SME Blog

Web 2.0

If you are curious to find out what Web 2.0 actually means then this video is a good place to start. The fuzziness disappears when the video is played.

As the video mentions Web 2.0 is about linking people.  The online social networks and communities are quite possibly the most exciting development of internet technologies. See ning for just one example. 

My thanks go to Justin Dean for pointing the video out to me.  Justin found me via the Terapad post below. Interestingly, I then found Justin via the community link on the right hand bar of this blog. Thanks Justin.

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Terapad

How much would you pay for a new online presence?  Not just a traditional website where you have a content management system to edit and load content, but one that allows for a blog, discussion forums, rss feeds and the ability to accept payments? Add that it is brain dead easy to use and it starts to look tempting.  Rather brilliantly, Terapad give it to you for free.

I love this system. It is perfect for the small business or not for profit.  Use their templates or create your own look. A little outlay on design and you can easily make your site something quite special. 

I was expecting support to be non existent when I sent an email query.  Instead, I got a fast and enthusiastic response and a simple answer to my query. 

Terapad is well worth investigating and it is refreshing to see a system that is actually far better than the marketing that promotes it.

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MYOB and 21st century business thinking

MYOB are fascinating example of a business thinking in the 21^st century rather than the last. MYOB are traditionally seen as a provider of business software with strong sector strength in the accounting profession. In the accounting profession they occupy a position of trust. Their name and their products are extremely well known.

Technology has done a great deal to remove geographical restrictions with routine tasks being outsourced away from the UK where costs are far lower. The benefit to the company outsourcing should be reduced cost, the ability to deal with peaks and the ability to specialise in higher level areas. For this to work you need to trust the provider that they can deliver and provide work of high enough quality. MYOB have obviously given this some serious thought because they now not only supply business software they also provide an outsourcing service to their clients.

In short they have:

I recently met MYOB's David Clough who is leading the charge. David is very knowledgeable and a quick preview indicates that much thought and time has been given to making the service work well for their clients.

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New media

Media and technology make for an exhilarating mix.  The new media has allowed companies and organisations to engage with their customers in new ways.  Business sectors known to be traditionally conservative now have blogs and podcasts.

The technology used does not replace the age old media requirement for good content.  A good demonstration of the importance of content can be found by considering the BBC.  The BBC uses technology as the tool with which to deliver its content.  The BBC website provides more than just news it also provides online radio, video and podcasts.  Recently it was given the green light to put television content online by the Trustees. The BBC has an awesome archive of content and the potential revenue streams that could be generated in the future from this new media property are enormous.   

The SME doesn’t have the BBC’s content (or web hits), but it still needs good content to attract its  target audience of customers and potential customers.  That may sound obvious, but how many website projects concentrate on graphics, layout and the technicalities of how to load content without much thought to the content itself?  Very often the content is the customer’s job.  Unfortunately, it turns out that the customer may be an excellent distributor (say), but is not such a wonderful writer.

Writing good content is hard work even with professional help.  Why bother?  Isn’t the cost of writing the content greater than the benefit?  Absolutely not!  Writing good content for SME’s is about finding out what customers value and care about.  Anytime spent understanding your customer and demonstrating the fact is always going to be time well spent.

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