This was the joke banded around yesterday after the terrible decision of disallowing England’s second goal even though it was a foot over the line. There was uproar for about 20 minutes, until German scored their third and fourth goal to finish England off.

After 90 minutes, when all was said and done, it was the poor performance people we’re talking about. Not the fact that the goal line technology should be upgraded and they should allow the referee to watch replays.

No amount of technology would have helped England win.

This brings me (get ready for the shoehorn) into something we’ve been thinking about the last few months:

Technology is Useless…

.. if you’re overall business performance let’s you down.

As you know we deliver SEO services for our clients.

It works well and they get more traffic to their websites and subsequently receive more leads and potential business. People searching for what they do find

their site over their competitors. At that point, we’ve done our job well.

But I want to be real with you for a moment and I have to confess…

SEO is Useless…

.. if you’re overall business performance let’s you down.

There, I said it.

Let’s face the truth, not everyone can turn prospects into clients every time.

Also, what about ‘if’ they become a client? Does everyone keep their clients for life or do they often wonder off 6 months down the line and start working with another company.

Do they give you referrals?

Maybe there’s an even more fundamental question. Do you REALLY know who you want to be doing business in the first place?

Do you know what type of client gives you the best return when you invest your time chasing after them?

Now is the time!

Now you haven’t got any more England matches to watch, it may be a good time to take a fresh look at your overall strategy.

I imagine you’re on this blog because you want to know more about marketing yourself online. Which is great. But if you want more than that, we have organised a special one off event on August the 11th 2010 in Birmingham.

We’ve teamed up with a top business coach to deliver this workshop aimed at business owners, marketeers and really anyone that wants to grow their business.

Places are limited and demand will be high!

Chris Green

P.S Even if you’ve been to one of our seminars before, you’ll get a TON of value from this.

It was announced earlier in the week that users of Hotmail had been targeted in a ‘phishing’ attack whereby thieves steal your user-names and passwords and then either use them to access your accounts or sell them to others. Within hours it had been established that users of Google, Yahoo and AOL had also been affected.

If you’ve never heard of it before, a ‘phishing’ attack is where you get sent a link to a website which looks like it’s all above board. These emails usually say something like “your details have been updated, please confirm them by clicking below” and you’ll be sent along to a website that, for example, looks exactly like your Google log in. Except it’s not.

It’s actually a site made to look like Google and when you type in your details, they’re stored on this other server. You receive an email saying there’s being a problem and you leave thinking that every-thing’s been sorted – but now your details are off to some Eastern European gang.

So how can we protect ourselves?

Well, the main problem lies with the  number of websites we’re all members of. Each one requires a new user-name and password and so it’s human nature to use a password we can remember. Many people use the same password across multiple sites and therefore if one is compromised – all are compromised.

The easy and lazy answer is simply to say “use different passwords for each site” but that usually ends up in Post-it notes stuck to all corners of the desk which is an even bigger security risk.

Luckily there are some technological solutions to the problem, one of the best being “RoboForm”. This is a neat bit of software that stores all your passwords for you and actually logs you on to your favourite sites. It will also generate truly random passwords whenever you encounter a sign-up form.

It can also save a lot of standard profile information such as full name, address and email details so signing up to new sites becomes a breeze.

You can get a copy of RoboForum here : http://www.roboform.com/

When people talk about ‘hackers’ they are probably imagining high-tech geeks typing away at computers and decoding passwords with a computer chip that they wave over a scanner. Sometimes they tap into the resources of a huge computer so they can try all the combinations of a particular password within seconds and hence break in that way. But some take the much simpler route of just asking for the information.

There’s a great example of this in a book I read back in the nineties. I remember what it was called now (it’s in the loft, I’ll dig it out), but it explained how some of the most audacious hacks had been carried out. In this one example, our hacker stole the credit card of a company boss while his wallet was left unattended.

OK, simple, but this guy would soon report it lost or stolen and so our hacker needs to act quick so he waits for the boss to head to his office and then calls him up (his name is on the card, simply ask at reception) and says the following:

“Hi, this is Aaron from First National Bank. We’ve had a card handed in not yet reported stolen and we’d like to check it’s yours. Can you confirm you’ve lost your card?”

“Err, hang on”, checks his wallet, “oh yes, it’s not here!”

“That’s OK, we can simply cancel it. Just to check identity, could you confirm your PIN?”

The hapless boss simply handed over his PIN thinking his card would now be cancelled, instead it was cleared of funds.

That’s a phenomenon called ’social engineering’ and it’s used so effectively simply because people aren’t expecting to be manipulated this way. What’s more, they don’t believe they can be manipulated this way. Watch an episode of Derren Brown and you’ll soon realise that us humans are easy targets.

So what’s this got to do with Facebook? Well there are now various scams going around where someone pretends to be one of your friends and tells you that they’ve been mugged in London. They probably steal some-one’s account details by using one of the many software hacks knocking about, but then they slip into ’social engineering’ by playing on your friendship and then try to extract money.

Beware. Facebook are aware and are trying to close down compromised accounts, but the very nature of this attack means people will find out when it’s already too late.

More details here : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9874388706

Well, if you are clever and actually use it for what it is and engage with your customers. If you’re the sort that thinks all this Internet malarky is for other people then you won’t, but maybe we should all sit up and listen when a name, a big name announces they’ve made a bit of cash from the social networking site of the moment…

I shouldn’t get angry, but I do. You see, I know what I’m doing. I do it well and I do it every day but when I meet people who say “that’s not for us” or “it’s just a fad” when they’re talking about new technology then I just see red.

I still meet people who say “This Internet thingy – it’s just not for our type of business”. Now, in the past I would have stood and argued and explained how it is for them and how with careful management you can actually do quite well out of it thankyouverymuch. But now I just shrug my shoulders and move on. Unless they are provoking me in which case I glare, and them move on.

It irks even more because most people I meet like this are in my own region. In the Black Country, right in the middle of the UK. Right where industry thrived, you know, the new stuff. Industry took off because a select few people threw away the old way of doing things and replaced it with lots of new technology that many people said “that won’t work”. They went against prevailing thought and decided that they would embrace new things.

But the Internet is different. We’re being overtaken by other areas, other companies and other industries because people round here just don’t get it. And that’s annoying.

I’ve just come back from a very wet week in Devon. Do you know, every single attraction that I wanted to go and see was available on the Internet? Every one! Not only that, nearly every specialist baker, butcher or candlestick maker had a website address on the outside of their shop.

They’re in the middle of a recession too and they’re not seeing the amount of visitors they used to see, but it doesn’t matter because they’re not just marketing to the short-wearing, hanky-sporting grey-haired Saga-louts of old, no, they’re selling their stuff to the world. Stuff the recession, they’re doing well anyway.

Look at this: www.tram.co.uk. What a fantastic domain name!! And it’s just a small tram that takes you on a 25 minute drive to a neighbouring town. And I can get prices, timetables and all the information I need through their website.

But hang on, let’s get back to the point. Twitter and that two million.

Dell have recently stated that their Twitter account has been directly responsible for sales of $2 million – read about it here : Dell.

Amazing huh?

Not really, you could do it too. I mean, I know you’ll say “Ahhh, but they’re Dell and they sell stuff and we don’t…” Blah blah.

You’re missing out and you’re not being left behind, you’ve been left behind.

Twitter is a fantastic tool for getting your brand out their into the world. Because of the amazing number of people using it, the fact that you can say something and it is picked up by thousands of (hopefully!) interested people is an amazing thing to behold. Can it be used for business? Yes it can and it can bring you many many new customers but who you go to for advice?

Well, if you happen to be on one of the many mailing lists that the Chamber of Commerce have, you’ve probably had a number of invites lately from companies that will tell you all about it. They’re ready to impart all of their knowledge about this amazing networking tool and show you just how they’ve used it to boost the readership of their website and sell more stuff. The best thing is, if they are using it, it’s easy to check them out because Twitter has search and I can find these people, discover what they’re twittering about and maybe check out how many followers they’ve got.

Now, just to explain for those readers who are perhaps wondering what all this ‘follow’ stuff is about, if you check out a Twitter account, it will tell you how many people have decided to follow a particular person. The more followers they have, the more popular they are. That’s all, easy.

The average number of followers is apparently 140 ish but some people have thousands, many thousands so you’d expect the illustrious speaker at any event to have a huge list of followers that they can use as an example of how great this social networking lark is.

I’m not going to name names, but the first invite I got listed only a few Twitter accounts and the biggest following was 127. That’s not much. That’s not much at all. I checked out their tweets. It went along the lines of “Doing some marketing this morning ready for the big event” and “We’re marketing more on Twitter than ever before”. It was like some marketing phrase robot at the back of the office had just been prodded with a stick.

So when the second invite turned up I was excited and looking for even more information. The blurb said:

“Many businesses are already using it to good effect.”

How inspiring. That being the case, I should be able to click on the Twitter account of this particular business and check out their Tweets then, huh? See what they’ve been up to. Except their Twitter account isn’t mentioned anywhere on the advertising. Nowhere.

So, I searched for the company using Twitter. You know, this amazing social networking tool that you’re banging on about and telling me is so damn good. The one you’re going to teach me all about, the one that is getting you business because you use it all the time. Can I find them?

No.

What I do find after a lot more searching is some tweets from the company promoting the event. Twelve in total. It’s almost like the event was happening so “I’d better start using it”.

Dammit, why am I so angry? I’ll tell you, it’s because this is the blind leading the blind. Businesses in this recession are looking for help from their local chamber and so when they hand over their cash, they expect it to be good information borne from lots of experience, not just a cursory glance over ‘The Dummies Guide to the Web’.

Or maybe I’m angry because we didn’t do this last year. That’s it – I’m jealous.

Edited: It may seem the point of this post is that you’re only any good on Twitter if you have lots of followers. Although the number of followers a person has is an incredibly good barometer of how they use the technology, it’s not the only thing. Many extremely interesting people only have a few followers and they are effective in their marketing.

The real point is that if you blart on about a technology then you should use it. Carping on about Twitter and then not even mentioning your account is just crazy. It’s a bit like buying a website from a company that doesn’t have a website themselves. I mean, that would be absolutely stupid, wouldn’t it? Eh, Black Country Chamber? Wouldn’t that be absolutely the most crazy thing to do to buy a website from a company that didn’t have a website?

Eh?

Then came maps and we no longer needed to phone the AA for directions to Dawlish Warren (avoiding mud tracks, truck stops and C-roads).

Are they content with that? No, they now want to get down to the street level and show you people nicking stuff too.

Google Street View has now hit the UK with pretty much the same furor that happened when the US first got to look at the world in 3d (2d really, but with arrows). Privacy worries are abound and it’s no wonder, I mean, this could be you:

Some guy caught breaking in.

Woah! I mean, who knows, he could have just left his keys on the mantelpiece, there’s nothing to say he was actually trying to steal anything!.

Now some are saying “if you’re not doing anything wrong then you’ve got nothing to fear” (you know, like they do when ID cards and fingerprinting are mentioned), but the trouble is with pictures is they say a thousand words – but sometimes they’re not the right words.

What if you’re doing something totally innocent like, for instance, feeding the parking meter:

Strip club or parking?

So your wife sees it and says “Why are you parking outside a strip-club then hun?”

“Eh? I was popping to the local Spar, there happens to be a strip club next door, but you can’t see it in the picture!!”

“A likely story you scumbag, I knew there was something wrong with you, you spend far too much time on Facebook and Twitter, it’s obvious that you’re seeing someone else, I’m off to my mom’s, I’ll see you in court….”

You get the picture.

I personally think that Street View may cause some hassles like the above but other than that I don’t care about it. I’m sure it’s an amazing bit of technology that will revolutionise something.

I just  hope it doesn’t revolutionise the work of divorce lawyers.