“Our global online service”, they say. Why do companies keep promoting their services as global when they are talking about online services and applications? I think it just shows your shortcomings in understanding the internet as a network as it ALWAYS is global (unless you work to limit it) and not a medium where you broadcast to from the comfort of your own office.
Anyone else come across anything similar or is it just me?
One of the best online education video resources I’ve found to date: The Stanford Educators Corner. A huge array of videos from world acknowledged speakers.
Strongly suggested.
Finnish citizens have had to cope with a tremendeous amount of low quality journalism this past week. Our foreign minister, Mr. Ilkka Kanerva, had sent some text messages to a female dancer who then ran off to the yellow press to release them to public scrutiny. Even the (normally) highly respected Helsingin Sanomat fell in and wrote numerous articles on this matter (then again they are the unofficial horn of the Social Democratic Party - Kanerva is from the National Coalition Party).
The down side of all this is, in my opinion, that this kind of journalism is here to stay. Why? Because of the internet and the media companies’ inability to renew their old, unsustainable business models. Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat are usually competing head to head for the highest ranking website in terms of online visitors and visits on the weekly TNS Metrix ranking.
They are constantly losing ground in the offline world as people are reading news online. Once online, you have to be quick and react immediately to the latest events to be the site that people pass around through e-mail and IM. If you’re slow you’re gone. Well, no you’re not - if you decide to compete on something more sustainable where people actually spend time and enjoy the content. Have you had a look at the Finnish yellow press websites? Their front pages are long as hell - that’s because you need as much coverage on as many items to grasp the interest of a wide, very fragmented audience.
The problem of losing advertising money is not something only the Finnish press is battling with. US saw the biggest plunge in advertising revenue in 50 years. Media companies’ business models are heavily outdated and if they cannot renew their way of thinking and creating value for the customer - we will see many more scandals covered in the hope of a few more eyes grabbed for attention.
Photo by diver227, licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.
South Park Studios has done something remarkable today. They have made all of South Park’s episodes availble on their website - to anyone in the world, not just the US. There have been numerous examples where movie studios and tv channels have given audiences the possibility to watch shows online, but they are usually limited to the national level, due to legal issues.
It will definitely be interesting to see how South Park’s success will pick up in the near future and what sort of traffic they will be reaching when all the pirate downloads are suddenly made obsolete.
I finally managed to read through Joseph Jaffe’s Join The Conversation during the Easter holidays. The book is yet another solid show of Joseph Jaffe’s understanding of the internet and how it changes companies’ business models and marketing. Numerous examples of excellent ways of marketing and at least equally bad examples enable the reader to understand the small important issues in working online.
However, I really would have wanted to see slightly more academic writing from the author, because “Join the Conversation” is another “life after the 30-second spot” from the online world. There are a lot of examples that prove the points Jaffe is trying to make, but they usually are very light in context and could ultimately, in some cases, be used to prove the point from another point of view. My favorite learning I received from the book was the combination of the Long Tail theory together with Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations graphs. I’m sure there is more there to explore and write about.
Despite all this I enjoyed the book, it’s a solid good read. With slightly more depth it would have been a 5/5-star goodie. Then again, this could be me to whom most of the examples were relatively familiar. To the the regular marketing person in a large multinational, this is definitely and eye-opener.
I wrote a column for Talouselämä, a finnish magazine read by thousands of people each week. In the column I argued that companies still do not realise the potential of the internet. They also lack understanding of the new medium and vision to see it as a viable place to do business. I will upload the story scanned tomorrow, but here is the column on their website. Feedback is always appreciated.
You seldom find good stuff. Tonight I’ve found it I reckon. It rocks :)
Update: As the sharpest have realised the time of the post - I wasn’t at my best after a long night out. :)
Today I realised my dust bag was full in my vacuum cleaner (or actually had been quite some time, but let’s not get into that). Since it was an old vacuum cleaner, I doubted anyone made the dust bags for it anymore. I did a simple Google query in Finnish and came up with Findust.com.
Findust.com is a simple website where you can order dust bags on a per bag basis or through a subscription model. I took the sample order of one bag for 0,99€ incl. delivery. Not bad. Businesses exactly in these sort of product categories should really reap into the subscription based ordering. I’d order my toothbrush from a website and get it delivered to me every 3 months. It’s one of those things you always realise you should have renewed some time ago already.
I’m sure there are other better examples as well, but I thought I’d share this with you. I really found it quite interesting that a Finnish company had ventured into this business. Then again, I believe the whole entrepreneurial scene is slowly changing, even in Finland :)
I wrote about Kiva in December on Arctic Startup, my blog co-written with Miikka and Tomi. Kiva is a non-profit organisation which helps people people in need of financing connect with those who are able and willing to lend some money. The problem with entrepreneurs and developing countries is that they are too risky and small for bigger finance organisations to operate in. Furthermore, Kiva is a relief to those who need a microloan to expand the business a little without too much bureaucracy.
Today I decided it was time try it out so I registered and lent 25 USD to Carlos Yakisich in Paraguay. The attributes that affected my decision was of course the entrepreneur itself and the organisation who works on the local level in Paraguay. Fundación Paraguaya has a default rate of 0 on their loans, which is always good.
If you’re interested in helping out entrepreneurs, please sign up and lend some money.
I wrote an article on social media to HETKY’s (Helsingin tietojenkäsittely-yhdistys) magazine. The article in itself is quite light and doesn’t dig that much into the possibilities, but shines light on some possibilities and ways how companies have used internet in creating competitive advantage. The image is available in real size scan over here.
Entrepreneur, blogger, Finn - writing about marketing, business, online strategies, entrepreneurship and life in general. Read more in the about.
