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Your EnterQuest Bulletin - Issue 196
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| Thought for the week: "Business has only two functions - marketing and innovation." Peter F. Drucker |
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In this week's issue:
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Web 2.0, social media and social networking - what's the business opportunity?
According to leading Internet researcher Nielsen/NetRatings, five of the top ten hottest online brands in the UK during 2006 were part of the Internet phenomenon known as Web 2.0.
By 'hottest', the Nielsen report means the brands that are the fastest-growing - and by 'Web 2.0', the report is referring to the term now commonly applied to social networking, social bookmarking and media-sharing websites populated with user-generated content.
The five fastest-growing social networking brands in the UK top ten are:
The rate of growth in these sites, according to Nielsen, is so great that it reckons more than one in eight of all online Brits now visit the YouTube site.
But this social website phenomenon doesn't just stop with YouTube and Bebo. There are hundreds of highly used networking, bookmarking, information and media-sharing sites where people with similar interests gather to:
- Share their favourite bookmarks.
- Network with like-minded people for social and business purposes.
- Share their favourite photos and videos.
- Blog, chat and comment on topical issues of the moment.
- Create or contribute to 'wikis' on their favourite subjects.
And there are literally millions of smaller sites like this that cater for just about every niche or social interest you can imagine.
OK, so there's no disputing that these user-generated sites are now enormously popular with the UK online population, and this trend seems set to increase unabated. Of course, cynics would say that this popularity is down to an awful lot of 17-year-old geeks who haven't discovered girls yet, and the after-midnight anoraks who are addicted to this social networking sort of thing.
But what's the real significance of social media and networking websites, and what's the opportunity they offer for a small business that's keen to get started with or improve the performance of its online marketing?
The point - and it is a significant point - is that these websites have become genuinely and incredibly popular across the board, not just with the geeks and anoraks, and consequently have gained substantial popularity with the major search engines such as Google, MSN and Yahoo!.
These social websites are the places that the consumers and potential customers you want to reach are frequenting more and more.
As a result, if a small business can get links on sites such as YouTube, Photobucket and Bebo that point back to its own website, it could end up with a higher placement on the major search engine results pages when someone has searched using that small business' keywords.
Therefore posting your own content onto a media-sharing, social networking or social bookmarking site is important for online marketing, as it can lead to you getting better results in search engine rankings.
So how should you approach this, and what sort of content will work for you? After all, these user-generated sites are socially oriented and users don't expect, and probably won't be prepared to look at, content that is overtly an advert for a product or business.
The answer lies in doing something subtle, clever, funny, different, helpful, opinionated, educational or maybe even controversial, but which above everything else adds to the social and community element of the site.
What you should be striving to achieve is people noticing your content, liking it, linking to it, voting for it, bookmarking it and telling someone else about it, so that your content and links back to your site start popping up in more and more places on other social networking sites, blogs and wikis.
Here are a few tips and suggestions for social website networking and submitting content that will get you noticed without hacking people off and labelling you as a 'social spammer'.
- Write a review of an event you've attended in your industry.
- Run a competition to name a new product you're launching, or a new recipe you've invented, posting images of the subject.
- Create a short, educational video 'tour' of your business, product or the area where you're located.
- Create a series of short text or video 'how-to' tutorials about something related to your business or industry, such as food, wine, travel, self-improvement and so on.
- Demonstrate a cooking technique, a trick, or a business success secret you've mastered or discovered.
- Do something daft, unusual or completely off the wall with your product or any product that people will never have seen before.
- Write a list of popular, unusual or little-known facts about your business or sector.
Above all, you should aim to contribute something that adds value to the social and community aspects of the site. You should also try to be as active as possible, without going over the top - and when commenting or writing blog posts, the key is to be brief and get to the point.
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For hundreds more practical tips and techniques to help you find new customers and increase sales on a shoestring budget, check out the UK Small Business Marketing Bible. |
How to register and protect a design
Design registration can protect your business if you create or manufacture a product, in particular by documenting its shape, colours, texture, what it's made of and other detailed elements of the technical specification. It can cover a complete product design or just part of a design.
It's essential that you formally protect your designs to prevent competitors copying your ideas. The law allows you to protect designs from being copied and used without your permission for up to 25 years.
The formal registration process is carried out through the Designs Registry at the Patent Office. To qualify for registration, your design must:
- Be 'materially different' from any other previously published design. This is often referred to as 'novel' and means your product must be a new, standalone design that has individual character.
- Be able to be registered under a particular category of manufactured product, for example, a clock, watch or teapot.
Some designs can't be registered. Generally, these will be designs where copyright protection applies instead, which usually means literary or artistic works such as sculptures, printed matter, cards, book jackets and calendars.
The Patent Office offers a search service that will check for identical or similar designs already registered in the UK. Its website has a range of practical information about whether you should register your designs, the costs involved and how long the whole process will take.
The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) also provides a basic summary of design registration rules on its website.
Finally, you can check out our practical factsheet on how to register and protect a product design for more information.
Each
week we provide you with summaries of some popular or emerging business
ideas in the UK.
Here
is this week's idea:
Fashion and beauty business ideas
Looking for a new business idea in the fashion or beauty sector? Well, look no further than the top ten ideas in 2006 reported by Springwise. Some of the trends emerging from the US might be ripe for picking up in the UK in 2007.
1) Hubwear - T-shirts that show the wearer's favourite airport codes, such as JFK or LHR.
2) Denim doctors - reconstruction therapy for tattered denim jeans.
3) Mormor - Danish for Grandma.now, Mormor.nu is an online store specialising in nostalgic clothing products.
4) Culturally sensitive sportswear - practical headscarves for Muslim women and other ethnic groups who need an alternative to their usual form of headwear.
5) Shoes for good - for each pair purchased, TOMS Shoes gives a pair to a disadvantaged child in South America.
6) Vending that kills the frizz - a street vending machine that sells the use of a pair of hair straighteners.
7) Wearing your profile on your sleeve - T-shirts that list the owner's top five best or worst things.
8) Niche skincare - exclusively vegan skincare products are the new trend for cosmetics retail.
9) Nail taxis - a mobile nail care service that travels to wherever the customer is located.
10) Be bold and bald - innovative skincare products for head-shaving men.
Check out our useful factsheets on starting up a T-shirt printing business, second-hand clothing shop, shoe shop, cosmetics and body care retail business or nail technician service for more details about these business ideas.
Regularly improving your vocabulary is not just about learning a new word and its meaning. It will improve your general knowledge and make you feel and act smarter in all sorts of personal and business situations.
Do you know what the word 'vanguard' means?
a) the final clause in a contract
b) an old term for a car valet
c) something that is proven, reliable or unquestioned
d) at the forefront or beginning of something
Answer at the end of the Bulletin.
The following topical business issues have been reported in the media over the past seven days. Did your radar pick them up?
1) Britain's best high street was revealed last Friday, after a week-long BBC investigation that took a shopping list of staple goods to a number of business districts and assessed them on the basis of convenience and appearance, among other things. Where was the winning high street located?
a) St Andrews, in Fife
b) Yarm, in North Yorkshire
c) Canterbury, in Kent
d) Godalming, in Surrey
2) What proposed solution to the thousands of Post Office closures that were recently announced is currently being piloted in rural west Scotland?
a) A flat-pack Post Office
b) A weekly Post Office session in a village pub
c) Accessing Post Office facilities online through schools
d) Rotating a mobile Post Office out of local libraries once a month
3) What feature of e-commerce sites is in most desperate need of improvement, according to research by Webcredible?
a) Payment security
b) Usability
c) Too many ads
d) Accessibility
Answers at the end of the Bulletin.
The supermarket inquiry is going local
The Competition Commission (CC) has promised to focus its attention at a local level in the next stage of its inquiry into the grocery industry and the power of the supermarkets. An interim report was published this week, with the finished piece due next year. The CC has looked at the supermarket supply chain so far, in an effort to work out whether the supermarkets are in such a strong position that nobody else stands a chance of competing. However, it reckons the response it's received so far from farmers has been disappointing, and is urging suppliers affected by the supermarkets' dominance to submit evidence as soon as possible.
Tesco has jumped on the green bandwagon
First it was traffic-light labels giving information about the nutritional content of food, and now consumers will receive details about how 'green' their shopping choices are. Tesco is the latest large retailer to join the green revolution, unveiling plans to cut carbon emissions and encourage customers to buy green goods. It has developed a 'carbon footprint' labelling system for its products - giving information about how much energy goods have taken to produce and where they have come from. It'll also reduce the amount of stock sourced from abroad, which could be good news for local UK suppliers.
List of accredited payroll packages
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has published a list of accredited suppliers of payroll systems that comply with its requirements, to help business owners setting up payroll systems for the first time to choose the right option.
Businesses you can start in your PJs
Check out this entertaining and informative slide show from Inc.com, which profiles 11 businesses you could start in your pyjamas in 2007, including eBay adviser and personal chef.
Strategies of the Serengeti is an interactive website, with a quiz to find out which animal you or your enterprise is most like. When you've found out which creature you are, you can view that animal's pros and cons when it comes to survival. For example, if you're like the rhinoceros, you are "persistent and consistent", and keep ploughing ahead in the face of adversity.
The website offers a taster of the book of the same name, which contains assessments of each of the animals of the Serengeti and how they apply in the business world. Check out:
Just one word answer
The answer is d).
Vanguard means at the forefront or beginning of something.
Dragons' Den and The Apprentice were in the vanguard of a wave of reality TV shows aimed at an audience of entrepreneurs. |
How's your business radar answers
1) The answer is b) - Yarm's Georgian high street was named as Britain's best in terms of being charming, well-maintained and convenient.
2) The answer is a) - a flat-pack Post Office is being trialled as a solution to closures in rural areas.
3) The answer is b) - the usability and user-friendliness of e-tail sites is in dire need of improvement, says Webcredible. |
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Good luck
The EnterQuest Team
This information is meant as a starting point only. Whilst all reasonable efforts have been made, the publisher makes no warranties that the information is accurate and up-to-date and will not be responsible for any errors or omissions in the information nor any consequences of any errors or omissions. Professional advice should be sought where appropriate. |
