You may have been paying attention to the battle that is currently raging between Google and the Chinese government.

So, why would Google bother waging a war against one of the biuggest countres in the world?

In January, Google announced it is no longer willing to censor searches in China and might just pull out of the country.  In February, Google claimed that the Chinese goverment was behind the attempts to hack into Gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents.

Now, Google.cn (the Chinese version of the Google search engine) is being redirected to the uncensored Google Hong Kong site (Google.com.hk). This has outraged the Chinese government:

“Google has violated its written promise and is totally wrong by stopping to censor its Chinese language search results and blaming China for alleged hacker attacks, ” the Xinhua news agency quoted an official in charge of China’s Internet bureau as saying.

The Chinese official went on to say , “We’re uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts.”

The Chinese internet is protected by “The Great Firewall of China” which blocks tens of thousands of websites and search results.

It started in 2005 when Google entered the Chinese market, agreeing to censor search results. When you google “Tiananmen Square” in China, you get a friendly page about the biggest public gathering place in Beijing.  However, in the rest of the world, get the world famous picture of a brave student squaring off with a tank in 1989.

The world is going through a transformation of equality and human rights through the use and implementation of technology everywhere. Every cell phone, every  connection to the web and every online business connects another human being around the world.

Business Insider put it this way:

By simply redirecting Google.cn to Hong Kong instead of unplugging it and maintaining the rest of its operations in China, Google has:

* Maintained all of its China traffic
* Stopped censoring its search results
* Forced the Chinese Government to censor the search results (via the Great Firewall)
* Made clear to Chinese citizens and the world just what content is being censored (those searching for the Tiananmen Square uprising, for example, now get an error page instead of no search results)
* Retained the option to redirect the traffic back to China.cn if an agreement with the Chinese government can be reached.

However, is this simply a short term gain for Google which will lead to a much longer term win for China?

It looks like Google is about to pull out of China and will shut down it’s  Chinese-language search engine in the aftermath of spying and hacking allegations that emerged in recent months.

Baidu (rival to Google in China) shares have jumped as a result.

A new forecast has predicted that American advertisers will increase their digital marketing spending this year to the extent that it looks like it will overtake the amount spent on print. US firms will spend $119.6 billion on internet advertising this year, compared with $111.5 billion on magazine and newspaper-based promotions, according to Outsell 9a US and UK research and advisory firm focused on the publishing and information industries)

This will not come as a huge surprise to many people, even those traditional marketing agencies who make their money from paper based communications. It is well known that the average cost of a letter costs somewhere in the region of $1.20 while the cost of an eDM (electronic digital mail) can cost as little as 5 cents. Also, paper based communication is a form of ‘fire & forget’ in that you have no idea who opens it, reads it, what they do with the information…. and so on. So why (when it is so obvious) do we persist with paper based communications. Well to a SMALL degree, some individuals still like the ‘ink on their hands’ but to a far greater degree, there is an enormous industry out there that is heavily reliant on the margin that a paper letter offers $1.20 v 5 cents. It doesn’t take a genius to work out why lots of paper is still out there.

The only people who have any influence over this (and can change the pattern) are the marketers and believe me when I say that the tipping point is coming. The popularity of digital marketing courses, seminars, education conferences is in hot demand. Oh, and don’t take my word for it, have a look at what is happening out in the real world when it comes to paper v’s digital communications….

The company suggests that this due to advertisers seeking more accountable methods of marketing. Its survey reveals that advertisers see their own websites as offering the best return on investment, followed by conferences and other trade events, direct mail, search engine marketing and email newsletters.

When it comes to social media marketing, Facebook came out on top as the medium believed to be the most effective, with LinkedIn and Twitter coming next in the rankings. Chuck Richard, vice-president and lead analyst at Outsell, remarked: “Advertisers are directing dollars toward the channels which generate the most qualified leads and most effective branding.”

The study comes shortly after Forrester Research launched a report suggesting that spending on business-to-business online marketing will rise by more than 100 per cent by 2014.

1. Ask in person

When your customers or members come into your place of business or attend one of your events, are you asking for their email address? Letting them walk out the door without asking is equivalent to losing a valuable asset. Why not ask?

You’ll be surprised that customers will give you their address more often than not. You just have to ask for it.

There are multiple ways to do so. One way is to give your team an incentive to ask. I recommend making it a contest to see how many email address one can collect over a given shift or time period. Everyone likes to win, so make a game of collecting email addresses.

You should also advertise the availability of your newsletter throughout your establishment or event venue. Put placards on tables, a signup book by the register, and signs on the walls. At your event, ask people when they check-in or register if they would like to be added to your email list.

2. Ask online

Asking online might be a little easier for some, since it removes the human fear of rejection. And there are multiple touch points where you can solicit your customers for their email address on the Web.

• Add a Join My Mailing List box: Make the Join My Mailing List tab a key feature in your website’s template so that it appears prominently on just about every page. Through search engine queries, you never know where people will land on your site. Adding the JMML box to every page ensures that no matter how a visitor finds you, he or she will have an opportunity to join your list.
  
• Link to your signup page: Going beyond your website, email marketers should put links to their newsletter signup page in their emails, both those sent through an email service provider such as Constant Contact and the signature of their personal email accounts. This way, every message a customer or member gets from you will have a subtle reminder to join your email list if they haven’t done so already. Also, add a join my mailing list link to your newsletter to help capture those folks that get your email forwarded to them from a friend, associate or other trusted source.
  
• Promote upcoming issues of your newsletters via social media: Another way to get people to sign up for your mailing list is to provide a teaser for an upcoming mailing on your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts. A quick “Want to know more about Topic X? Sign up for our newsletter” with a link to your signup page will lure people in.

3. Partner up

A neighboring or complimentary businesses can be a great resource for list building. You can advertise other people’s list to your own and recommend that people sign up for them, while your partners can make the same offer to their subscriber base about signing up for your list. It’s a great way to cross-promote like-minded businesses and organizations to a wider audience. Doing so also shows that you’re a part of a greater community and not just your own business or organization’s bottom line.

4. Set expectations

Whether you’re soliciting an email address face to face or online, it’s important to set expectations for the person signing up. Give people a visual so they can see what they’re signing up to receive. An easy way to accomplish this is to show customers a recent email, either with a color printout of your newsletter displayed next to your signup book or through links to your email newsletter archive.

When asking someone to join your list in person, phrase the question like this: “Would you like to sign up for our monthly newsletter about events and other promotions?” This sets the expectation that those signing up will receive something from you on a monthly basis that contains upcoming event information.

A similar effort should be made online to set expectations appropriately. Tell people when they’re signing up what exactly they will be getting and how often. This way, subscribers are not unpleasantly surprised when your first email arrives.

I also recommend that when you send a confirmation email to new subscribers that it thanks them for joining your list. The message should reiterate what the recipient has signed up for and can be used to provide a coupon or another “thank you” for being such a loyal customer.

Contacts are a valuable asset

Your list is not going to grow magically without any prodding. Make sure you engage your customers and members whenever or wherever you come in contact with them — be it in your establishment, at an event, on your website, or even on your Facebook Fan Page. At every turn, you, your staff, and your electronic presence should be politely directing customers to your email mailing list.

You just have to LOVE the Apple business model. They don’t have to worry about silly stuff like this (New Windows phones won’t run current apps). Why, because they make their own hardware for it to run on. I have no doubt that someone will have a good laugh at my expense some day but ‘the future’ to me is building your own hardware and loading with your own software.

Can you imagine if BMW or Audi decided 30 years ago only to build engines. Every man and his dog could build the car, any car, pick a car…. Where would Audi and BMW be now. Well we are seeing the slow burn of the once giant Microsoft. I know, I will probably live to regret this prediction…… but hey, we all love a good controversial blog.

Microsoft has said its new software for smart phones, Windows Phone 7 series, is a “clean break” with the past. Now it’s clear just how clean that break is: The new phones, expected late this year, won’t run any applications written for older versions of Microsoft’s phone software.

It has previously also been revealed that those with existing Windows Mobile 6.5 devices will not be able to upgrade to the newer Windows Phone 7 platform with a software update.

In a blog post Thursday, Microsoft executive Charlie Kindel, who handles contact with outside software developers, said that jettisoning support for older applications was necessary to make the new operating system as powerful and user-friendly as possible.

Today it is no longer enough to have a website to have an online presence. Nor is it enough to just build several social media pages like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. There must be method to your approach. You have to ask, “Why am I building this, where are my customers and will this help me get closer to my customers?”

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Social media became the buzz word in 2009 and this continues well into 2010. The corporate world (with a number of RARE exceptions) tend to make little if any money out of social media simply because they view social media as a channel in isolation. For example, the process of optimising your website can be significantly enhanced by the use of social media platforms.

Directing the right customer (or prospect) to your business can be significantly enhanced by the right combination of channels, only one of which is social media. This is what you will learn at the 1 day seminar on social media. The digital marketing training course in Dublin offers the latest approaches, thinking and techniques from Europe and the US.

It is also important to note that across all of our digital marketing training courses, we spend considerable time explaining what the digital channels are and are not. It is critical that candidates understand that a digital marketing training course is simply a process where we teach candidates what each of the key channels are and how these channels can be integrated into your business model or brand plan.

Book this course now

Course Content
The course includes all aspects of current thinking and application of social media training, including

• Blogging
• Podcasting
• RSS
• Social Networking
• Planning & Implementing online PR
• Online brand and reputation management
• Online brand loyalty – what is it ?
• Facebook (Social Media, Expectations)
• Twitter

Upon completion of this training course, participants will have an understanding of the essential concepts required to develop and integrate a social media strategy for their product or service in the online marketing world.

Lecturers
All of our lecturers are professionals in the Digital Marketing sector, running and delivering online marketing and social media campaigns. They base their training on their experiences and use real life examples and case studies throughout the face-to-face course.

Duration
1 Day Seminar – 9.30am to 5.150pm

Venue
Dublin, Ireland

Who Should Attend
The Social Media Training Course is targeted to those with responsibility for developing or implementing online/digital social and PR strategy, including senior management, marketing managers, communication specialists, webmasters and PR Managers or those who would like to a pursue a career in digital marketing.

Cost
€495.00 per person

Booking - click here

I am asked regularly to audit organisation’s Digital Marketing Strategies and have noticed similar issues across most of the organisations who’s digital marketing strategies are stuttering or have plateaued.All of these organisations tend to make the same mistakes and these mistakes are conceptual as opposed to technical.

The first and most common mistake is a conceptual one in how people approach the medium in the first place. The web differs form the other media channels in one important and very significant manner. TV, Radio and Print are publication and presentation based media channels. The Internet on the other hand is an interactive medium. People do not go to the web to read, they go to interact, whether that’s with your business or with each other.

The web is not a presentation medium, its an interactive one. Campaigns and strategies that respect the manner in which customers use the medium are more likely to succeed as they understand that people are not a rapt audience in the same way that they are in the their sitting room in front of the TV or in their car listening to the radio. The Internet allows a level of user control that is unheard of and deeply important. And the number one thing people choose to do with that control is to interact with other people.

The most successful websites in the world are the ones that facilitate user control and allow and encourage user interaction. Think of EBay for example, i can sell what ever i want, when ever i want in any way shape format and ship it anywhere in the world and the number one way I express all of that user control control is by interacting with other people, ( i sell, they buy).

Similarly for Facebook. Its not just publishing photos videos, comments opinions and and anything else i want but its that fact that all this control is being expressed through interaction with other people. Think about it the only time facebook makes the news is when they change their terms and conditions or functionality in way that hampers user control and user interaction. So the most effective websites are the ones the ones that get out of the way of the user, in a sense the websites that win are the ones that disappear.

The Diploma in Digital & Online Marketing 12 Week course starts in Dublin on 24th March

Diploma in Digital Marketing 1 Week Boot Camp option starts in Dublin 12th April

Diploma in Digital Online Marketing - CORK - 6th April

Belfast Diploma in Online Marketing starts on 20th April

Google AdWords Advanced 2 Day Course - 21st & 22nd April

Google Analytics 2 Day Course - 28th & 29th April

Wordpress 1/2 Day training course - 24th March

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