Canada – highest blog readership in the world


 If you are planning a startup, or at least levering blogs in your business, and appreciate the power of connecting with bloggers, Canada might just be the place to take advantage. Among the eight countries examined in the study, Canada saw the highest penetration of visitors to blogs, with 58 percent of all internet users visiting the category in October 2006. Half (51 percent) of all internet users in Spain also visited blogs. Source: iMedia Connection: The Score: Blogs Gain Favor Worldwide % reflects internet users, that visited blogs.  58.2% of Canadian internet users visited blogs, vs 36.3% in the … Continue reading Canada – highest blog readership in the world

BankerVision: Energy, the economics of abundance, and financial services


I won’t debate this one, because its way out of my league, but I found this statement the funniest one of the week.  Thanks for that James.  Lets see the techie guys sort this one out!  The basic issue seems to be that you can’t get enough energy into a datacentre to simultaneously power all the servers and get enough air conditioning going to keep them all cool. Source: BankerVision: Energy, the economics of abundance, and financial services   Technorati tags: technology+rules Continue reading BankerVision: Energy, the economics of abundance, and financial services

Excellent response Zopa


I wanted to highlight the response from Dave and Thomas from Zopa to my earlier post where I had indicated a post had been deleted from their blog.  Well, kudos to Zopa … they noticed my post they fixed the problem, caused during a server admin This is a Web 2.0 response – they have no idea who I am, but I am treated with respect, and the problem is addressed.  Complete transparency.  Old style organisations would have fixed it quietly and never admitted it.    Technorati tags: zopa, customer+experience, customer+engagement Continue reading Excellent response Zopa

"There is no demand for messages" | Doc Searls


 Every once in a while Doc comes up with memorable statement and this is the best one for a while.  THERE IS NO DEMAND FOR MESSAGES Let me see a show of hands: who here wants a message? Right: none. And who wants to shield themselves from messages they don’t want? Exactly: everybody. TV advertising has negative demand. It subtracts value. Source: The Doc Searls Weblog : Sunday, December 17, 2006 This ties nicely to Shel’s overview for his new book. …..  It explains why power is shifting from large organizations into self-organizing communities and why businesses and public officials … Continue reading "There is no demand for messages" | Doc Searls

who are "V"?: Power Outage Update


This is great stuff from Verity Credit Union with employees trying hard to keep up in an emergency.  Power Outage Update Add the Alderwood Branch to the list of branches open for business today. The Northgate branch is still closed. Members are encouraged to get cash at any of the ATMs in our network. Call 888-SITE-COOP (888-748-3266) to find one of the 20,000 ATMs on our member network. Using any phone, callers simply say a street address or cross street to find the nearest location– whether its 100 feet or 25 miles away. ……… Source: who are “V”?: Power Outage UpdateWe Are … Continue reading who are "V"?: Power Outage Update

::HorsePigCow:: marketing uncommon » How I Escaped the Echo Chamber & the Results


This is a powerful post from Tara, that I commend to all bloggers, but especially myself.  Its all to easy to fall into the trap of fuelling fires that are out there, as opposed to starting your own fire.  Maybe its time to uninstall “blogthis”, which is precisely what I just used to refer to Tara’s post.   Hmmmm ;  I sense a New Years resolution coming on!  I too often fall into the trap of linking to a post and using that as a catalyst for a thought meme that I have been fermenting, but why start that way. One day I woke up and … Continue reading ::HorsePigCow:: marketing uncommon » How I Escaped the Echo Chamber & the Results

Tag, I’m it


Ouch … Tara, thanks for the torture.  Seems you have an idea of the last thing this introvert wants to do, is lay out five things about myself that others don’t know.  This is all part of Jeff Pulver’s torture test, of Five Things People Don’t Know About Me game. Here goes: I keep a linkblog on spooks, although its not as up to date as I would like, if I had more hours in the day I just (recently) left my old company (a Bank) and …. more (hopefully) exciting things to come very shortly I love Japan, and … Continue reading Tag, I’m it

Zopa communication to lenders is pulled from the blog


UPDATE: Dave and Thomas responded and fixed what turns out was caused by a technical glitch! Well done Zopa! _______________________________________ ORIGINAL POST: This post showed up today at 2:33pm EST in my Google Reader, but now is “Error 404 – Not Found” at the Zopa blog. Rule #1 …. if you don’t like your post, deleting it is too late, even a few seconds after you publish, because of syndication and RSS feeds – better to live with it, and provide a correction. By the way, I thought it was a nice clear post, well worded, and see no issue … Continue reading Zopa communication to lenders is pulled from the blog

Do you know which of your customers are brand advocates?


 This report from Yahoo! and ComScore Networks is simple and intuitive,  and points to a potential strategic leverage point for Banks. The Internet has significantly impacted how consumers talk about and recommend brands. Word of mouth — a trusted source of information — is amplified online to reach significantly larger audiences. “Brand Advocates” have emerged online as primary influencers, with at least a two to one rate of converting an actual friend or family member to buy the same product or brand. Brand Advocates are incredibly valuable to marketers because they are better connected consumers with a larger sphere of … Continue reading Do you know which of your customers are brand advocates?

S.E.C. Eases Regulations on Business


 The NYT notes a significant move by the US Securities regulators, that will bring welcome relief, but it might be to late, considering the effort that has gone on. Responding to criticism that regulators had overreacted to years of major corporate scandals, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday issued a flurry of deregulatory orders and proposals intended to lower costs to public companies. It said the moves would not reduce investor protection. In a daylong proceeding, the commission proposed a loose interpretation for smaller companies of an auditing provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 that has come under … Continue reading S.E.C. Eases Regulations on Business