From Telegraph.co.uk...
"A former employee of recruitment firm Hays has been ordered by the High Court to hand over business contacts built up on his personal page of the social networking site LinkedIn...
...Mark Ions, a "middle ranked" consultant operating in Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh, allegedly used his LinkedIn network to approach clients for his own rival agency called Exclusive Human Resources, which he set up in May last year, three weeks before resigning from Hays Specialist Recruitment.
Mr Ions' solicitor told the court that Hays encouraged his use of the site and that once Hays' contacts accepted his invitation to join his network they ceased to be confidential as they could be contacted by anyone in his personal network.
Mr Justice Richards last week ordered Mr Ions to disclose his LinkedIn business contacts requested by Hays and all emails sent to or received by his LinkedIn account from Hays' computer network.
Mr Ions was also ordered to disclose all documents, including invoices and emails, that showed any use by him of the LinkedIn contacts and any business obtained from them."
This is a groundbreaking case and for anyone involved in sales, commerce or business development, it provides case law that should be noted.
If you use your LinkedIn network, during working hours, on your employer's IT network, for the purposes of soliciting business from your employer, you should be aware that in the eyes of the law, the fact that you use a "personal" email account, this doesn't let you off the hook.
Employment law is what it's always been - designed to protect employers from rogue employees - and the law just caught up with the latest technology.
Tuesday 17 June 2008
Sunday 8 June 2008
Don't Be Mediocre, Be A Generalist
Here's a problem. Most e-commerce websites suck. They're average, sub-optimal.
They suck. If they were high street shops you'd see what I mean. Some would not be signposted. My mother would not be able to find anything she wanted in the store, let alone figure out how to pay. They might not even be found if you called directory enquiries. Lighting would be poor, there would be no space to park and you'd be unsure if you were being served by rip-off merchants or a legitimate business.
Sure, there are some great websites out there. A few. However, because web customers are in many ways "invisible" to the businesses that are trying to serve them, site managers running these sites get away with mediocrity.
Small businesses or large businesses, the problem is the same.
In small businesses you need an all rounder running your web business: he or she needs to be able to do a bit of everything and do it really well to be effective. These all-rounders are few and far between. So - good websites for small businesses are few and far between.
In a large web business, you end up with different "specialists" taking on different roles. You get the design team, the merchandising team, the online marketing team, the tech team, the product planning team, the analytics team, etc. They are all brilliant at what they do. Brilliant.
Just why does the site that you end up with suck if they are brilliant? The really great websites are the ones where the teams do "joined up thinking". The site design team know something about SEO. The analytics team knows something about PPC. The product planning team understand affiliate marketing. If they all understand the basic principles behind all of the main disciplines, you'll do fine. If not you can end up with mediocrity. Division of labour brings pockets of excellence and general mediocrity.
The solution to me is clear: every person involved in delivering the website and running it should be familiar with the basics of how all the main disciplines work.
I will give somple examples of what are these "key disciplines" that are needed to overcome mediocrity and suggest 5 tips on how to acquire those skills. I don't for a moment suggest that anyone can be an "expert" in all of these areas. What I am suggesting is that everyone in an ecommerce business that can affect the business results needs to be a "generalist" and be fluent in the basic principles.
This is true whether you are a one-person site manager doing everything or whether you are a specialist in a big company.
Consider ecommerce websites to be like high street shops. If you are running a traditional "bricks and mortar" business, you need to do three things...
1. Attract customers
2. Persuade them to buy when they come through the door. (And ideally, maximise this so that they
buy more than they would normally have done).
3. Encourage them to come back to shop again and become a regular "repeat customer".
Quite simply, running a website / web service is all about customer acquisition, conversion and retention.
Acquisition
Retail is all about selling the right product to the right person at the right time. So to get this right, there's some preparation needed in terms of customer insight / research, developing a brand, building a proposition, product planning & strategy, business case modelling. Then once you have a product you need a communications plan, (including, but not excluding online PR). On a technical side, you need to understand search engine optimisation (3 core pillars; site structure, content and reputation), search engine marketing (paid search), affiliate marketing, social media optimisation, RSS, blogs, ad serving.
Conversion
Here, the most important discipline is user-centred design, also information architecture, followed closely by merchandising techniques and understanding effective calls to action. Think about good error handling, optimising shopping "funnels", accessibility, compelling copy writing, tactical promotions and you might just have scratched the surface.
Retention
Plenty to learn about here too, from email marketing to direct mail (CRM), use of confirmation emails, special offers, customer database management and that's just scratching the surface.
And more...
Underpinning all of the above is a good understanding of web analytics (for traffic sources, keyword analysis, conversion tracking - and a whole lot more).
And to get stuff done, to make it all happen they also need to understand a little about technical things like technical architecture, software development methodologies, project management techniques, be a great tester.
To add some real flavour to the mix, key principles of many academic disciplines come in useful, economics, sociology and psychology.
And to be effective in business generally, you need to know about HR issues for the countries in which you operate, be a great manager, have good negotiation skills, know a little bit about contract law.
If you find someone who does all of the above well and them let them loose on your website - now you're talking! Also, point them my way, I'd love to meet them!
So - if you're just starting out...
5 tips to become a great E-commerce "generalist"
1. Work with great people
We learn so much from working with other people. Put yourself with the best you can find and learn from them. Soak it up.
2. Apply yourself
This industry is only about 10 years old. Most of the so called experts became experts by just applying themselves and learning from their mistakes. You can too.
3. Attend training
If you can, go on specialist training courses. There are few places such as e-consultancy.com where you can get a kick start
4. Read, read and read
You can never read enough. Some of my favourite books are listed here if you need ideas.
5. Have a go
For me this is the most important advice of all. Have a go! I didn't know anything about setting up RSS feeds until I had to do one for this blog. Figure it out, and just try.
One day, most websites will be great. Until then, if you are a "generalist", go make some money!
"The General"
They suck. If they were high street shops you'd see what I mean. Some would not be signposted. My mother would not be able to find anything she wanted in the store, let alone figure out how to pay. They might not even be found if you called directory enquiries. Lighting would be poor, there would be no space to park and you'd be unsure if you were being served by rip-off merchants or a legitimate business.
Sure, there are some great websites out there. A few. However, because web customers are in many ways "invisible" to the businesses that are trying to serve them, site managers running these sites get away with mediocrity.
Small businesses or large businesses, the problem is the same.
In small businesses you need an all rounder running your web business: he or she needs to be able to do a bit of everything and do it really well to be effective. These all-rounders are few and far between. So - good websites for small businesses are few and far between.
In a large web business, you end up with different "specialists" taking on different roles. You get the design team, the merchandising team, the online marketing team, the tech team, the product planning team, the analytics team, etc. They are all brilliant at what they do. Brilliant.
Just why does the site that you end up with suck if they are brilliant? The really great websites are the ones where the teams do "joined up thinking". The site design team know something about SEO. The analytics team knows something about PPC. The product planning team understand affiliate marketing. If they all understand the basic principles behind all of the main disciplines, you'll do fine. If not you can end up with mediocrity. Division of labour brings pockets of excellence and general mediocrity.
The solution to me is clear: every person involved in delivering the website and running it should be familiar with the basics of how all the main disciplines work.
I will give somple examples of what are these "key disciplines" that are needed to overcome mediocrity and suggest 5 tips on how to acquire those skills. I don't for a moment suggest that anyone can be an "expert" in all of these areas. What I am suggesting is that everyone in an ecommerce business that can affect the business results needs to be a "generalist" and be fluent in the basic principles.
This is true whether you are a one-person site manager doing everything or whether you are a specialist in a big company.
Consider ecommerce websites to be like high street shops. If you are running a traditional "bricks and mortar" business, you need to do three things...
1. Attract customers
2. Persuade them to buy when they come through the door. (And ideally, maximise this so that they
buy more than they would normally have done).
3. Encourage them to come back to shop again and become a regular "repeat customer".
Quite simply, running a website / web service is all about customer acquisition, conversion and retention.
Acquisition
Retail is all about selling the right product to the right person at the right time. So to get this right, there's some preparation needed in terms of customer insight / research, developing a brand, building a proposition, product planning & strategy, business case modelling. Then once you have a product you need a communications plan, (including, but not excluding online PR). On a technical side, you need to understand search engine optimisation (3 core pillars; site structure, content and reputation), search engine marketing (paid search), affiliate marketing, social media optimisation, RSS, blogs, ad serving.
Conversion
Here, the most important discipline is user-centred design, also information architecture, followed closely by merchandising techniques and understanding effective calls to action. Think about good error handling, optimising shopping "funnels", accessibility, compelling copy writing, tactical promotions and you might just have scratched the surface.
Retention
Plenty to learn about here too, from email marketing to direct mail (CRM), use of confirmation emails, special offers, customer database management and that's just scratching the surface.
And more...
Underpinning all of the above is a good understanding of web analytics (for traffic sources, keyword analysis, conversion tracking - and a whole lot more).
And to get stuff done, to make it all happen they also need to understand a little about technical things like technical architecture, software development methodologies, project management techniques, be a great tester.
To add some real flavour to the mix, key principles of many academic disciplines come in useful, economics, sociology and psychology.
And to be effective in business generally, you need to know about HR issues for the countries in which you operate, be a great manager, have good negotiation skills, know a little bit about contract law.
If you find someone who does all of the above well and them let them loose on your website - now you're talking! Also, point them my way, I'd love to meet them!
So - if you're just starting out...
5 tips to become a great E-commerce "generalist"
1. Work with great people
We learn so much from working with other people. Put yourself with the best you can find and learn from them. Soak it up.
2. Apply yourself
This industry is only about 10 years old. Most of the so called experts became experts by just applying themselves and learning from their mistakes. You can too.
3. Attend training
If you can, go on specialist training courses. There are few places such as e-consultancy.com where you can get a kick start
4. Read, read and read
You can never read enough. Some of my favourite books are listed here if you need ideas.
5. Have a go
For me this is the most important advice of all. Have a go! I didn't know anything about setting up RSS feeds until I had to do one for this blog. Figure it out, and just try.
One day, most websites will be great. Until then, if you are a "generalist", go make some money!
"The General"
Friday 6 June 2008
Do I Know You?
This really made me laugh.
One of our senior guys (he shall remain nameless) showed us the perils of working in such a fast growing company.
We share our offices with many other companies, we're on the 6th floor...
He said, "I guess there are quite a lot of people that have joined us lately. On the way up in the lift this morning I spoke to a girl that I was convinced is working for us. I introduced myself and asked her if she was enjoying her new job. She answered a little hesitantly. Actually, she looked slightly shocked but I thought she was just a little apprehensive about speaking to one of the bosses. However, I was a little perplexed when she walked out of the lift on the 4th floor and said, “Bye-Bye, nice to meet you John”
(Names chamged to protect the guilty).
One of our senior guys (he shall remain nameless) showed us the perils of working in such a fast growing company.
We share our offices with many other companies, we're on the 6th floor...
He said, "I guess there are quite a lot of people that have joined us lately. On the way up in the lift this morning I spoke to a girl that I was convinced is working for us. I introduced myself and asked her if she was enjoying her new job. She answered a little hesitantly. Actually, she looked slightly shocked but I thought she was just a little apprehensive about speaking to one of the bosses. However, I was a little perplexed when she walked out of the lift on the 4th floor and said, “Bye-Bye, nice to meet you John”
(Names chamged to protect the guilty).
Wednesday 4 June 2008
Q & A on Restaurants and E-marketing
I recently had a chat with the guys at e-consultancy.com about Livebookings Network (My day job).
We talked about which types of restaurants are making the best use of online marketing and what other opportunities are out there for its aggregated reservations model...
Livebookings has been around for a while now, as has the idea of online bookings for restaurants. How well has the idea caught on with consumers and what types of restaurants have made the biggest strides on the web?
Livebookings Network as it currently exists has been around for two years, having been created in 2006 by the merger of two restaurant reservation system providers – Livebookings in the UK and Loghos in Sweden. The ambition then was to build the business model and prove it would work in our core markets of Sweden and the UK.
Having done so, the plan was to go for a second round of funding and take the business model further geographically. That’s what we are now doing. We are now focusing on expanding through Europe – to France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and throughout the Nordics.
Our most mature market is London. There, there is a wide range of very sophisticated, fine dining restaurants that are looking to maximise their covers. It is obviously better to get two guests per chair in an evening than one, as it doubles your turnover. So a lot of those restaurants are using complex software solutions to manage their reservations and many of them are then connected to online distribution networks, such as ours.
The more advanced restaurants are also using a lot of online promotional activity to drive bookings, such as special offers to fill their shoulder periods. It is often difficult for restaurants to fill every session throughout the week so if you can put together offers for those periods, such as between 6pm and 7pm for the pre-theatre dining crowd, you have more chance of maximising your profitability.
What about consumers?
Consumers are getting used to the idea of booking online. The majority of our bookings come through a la carte bookings but we do see major spikes in booking levels when we run a significant promotional campaign around events. Many bookings also come from secretaries that are reserving tables for their bosses.
In terms of how big the market is, we do know that around 62% of UK consumers are searching the web to decide which restaurant to visit, according to a study conducted by the American Express Hospitality Monitor last year. So that’s a lot of people deciding which restaurant to book online.
Our mission is to make sure that when people have made that decision, our services are in front of them. We focus on a B2B model, rather than spending a large marketing fund on creating an audience for our own site. We focus on people that already have the audience and visitors that are willing to book.
Read the rest of the article at e-consultancy...
We talked about which types of restaurants are making the best use of online marketing and what other opportunities are out there for its aggregated reservations model...
Livebookings has been around for a while now, as has the idea of online bookings for restaurants. How well has the idea caught on with consumers and what types of restaurants have made the biggest strides on the web?
Livebookings Network as it currently exists has been around for two years, having been created in 2006 by the merger of two restaurant reservation system providers – Livebookings in the UK and Loghos in Sweden. The ambition then was to build the business model and prove it would work in our core markets of Sweden and the UK.
Having done so, the plan was to go for a second round of funding and take the business model further geographically. That’s what we are now doing. We are now focusing on expanding through Europe – to France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and throughout the Nordics.
Our most mature market is London. There, there is a wide range of very sophisticated, fine dining restaurants that are looking to maximise their covers. It is obviously better to get two guests per chair in an evening than one, as it doubles your turnover. So a lot of those restaurants are using complex software solutions to manage their reservations and many of them are then connected to online distribution networks, such as ours.
The more advanced restaurants are also using a lot of online promotional activity to drive bookings, such as special offers to fill their shoulder periods. It is often difficult for restaurants to fill every session throughout the week so if you can put together offers for those periods, such as between 6pm and 7pm for the pre-theatre dining crowd, you have more chance of maximising your profitability.
What about consumers?
Consumers are getting used to the idea of booking online. The majority of our bookings come through a la carte bookings but we do see major spikes in booking levels when we run a significant promotional campaign around events. Many bookings also come from secretaries that are reserving tables for their bosses.
In terms of how big the market is, we do know that around 62% of UK consumers are searching the web to decide which restaurant to visit, according to a study conducted by the American Express Hospitality Monitor last year. So that’s a lot of people deciding which restaurant to book online.
Our mission is to make sure that when people have made that decision, our services are in front of them. We focus on a B2B model, rather than spending a large marketing fund on creating an audience for our own site. We focus on people that already have the audience and visitors that are willing to book.
Read the rest of the article at e-consultancy...
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