The Chameleon Net blog

Be Smart, Think Mobile

rossm@chameleonnet.co.uk (Ross Miles) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 11:23:33 GMT

Over the past few weeks we have seen the launch of the iPhone4, heralded by Apple as yet another re-invention and revolution of the mobile phone market. While I wouldn’t quite go as far as Steve Jobs has put it, the handset did sell 1.7m units globally in just THREE days and the number could have easily been higher but for stock issues. Factor in the 50m iPhones that have been sold worldwide since its incarnation as well as the 160,000 Android phone activations Google processes daily and you begin to see how being prepared to engage your audience via mobile web is going to be very important in the next 12 months.

The growth of the smartphone market has been reported by comScore as expanding at a rate of 70% year on year in the UK, so there are now approximately 11 million smartphones in use, meaning that one in five Brits now own one. In December 2009 alone, these people viewed 6.7 billion web pages and spent an incredible 4.8bn minutes online via their mobile, of which 2.2bn minutes were spent on Facebook alone.

So it would seem that phones are no longer just a device for calling and texting your friends. In fact iPhone users only spend 45% of their time actually making voice-calls on their handset and the average Android & iPhone user spends 80 minutes per day using their apps, whilst downloading an average of 9 apps per month.

It must also be considered that smartphone ownership is actually double in teens and students compared to the rest of the population, making this generation the most receptive to mobile marketing. This younger generation is choosing their handset based on its ability to help them connect their online and offline lives into one harmonious existence. It’s no longer about the amount of megapixels the camera has or the size of the phones’ built-in memory, instead it’s the number of apps to download, the speed it browses the web, multi-tasking functionality and the ability to access their social media personas. Watch the first two minutes of the below video clip and you can hear some US students discussing why they bought the phones they did.

> > >

So why have we really seen the smartphone become such a booming market? The massive improvements in mobile web browsing speeds to 3G from WAP and the expanding 3G coverage across the UK (now at 54%) can be seen as a similar turning point to the ‘broadband revolution’, which saw faster internet speeds reach the whole country. In addition, the increasing reductions in mobile browsing tariffs to much more affordable levels for ‘unlimited download’ packages have made these phones more accessible to a mass consumer market.

There is a steady move towards the saturation of the mobile market by smartphones (currently at 20% in the UK and rising) and network operators are constantly making mobile browsing more affordable, so considering mobile web as a potential marketing channel and engagement tool is essential. Mobile browsing is only going to get faster, with 4G on the way and open Wi-Fi networks becoming more prevalent. If your organisation isn’t already thinking about how to approach mobile web, now’s the time to start. Don’t be left behind by more forward thinking competitors!

Chameleon Net is currently offering UK universities the opportunity to build their own Fresher’s Friend Mobile App at a discounted rate of £5,900 throughout the month of July. Please contact Ross on 020 7332 6373 or e-mail rossm@chameleonnet.co.uk for more information about this geo-location, campus navigation mobile tool with social media integration >.

It’s all about user-centricity

danm@chameleonnet.com (Dan Martin) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:54:03 GMT
We all know that achieving success online is about more than just having a great website.

Now, more than ever, taking a holistic user centric approach to online activity means that we can create effective, joined-up communications, and an integrated online strategy.

It’s difficult to focus on one specific online tool in isolation; you can’t think about the website without thinking about how to maximise your SEO and PPC advertising. And once you’ve got people hitting your site, what tools are available for them to interact with it, and also engage with you without needing to come back? RSS feeds, blogs, social engagement and online communities all spring to mind. So how do we decide where to begin?

You probably already have a clear idea of what your objectives as an organisation are, so a good place to start in figuring out your best approach towards achieving those objectives is to concentrate fully on understanding your target audience and how they want to be communicated with. Without doing this you will have little chance of building a relationship with them that will benefit both parties.

So put your customer hat on! A user-centric approach makes your content, communications and online functions focus on the needs and desires of your audience, helping you to:

Reach out to your audience and engage with them, wherever they may be

Pull them into your site or online portals

Get them to interact with you

Keep them connected to you in a way that’s easy for them

One great example we have been involved with that epitomises this thinking is the innovative 'Challenge' site we created for Diabetes UK. It's a great example because it puts users (supporters and fundraisers) at its heart.

People who use the Challenge site are able to connect their supporter profiles to their online social networks, making the user experience easier, while extending the reach of the Diabetes UK brand further.

Did you know, for instance, that on average Facebook users have about 150 friends? Every time someone posts an update from Diabetes Challenge through Facebook Connect, that message is multiplied to their friends.

And very importantly this site does not work in isolation from Diabetes’ other online presences. For example, it communicates in real-time to their CRM system, helping Diabetes UK achieve a 360 degree view of their audience members, and allowing the charity to communicate with its supporters in a more tailored fashion.

At the concept stage of the Challenge site, we worked strategically with Diabetes UK’s to consider who their audience was and how best to target them. This strategic slant is essential for any agency to work effectively. If you don't let agencies into your strategy or at least your key objectives, start now!

The results of Challenge have been extremely good, exceeding expectations, and the site is a major success. Amanda Neylon, Digital Media Manager at Diabetes UK, will be telling the story of how the Challenge site evolved at our next seminar on 22 April, so to hear more about it, please do sign up to come along...

‘Tis the season to be social

richardk@chameleonnet.co.uk (Rich Kirk) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:26:34 GMT

This week will go down as another milestone in the development of social media, with a major news story being shaped by hundreds of thousands of web users across popular networking sites.

Unless you live under a particularly well hidden rock, you’ll know that right now, across the nation, a campaign is being waged to ensure that “Killing In The Name” by Rage Against The Machine is Christmas #1, and that “Geordie Jer Mcelderry” and his X Factor overlords are left crying into their turkey dinners.

The scale of this challenge is worth thinking about: The X Factor final was watched by 18 million people. Mcelderry’s record should clear 500K copies this week, as the faceless masses up and down the nation rush to buy “wor Jer” for their Nan. Other record companies like Universal, with endless resources, don’t even bother to compete.

So how have a husband and wife team managed to mobilise around 1 million people and leave the most powerful man in music helpless?

• Audience - Tracy & Jon are tapping into a rich seam of support; those that Tommy Morello called “the silent majority”, who dislike the constant stream of manufactured pop X Factor spawns. Brits have always loved an underdog, and many people find the arrogance of the X Factor winner expecting a #1 reason enough to get behind an alternative. The group’s core is urban, young, and in the main educated, loyal to music outside of pop, and are perfect for amplifying the campaign’s message as they are extremely social literate.

• Community - The inclusiveness of the campaign allowed it to develop momentum. Most people will join the facebook group before downloading, and the activity of this group clearly communicates the “wonderful dose of anarchy” RATM4XMAS represents (e.g. “just went to HMV and hid all the copies of Joe’s single”). You’re not just downloading a record, but being a co-conspirator.

• Product - Whilst the song might not be “Christmassy” enough, its popularity proves how good a choice it was. The infamous final refrain is a perfect rallying cry for the target audience, and it’s been popular with fans of alternative music for nearly 20 years - meaning a large potential support base. The juxtaposition of KITN and “The Climb” by Mcelderry is almost hilarious - listen to them back to back and try not to snigger. Finally, by linking up with homeless charity Shelter, RATM4XMAS exhibits a softer side and broadens its appeal and advocacy base dramatically.

The tactics which have naturally occurred in a group this dedicated are staggeringly sophisticated. Here’s a few I’ve observed:

• Reputation management: constant messages are posted reminding people about messaging should they get on radio or TV, many of these read like a set of brand guidelines.

• Crowdsourced marketing collateral: banners, profile ribbons, videos, posters, tee shirts, email copy; you name it; someone’s created it! A huge collective body of marketing material now exists, with specific messaging for different target groups, and is distributed across various platforms round the web.

• Buzz monitoring: The Facebook group’s wall reads like a newsfeed on the campaign - each new TV appearance, radio phone in or article is seized upon, including the already infamous “radio 5 incident”. Unhelpful or critical articles are quickly highlighted and people head off to register their disapproval at source.

• Online PR: Journalists and radio / tv presenters email addresses are added to the wall regularly and members are encouraged to get in touch with these people, urging them to spread the word through their shows or columns.

• Measurement and forecasting: several members have taken it upon themselves to research past Christmas chart battles and armed with this information plus current sales figures have forecast the trend in sales for both records until Saturday - for instance recent years have shown a surge on Saturday mornings in single sales and action is already being mobilised to counter this.

• Social optimisation: members are encouraged to use the share facility to ensure that the campaign appears in as many users feeds as possible.

• Focus on conversion rate: the ratio of group members to download sales is under constant scrutiny, with the groups profile photo currently geared to make members who haven’t shelled out yet do so. Active members use white label message content to send reminder messages to random group members about the need to buy the song.

Whatever happens on Sunday (here’s hoping Rage win out!) it’s clear this Facebook campaign represents a watershed moment in the battle for dominance between two marketing channels: TV and the high street vs. collaborative social networks.

So if you’re looking to improve or launch a social engagement strategy, you could do worse than learn from the elements that make up Jon and Tracy Morter’s success.

Facebook Applications from a Marketer's Perspective

surajs@chameleonnet.co.uk (Suraj Shah) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:19:13 GMT

This week's internal Chameleon Net seminar was run by Louise Ryan, our Head of Pre-Production Systems, who shared a developer's perspective on Facebook applications.

During the session, I briefly tweeted about Facebook applications from a business developer / marketing perspective:

RT @vickyreeves looking forward to hearing the internal @Chameleon_Net seminar on facebook application development from @louzoid

Internal seminar focused more on developer's perspective. Let's see what marketing / business uses I can pick out from it.

Facebook apps: publishing to the stream is most important in @louzoid's opinion - gives application a wide reach to user's friends...

Facebook connect allows your website to connect up to the user's facebook account so they can quickly publish news items on their stream.

The facebook OpenStream lets users read their streams wherever they want: mobile, desktop, etc. This means multiple interaction points...

Facebook have placed restrictions on apps to reduce spam - considerations: developer credibility, app popularity, if app verified...

Internal teams are considering niche facebook applications that our clients could develop. Your ideas for Higher Education apps..?

@louzoid Thanks for good overview of developing Facebook Apps - interested to see what specific apps we can create for our clients.

If have you ideas for a Facebook application which you'd like developed at your organisation to achieve specific objectives, then leave a comment below or tweet me @surajshah.

Focus on... Technology trends

louiser@chameleonnet.com (Louise Ryan) — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:14:37 GMT
I wanted to write this blog post as a follow up to my technology trends presentation i gave at Chameleon's client seminar held on the 29th April 2009. I'm going to touch on the issues I talked about, but mostly I want to give you some further reading and funky examples on some of the subjects I discussed.

Mobile
Firstly I talked about how until very recently it was pretty tricky to develop web sites for mobile devices. The huge variety of devices and hence different capabilities, screen sizes meant that to target mobile web users would mean rather a large investment. Over the last year or so that has changed with the release of much improved mobile devices which include great browsers e.g. Safari on the iPhone and Opera on the BlackBerry. Mobile web use is increasing massively and is going to influence almost every decision you make about your organisation’s web presence in the future. Jon von Tetzchner (CEO of Opera) thinks that mobiles are in fact going to become the 'primary device for web usage in most of the world'.

With all this improved web browsing technology, do we need to bother creating a mobile targeted web site? Usability guru Jacob Nielsen thinks so - read up on his feelings in his Feb. 2009 Mobile Usability Test Findings report.

What do we need to consider when building a mobile web site? The primary concern is your users goals and motivations. They're likely to be different if they're browsing from a mobile device than if they are browsing your site via a desktop. Here's a selection of other top tips:

Short URLs

Get rid of big logo/brand statements at top of page

Avoid plugins

Minimise data size

No popup windows

Forms – minimise user input – use defaults (radio buttons rather than text-input fields)

Geotagging
This is the process of adding geographical coordinates to various media or data items. For example, in the seminar I talked about how MSF are geotagging their letters from the field. Here's the focus on Chad example I used in my seminar.

Want to get some geotags for your data? MyGeoPosition is a great website to help you look up the coordinates you need.

Microformats
Please do take a look at the Wikipedia entry describing microformats. This will give you a good idea of what they are and how you might be able to use them in your website. If you want to see them in action and use the Firefox browser then do download the fab Operator extension.

Multi-touch
Move-stuff-around-with-yours-hands-coolness. Hopefully meaning death to the wrist killing mouse and much slicker user interfaces in the future. Check out the Wikipedia entry on Multi-touch and then take a look at this video on YouTube to see what the fuss is about.

Web as service platform
All the big players out there are really opening up their systems so they can be accessed and used from all over the place. Let’s take Facebook as a classic example. Since its success it has been criticized for being a ‘walled garden’. Developers could only work within its confines. It's now embracing the open web and has launched an API called Open Stream. This means that developers can create apps that interact with Facebook on other websites, via desktops widgets etc. Facebook has probably recognised that it needed to take this step to survive! Expect to start seeing these widgets soon.
Steve Rubel summarises the situation nicely in this article.

Augmented Reality
Augmented reality (AR) is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time - from Wikipedia. Far easier to demonstrate than describe - check out the example videos below

Lego box models come to life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UxWkZtUKaI
AR on your mobile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4FAKjfppp0
Just for fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW6_X9qBeds

We can build this type of stuff in Flash and have already put a prototype together in the office!

That's it! This article has turned out much larger than anticipated (and I didn't even mention twitter!) but with all the exciting new concepts and technologies out there I didn't want to skip anything!

Audio Books – Who’s Listening?

jeremyd@chameleonnet.com (Jeremy Davis) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:12:18 GMT
My Dimbleby mission continues. Seriously, David, look over your shoulder and you will see me there…albeit with the need of the Hubble telescope.

I was invited to be a panel member for The Bookseller’s “Audio Revolution 2008” – a one-day Publishing industry seminar focussing on all things audio book-related.

My session was the last of the day and I must say that it showed in some of the faces but nonetheless Jo Henry chaired an interesting discussion about how audio books could/should be marketed.

I was representing the web marketing side of things, with Tony Lynch of Gospoken making an excellent case for the viability of audio books on mobile phones and Madeline Milne of e-Music discussing the success of their subscription-based download model.

It was difficult to do justice to this very broad topic in fifty minutes and I was very surprised at how few questions the panel got from the floor. I think this represented a general feeling that I got from the afternoon. No one was really talking about marketing audio books. By which I mean getting them out there and selling them.

I spent the afternoon thinking that audio books are like this little-known secret and it surprises me that the industry isn’t shouting about them more. I mean, they are really great!

I was speaking to one of our recent recruits at Chameleon Net – young, early twenties, bright – and, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, he said “I don’t like reading books, but I really like audio books. I wouldn’t read a book on the train but I just put on an audio book – it’s great.”

And there it was…a new market for publishers. So why, I wonder, isn’t the industry shouting from the rooftops about this amazing format that means people who don’t like reading can enjoy books? I mean, some people are just mainly auditory – that’s how they like to learn and that’s how they like to consume information.

Surely the industry should be running massive campaigns about audio books?! Publishers should be giving some away as tasters…get people using them!

I think if the publishing industry could unite, get over all the internal issues like audio book rights, royalties, investment in recordings, etc and just get the message of audio books out there, the response would be huge! Just get people aware of them, using them, liking them. There’s a market out there and most of them don’t think about audio books. And they are not all old women and travelling sales reps.

So, “quit your whingeing” I hear you cry “and do something to help”. Ok then, I will. Here are my top ten tips for marketing and selling audio books:

1.   Get all over social networks – they are still the fastest growing sites in the UK and your target market is using them every day. Sometimes for hours and often when they should be working. Create groups, use Facebook advertising, run competitions, give-aways (i.e. free downloads)

2.   Use ePR (or an agency that knows how to use it :)) to target key influential bloggers and get them blogging about you and your products. Credibility online is everything and all votes are not created equal. Make powerful friends and work together.

3.   Get all over search engines. By which I mean Google. They have nearly 90% of UK searches and 94% of people use it, all of whom are qualified as having an informational need (otherwise they wouldn’t be searching). Where else would you want to advertise? Do this by PPC ads and also by optimising for organic search results (see below).

4.   Optimise for natural search. This gets its own number coz it’s so important. It’s by far the best ROI when it comes to search engine marketing and every day that you don’t do it and your competitors do, the lower you will show up in the searches. In natural SEO, doing nothing just means you keep getting lower. More of this below….

5.   Use metadata: use target key words to describe your audio files and make sure they are on optimised pages: page titles, H1 tags, alt tags, copy, etc. SE’s can’t listen to audio books (yet…I’m not kidding, speech recognition software is getting better and Google may soon be able to index the spoken word) so give them lots of thematically-relevant content to help them.

6.   Think Accessibility. Audio books have a perfect market in people with visual impairments. Make sure your site works for screen readers. If you’re not sure, get an audit (“from us” is the answer to your next question).

7.   Speaking of sites…get a good one. There’s no point spending time and money marketing products if your site is rubbish at converting visitors to customers. You’ll lose sales and damage your brand in the process. Make sure your site makes buying mind-numbingly easy. Joyful even. People should leave your site happier than when they arrived. If not, your site is letting you and them down. I mean, nobody likes to be made to work hard to buy something – it’s just not polite.

8.   Don’t worry about DRM. There are so few audio books out there that there is not much of a market in illegal copies 9unlike music). It’s about creating the market at the moment – better to have a million audio books out there with 10 per cent buying them than ten thousand with 100% of them buying. DRM can always be adopted later.

9.   Create added-value content. Like extras on DVDs…publishers can offer something more than the retailers…exclusive interviews with the author, an introduction, an otherwise unpublished epi/prologue, etc. This will really help the ePR and build buzz.

10.   Sell ‘em direct. Find out what your customers like and talk to them about it. Don’t let Amazon have all the fun.

Of course audio books are part of a seismic shift in the Publishing sector that is happening in order to adapt to digital content and multiple delivery platforms and formats.

For an excellent analysis of these changes, I recommend Sara Lloyd’s insightful article “A book publisher’s manifesto for the 21st century”.

If you are a publisher and want to know more of our thoughts on this and other Publishing-related topics, you may want to attend our free seminar: Quick Web Wins for Publishers, on Tuesday 25th November at London Chamber of Commerce, EC4. There’ll be exclusive content and an opportunity to ask us questions.

Chameleon Stands Out....On Facebook!

donnaa@chameleonnet.com (Donna Adams) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:02:47 GMT

Having just got back from my round the world, (well, Vietnam and Cambodia ) charity travels. I arrived back at work and like any good employee, headed straight for Facebook.

I am really excited about Facebook this year (especially now I’ve posted the video blogs from my trip.)

Actually it’s the advertising on Facebook that’s really caught my eye.

I’ve been checking out Facebook’s advertising interface and the list of targeting parameters is endless, gender, location, relationship status, political views, workplaces and stated interests to name but a few! And, for each parameter you add, a calculation is made on how may people you will be targeting. The whole process is quick, simple and so very attractive to the eyes of an online marketer. – You can even choose your favoured pricing model (CPM / CPC.)

Seen as Facebook advertising is still relatively new I predict that costs will be low and conversion rates will be good. Mix that with the fact that campaigns are highly targeted and you’ll be bound to see some great ROI.

In order to jump on the Facebook advertising bandwagon you’ll need a Facebook Page. I have just set Chameleon Net up with our very own page – Take a look.

It’s important to remember not to just use the page as a stepping stone to allow you access to the advertising features. A page must be managed and kept up to date. Once you have your page Facebook users can become fans of your company, service or product. The Page then acts as a great way to interact with, and contact your customers and also spread the word amongst their friends.

As with a Facebook profile, Facebook pages also have many features such as adding RSS feeds, linking del.ici.ous accounts, galleries, videos, events etc.

I really urge you to take a look and try out Facebook (I didn’t mean for that to rhyme!)

Check out the Chameleon Net Facebook Page for inspiration and if you need any tips, why not post a question on our discussion board.

“Facebook” ad platform to be popular in 2008

kelm@chameleonnet.com (Kel Miah) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 11:00:02 GMT

2007 showed phenomenal growth for “Facebook”, by the end of the year it had 7.6M active UK users, that’s 12.5% of the population. With so many active users participating on the social networking site some form of advertising system to target these users was inevitable.

Social networks such as Facebook create groups of niche users by gathering some personal information about them, such as hobbies, interests, marital status, and age. This information is primarily used to provide users with a compelling and interactive experience, but they also help build an advertising profile.

What these niche groups create is the opportunity to target very specific audiences with relevant ads which they may find interesting. As an advertiser you would expect more ROI or a higher click through rate if your ads were being served to pre qualified traffic.

Facebook’s ad platform consists of 3 major types of platforms, Facebook Pages, Facebook Social ads, and Facebook Beacon.

Facebook Pages - allows brands to have profile pages on in the same way that users have them.

Facebook Social Ads - allows advertisers to use the full range of profile information to target people by age, gender, relationship status, location, and so on.

Facebook Beacon - is a widget-like system being adopted on 44 third party partner sites. Activities on sites using Beacon will flow back into a Facebook user's News Feed or Mini-Feed, allowing their friends to know some of what they did at that site.

The basic principle of the advertising platform is similar to conventional platforms, using Cost Per Click (CPC) and Cost Per Impression (CPM) pricing models.

I can imagine a lot of UK advertisers experimenting and trialing the Facebook ad system, and just as Facebook demonstrated phenomenal growth in 2007 I believe their ad system will prove very popular in 2008.

I expect users to be highly receptive to these form of ads, my first impressions are that the ads to not lower the user experience and because the ads are highly targeted the users see them less as advertising and more as recommendations.

If one of the user’s hobbies is listed as reading comic books and Formula 1 racing, then ads for Formula 1 merchandise and reviews about the newest comic book will be seen as recommendations rather than traditional advertising.

'Tis the season to give online...

donnaa@chameleonnet.com (Donna Adams) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:05:45 GMT

Does anyone recall those childhood Christmassy charity drives? You know, those ‘Sponsor me to eat 10 mince pies’ type of things.

You were cajoled into walking around in the bleak mid winter weather, knocking door to door with a soggy piece of paper asking for sponsorship – only to have to go through the same dreary saga after the event itself just to collect the money? – All that, and I don’t even like mince pies!!

Well, what with the latest in internet trends, social networking and fancy applications, fundraising has never been so easy – or fun for that matter! You no longer have to brave the extremes (until the event itself that is!) You can do all your fundraising and collecting online from the comfort of which ever festive environment you prefer.

I recently decided to take on the challenge of cycling from Vietnam to Cambodia (much better than 10 mince pies, I know!) In my efforts to raise as much as possible I have been throwing myself into web 2.0 as only an online marketer knows how!

Websites like Just Giving offer you a secure online sponsor form and a quick and easy transaction process – they charge a small percentage, but allow you to claim gift aid and better yet they send the money direct to the charity on your behalf! You may also have noticed a number of the bigger charities, like our client UNICEF, creating personal fundraising portals for themselves, where all the money goes straight to them.

Once you’ve got your interactive sponsor form then why not utilise another one of our web 2.0 friends – You Tube. Create a video, post it on You Tube and promote your event. It will spread the word quicker than your waist line spreads at Christmas! – Take a look at my You Tube effort – it’s worth a hearty chuckle or two!

Try creating a Facebook group to publicise your event, post pictures of your training and links to your sponsor form. My group is a right little hub of activity with 77 supporters to date!

I’ve been fundraising for a few months and am already 64% on the way to my target – Facebook has introduced me to other supporters of the charity I am cycling for and I’ve even had sponsors from some very generous people that I don’t know!

So if you’re in need of a boost to your door to door fundraising then I say ‘give online a go’. If you’re interested in taking on a charity challenge take a look at what’s on offer from Barnardo’s, and if you want to sponsor me then make a swift visit to my website!

'New Web' seminar - three hot discussion points

danm@chameleonnet.com (Dan Martin) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:29:00 GMT
I thought it'd be worth outlining three particular areas discussed in conversations at breaks and during the Q&A slots at the end of each session at the recent seminar.

Attendees were asking:

1. Should we set up a corporate Facebook profile?

2. What are the pros and cons of implementing AdSense on our site?

3. How much of a risk is it to allow UGC on our site and deal with negative comments?

So here are some thoughts...

1. Facebook. Clearly this is one of the most popular online social spaces going at the moment, and naturally companies want to know if it's appropriate for them to get set up with a presence on Facebook.

The simple answer is to decide whether or not you have anything useful to contribute in the context of connecting individuals within your company with the other individuals using Facebook to communicate.

If the answer is a strong 'yes' then it may well be worth looking at what you might achieve and how.

If the answer is a 'maybe' or a 'no', then I'd question whether it is of value, because the risks of blundering in and making yourself unpopular, or of spending budget on something that delivers poor return, could rule it out as an avenue.

Even if you don't set up a Facebook profile, one thing is for sure though: your target audience is out there networking, so it is definitely worth considering which methods could work for you to communicate directly with them, something we are helping a number of clients work out.

If you haven't given much thought to whether it's appropriate or not, but are pressing on regardless, it probably won't end well!

2. AdSense. Monetising your website can be an attractive proposition, and Google's AdSense (the system whereby you can opt to display adverts through Google's AdWords programme on your website) is one of the main options.

Our experience is that AdSense is limited in how effective it can be to generate income, and that ensuring that appropriate ads appear on your site can require a significant management overhead.

Here are some specific criteria to help determine whether AdWords can be of benefit to you...

1. You run a site in an industry where people are used to seeing advertising (e.g. magazine style content). This will mean people find them less intrusive and that a portion of your visitors will have a propensity to convert.

2. You have enough traffic to make it financially viable. There's no sense in spending a lot of time and resource managing the ads if there is not enough revenue in it to make that profitable.

3. You are willing to accept that ultimately you do not have total control of some content that is displayed on your site.

4. You are also willing to accept that, despite the tweaks that can be made to the visual format of Google Ads, some visitors will find their experience devalued, given the presence of AdSense on many poor quality, cheap and 'spammy' sites, and possibly will think less of your brand.

The short answer is that there are a few situations where we would recommend AdSense is used, but they are exactly that - few.

However, if you want to look at the revenue streams through on-site advertising, a more worthwhile option could be either niche providers who specialise in syndicating certain types of advertising, or to set up your own ad management functionality and solicit ads yourself, and only select those you feel are a good match for your site's content. It may require a little extra effort and cost up front, but you get greater control, and of course you get to keep all the income too.

3. User Generated Content (UGC).

In our view, getting involved with user generated content is one of the great opportunities of doing business on the new web.

The reason for this is that it creates a dialogue between you and people you communicate with, and it shows to everyone you engage with that you are a transparent, customer-facing organisation that is happy to talk to people, confident about its product or service, and comfortable with dealing with all situations, both positive and negative.

OK, negative comments about your brand can be a bit scary, because if you allow people to post content on your site, they may well say what they think, so some companies are understandably nervous of this.

But the greatest risk is not participating.

People will make their thoughts known online whether you like it or not. They are probably talking about you right now. Do you know what they are saying? And if so, would it be appropriate to join in?

At least on your own site you know how people are feeling and what they are saying to each other. So why not be part of that conversation, and fix problems when they go wrong. If you do that, not only have you engineered a 'brand success' with an individual when you remedy an issue, but everyone involved in the dialogue can see it too.