PostsTescos boss gets the boot 23rd October 2014 10:56 AM Now it's the chairman! "Tesco chairman Sir Richard Broadbent has announced that he will be leaving the firm, following the firm's announcement of a bigger-than-forecast hole in its profits." Pretax profit is apparently down 90% versus the same period last year! wow 90%!!! Certainly been a tough year for Tescos... Google team wants to visit your office 23rd October 2014 10:52 AM How's that for an offer? The Google Webmaster Trends team is looking to visit European firms to monitor their behaviour: "We are looking for companies, agencies, and website owners willing to let us observe for a couple days (at most) how they are managing their sites' content and infrastructure. We would meet with & observe the developers, designers, content creators, SEOs, and decision makers, we would take notes and ask questions. If your site is managed by an agency, we want to hear about that, too! All this to create internal reports that we'll use for improving our communication, support, and web-search related products like Webmaster Tools." If you're interested in taking part, the sign up form is below: Could be a good chance to ask some googlers a few questions about your site, maybe even some pointers? How much time do you spend on social media marketing? 23rd October 2014 10:37 AM
“How does one establish when your target market is most online?”
Great question! Personally I tend to stick to times I think people will be in a non work mode, ie first thing in the morning (08.00 - 09.00), lunchtime, and then late afternoon as people wind down. Friday always seems to generate the best results for me, although arguably it's when I normally put the most effort in as I realise I need to catch up I do use a free social media app called Klout It seemed to start life as a vanity tool to tell you how popular you are by giving you a "klout score" and kept giving ridiculous annoying special offers when you met certain milestones. But it has matured in recent history and is actually quite useful. You can schedule social media posts once you have connected your twitter and Facebook etc, and it also shows a best time to schedule posts based on your audiences activity. Here's what it says today for me:
Don't know how accurate or reliable it is, but at least its a good start. But as you do more social media posting you will soon work out for yourself which type of posts and what times give you the most interaction or results. Own up, who talks to their phone? Apparently teenagers do 22nd October 2014 5:00 PM
“My car has a voice search facility for about 90% of the cars functions - it can't seem to get that right either. Did train the computer to my voice when i first got it - maybe i need to sit in the car and talk to myself for 30 minutes again !!”
Great point! I remember thinking I need to sit down and work out all the voice command functionality of my car, sat nav, controlling the phone, music etc. Never did, and 2 years later still use the buttons and knobs Maybe we're just dinosaurs? One more month 22nd October 2014 4:57 PM Lol, have now just made it to the 3 year point, so I can now afford to get caught again and be patronised by speed awareness course... films you enjoy 22nd October 2014 4:55 PM
“fascinated to see how the future may look like. ”
You can see the future here 2001 - a mobile phone of the future? Plus am a big fan of 2001 Raising money for the Western Front Association 22nd October 2014 4:45 PM A worthy cause. You can visit there website below for more information:
Disappearing High Street or simple retail evolution? 22nd October 2014 10:45 AM
Phones4U won't have helped the stats, and the Beeb is reporting Homebase is in trouble, with owners Home Retail Group admitting a number of stores are unprofitable and in decline which will lead to closures. We've been hearing about how the virtual High Street will supersede the physical one for the last 15 years. Has it finally happened? Online Shopping Portal "Not On The High Street" seems to be really rising in popularity since it's inception in 2006 and looks set to be a UK success story, acting as an eCommerce portal for small retailers. A US online competitor called "Etsy" has been going since 2005, specialising in more craft based type businesses, ie handmade and now vintage items. They also seem to be growing in popularity in the UK, probably as a result of more smaller lifestyle type businesses, giving them access to a global market. It's not to be sniffed at though with $1 billion worth of transactions around the world! So is this good news, bad news or just modern life? I've been looking around for some bunk beds for the kids. I can order them online, I can pick them up from Argos or have them delivered by any number of suppliers. But can I actually go and physically see any first other than online pics? I had to resort in the end to a trip to our (not so) nearest Ikea in Coventry just so I could show the kids and gauge their reaction from the 2 bunkbeds on display. This is where I have a problem, I want to see and touch things. We've just lost our Homebase store, so now we just have a B&Q. That means a lack of competition, but if B&Q decide our local store isn't profitable, then rightly so they could close it down. Then what? Buy everything online? Maybe someone in their 20's says "yeah, why not?". Have we witnessed the peak of the retail experience? Maybe then it's a generation thing. People currently in their 30's to 50's have probably been spoiled with choice, and never appreciated being able to walk from super store to superstore touching and feeling items, haggling with sales folk etc. My folks didn't have the retail choice we had, and it looks like my kids won't have the luxury of visiting real world retail stores either. Their decisions will be made online, with parcels dropped from Amazon and Google drones, 12 hours after ordering it High rent Superstores packed with expensive employees are slowly being consigned to history, as we all collectively decided to only visit these stores to view, then scurry home and get a better deal from an online shop. The modern High Street which now seems to be made up of coffee shops and charity shops is something we all created. In the same way as the closure of the greengrocers and butchers years before when society decided to start shopping in supermarkets. Work and home life demands increased and time became precious. So maybe all this moaning and talk we hear about the disappearing High Street is nothing more than simple retail evolution, which is survival of the fittest and dictated by the shopping habits of all of us? Those of us who lament the passing of physical superstores and independent shops probably never really appreciated them as maybe we should of The youngsters probably wonder what we are moaning about as they decide where to get the latest Latte. Does anyone use any of the new online shopping portals, either for buying or selling? Has anyone moved from a physical store to only selling online? Do you miss the old High Street or are you planted firmly in the modern world and moving forward? Cannabis lamps donated to a football club 21st October 2014 4:33 PM What a great story. "Heat lamps seized by police in raids on cannabis farms are being used to cultivate the grass at Rochdale's football pitch in Greater Manchester." Full story - BBC News Website So £30k worth of heat lamps seized from a drugs raid have been donated by Police to Rochdale AFC so they can fix their goal grass That must have really wound up the druggies lol films you enjoy 21st October 2014 3:40 PM Want to see that film, sounds like it's worth watching Watched sliding doors for about the 3rd time with the missus the other day. It's a classic (1998) Friday night romcom if you haven't seen it, about a couple but shown from the perspective of 2 parallel universes. ie what would happen if you missed that tube train, and the consequences that unfold. Great performance from Gwyneth Paltrow, but why do American actresses play British parts? Top film though
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According to Price Waterhouse Coopers, so far this year, the High Street saw 964 more closures than openings, two and a half times the rate for the whole of 2013.