions Act</a> to name but a few. The banks try to do their bit, by dictating a standard of website before they will grant a merchant account, but judging by the number of e-commerce websites that I come across on a regular basis that fail to make the grade; the current level of policing isn&#8217;t enough to ensure adequate consumer protection.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="http://www.perfumemurder.com/" target="_blank">take a look at this website </a> I came across recently. What&#8217;s wrong with it? Answers on a very large postcard please to&#8230;</p>
<h2>My Top 10 Warning Signs</h2>
<p>So to help consumers spot the warning signs, I&#8217;ve compiled a list of the top ten characteristics shoppers need to look out for if they want to buy with confidence from an e-commerce website.</p>
<ol>
<li>Is there an easy way to contact the website owners other than email i.e. by telephone or post?</li>
<li>Is their telephone line answered by a knowledgeable human being? Give it a try.</li>
<li>Is there a real-world bricks and mortar postal address available on the site?</li>
<li>Is the company that runs the website a limited company? Look for a company registration number and check they exist on the <a class="tip" title="Companies House" href="http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/" target="_blank">Companies House</a> website. Not essential, but a limited company is easier to track down.</li>
<li>Do they offer a clear delivery and returns policy? What guarantees do they offer in case of non-delivery or faulty products?</li>
<li>What is their payment policy, do they take a good leaf out of Amazon&#8217;s book and only take payment from your card as your goods are dispatched?</li>
<li>Are there other customer reviews or ratings (ideally user generated) on their website? What do they say?</li>
<li>How does the website handle credit cards? Look for the secure padlock symbol and ideally an association with a well known card processing provider perhaps linked to a major bank or a provider such as <a class="tip" title="SagePay" href="http://www.sagepay.com" target="_blank">SagePay</a> or <a class="tip" title="WorldPay" href="http://www.worldpay.co.uk" target="_blank">WorldPay</a>.</li>
<li>If you have doubts about the website, try googling them to see what other references there are to them on the web. You could be surprised what a search brings up.</li>
<li>Finally, does the design and shopping process you experience on the website, make you feel comfortable? If it doesn&#8217;t abandon your purchase and look elsewhere.</li>
</ol>
<p>This list isn&#8217;t exhaustive, post your own suggestions below.</p>
<p>Happy Christmas to you all.</p>
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		<title>It&#8217;s Not About &#8220;Selling&#8221; to People!</title>
		<link>http://www.inetinsights.com/sales-and-marketing/its-not-about-selling-to-people/</link>
		<comments>http://www.inetinsights.com/sales-and-marketing/its-not-about-selling-to-people/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:12:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Philip J Gwynne</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Guest Bloggers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sales and Marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.inetinsights.com/?p=1129</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Judging by the number of books there are about “how to sell”, the business world must be full of salespeople and their managers who all believe that they could and should be selling more&#8230; if they only knew how.
If only they knew the right sales techniques&#8230; or had the right sales staff&#8230; or the right [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fsales-and-marketing%2Fits-not-about-selling-to-people%2F"><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.inetinsights.com%2Fsales-and-marketing%2Fits-not-about-selling-to-people%2F" height="61" width="51" /></a></div><div id="attachment_1107" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 435px"><img class="size-full wp-image-1107" title="Confused? You Will Be?" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/iStock_000002098320XSmall.jpg" alt="Confused about what we do?" width="425" height="282" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Confused about selling?</p></div>
<p><strong>Judging by the number of books there are about “how to sell”, the business world must be full of salespeople and their managers who all believe that they could and should be selling more&#8230; if they only knew how.</strong></p>
<p>If only they knew the right sales techniques&#8230; or had the right sales staff&#8230; or the right training&#8230; or any “if only” excuse you can think of&#8230;</p>
<p>But ask yourself:</p>
<ul>
<li>How can a book you dip into during the train journey into work or read for a few minutes at lunchtime or turn to in the evening while you’ve got one eye on the telly… how can that teach you how to “do” selling?</li>
<li>How can something written by a complete stranger… who knows nothing about you or your organisation or your products/services or your customers … how can that teach you how to “do” selling?</li>
<li>How can something that’s written for a mass-market&#8230; one size fits all&#8230; how can that teach you how to “do” selling?</li>
</ul>
<p>Then there are all the seminars, conferences, training events, lectures, presentations and exhibitions that are about “how to sell”.</p>
<p>A lot of so-called selling experts are making a lot of money because they know that the business world is full of people who are searching for some kind of magic solution that’ll put their sales into orbit. Everyone, apparently, is looking in the wrong place. Must be, or else why do so many of them keep buying all those how to “do” selling books and attending all those events?</p>
<p>The starting point to getting more people to buy more of what we’re selling is to understand that</p>
<p align="center"><strong>SALES SUCCESS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH “SELLING” TO PEOPLE.</strong></p>
<h2>What Works and What Doesn&#8217;t</h2>
<p>In a career as a marketing and business growth specialist, I have had the privilege of working alongside lots of sales people, (some good, some bad, some indifferent!) and their managers (ditto) and their employers in all kinds of businesses, big and small, and in all kinds of trades. In both the public sector and private enterprise. I’ve been able to observe at close quarters what “works”&#8230; and what doesn’t&#8230; in creating a successful and effective sales environment.</p>
<p>What doesn’t work is trying to “sell” to people. What works is:</p>
<p>Repeatedly and deliberately creating the circumstances in which people actively want to buy what you’re offering.</p>
<h2>Create the Circumstances</h2>
<p>How much easier and more rewarding would your life be if you didn’t need to put so much of your time, effort, energy and resources every day into “selling” because instead you have created the circumstances where your customers and potential customers come to you. Actively, willingly and happily. Time and again. And, just for good measure, recruit their family, friends, neighbours and colleagues as additional customers on your behalf.</p>
<p>Too good to be true? Back in the real world you have to slog every day in order to make that sale and earn that wage?</p>
<p>If that’s so, maybe it’s because “<strong>SELLING” DOESN’T WORK!</strong>&#8221; And that’s no reflection on your abilities as a salesperson.</p>
<p>Just about everyone of us is naturally capable of repeatedly creating the circumstances in which people actively want what we’re offering.</p>
<p>The key is to understand how to recognize and harness that natural ability and channel it into sustaining and growing our business.</p>
<hr size="1" />
<h3>About the Author</h3>
<div id="attachment_1133" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 160px"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-1133" title="Philip J Gwynne of The Naked Markting Company" src="http://www.inetinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/4035542352_dab8c955d5_m-150x150.jpg" alt="Philip J Gwynne of The Naked Markting Company" width="150" height="150" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Philip J Gwynne of The Naked Markting Company</p></div>
<p>This post has been written by guest blogger Philip J Gwynne of <a class="tip" title="The naked Marketing Company" href="http://www.thenakedmarketingcompany.com" target="_blank">The Naked Marketing Company</a> who are based in Bradford West Yorkshire in the UK. Philip is dedicated to helping business owners &amp; managers sustain and grow their business and achieve their goals with practical workshops in “<em>How To Get More People To Buy More Of What You Are Selling</em>”, “<em>How To Make Sure Your Marketing Is Working</em>”, and “<em>How To Be An Even Better Manager</em>”.</p>
<p>For more information call Philip on 01274 413180, mob 07549 153391 or contact him by email on <a href="mailto:enquiries@thenakedmarketingcompany.com">enquiries@thenakedmarketingcompany.com</a></p>
<p><strong>If you would like to guest post on this blog, first <a class="tip" title="Need to know stuff about guest blogging" href="http://www.inetinsights.com/blogging/guest-blogging-and-an-invitation-to-blog/">read this</a> and then <a title="Enquire about guest blogging" href="http://www.inetinsights.com/contact-me/">contact me</a>. </strong></p>
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