Fergal O’Byrne, IIA CEO, moving on …
I just wanted to update you all that I will be leaving the IIA and taking up the role of CEO of Sonru.com after the IIA’s AGM in early September. It has been a fantastic four years and I would like to thank you all for the excellent support you have shown whether as IIA members, speakers, presenters, sponsors, advocates and even the odd detractor or two (sometimes it’s good to be told when something needs imrpving!). The IIA is a much stronger entity thanks to the inputs of people like yourselves.
I am continuing fully in the role until my departure but wanted to provide enough notice so the Board could source a replacement CEO. More information on the vacancy is provided here.
Thanks again.
Regards
Fergal
Does an Ethical Online Business Make a Successful Online Business?
This is a guest post from Ann Donnelly of O’Mahony Donnelly E-Business Development who are IIA Members based in Clonakilty, Co. Cork
This week there was a big buzz online about an article posted on Tech Crunch “The Time Has Come To Regulate Search Engine Marketing And SEO”. In the opinion of the anonymous guest author: “Due to Google’s dominance — and the fact that it controls such an enormous amount of consumer behavior through paid and organic search listings – the company in essence governs commerce on the web.” This is a topic that has come up time and again over the past few years in webmaster forums and search industry conferences, but in many cases the complaint comes from those that are looking for short cuts to get results through search engines or those that are focusing on one aspect of online marketing success instead of developing a full, well rounded online marketing plan.
A small number of these people are using techniques that some would consider unethical to promote their own websites, or are using these techniques to provide such services to others. Some are using ethical techniques, but using dishonest or hard sell marketing to promote their services. This sort of behaviour happens across all industries (we all trust used car salesmen, right?), but in our industry the consumer is particularly vulnerable, as he often feels he doesn’t have the technical knowledge and doesn’t listen to his own common sense – and there is such an enormous amount of bad advice out there.
It may sound harsh, but those people that have knowingly chosen these methods will probably laugh at what I am saying here and will continue in the same manner, full throttle, and may get very rich from it. On the other hand, I have met a number of people in the industry that honestly feel that these are legitimate methods and don’t see that they are limiting the type of results they will get from their businesses. Why do I care about these people? Their behaviour causes consumers to distrust the industry as a whole. A customer that has had a bad experience shopping online will avoid shopping online again. A business that has gotten poor results with their website because the web developer they chose was inexperienced, will just feel that online marketing won’t work at all for them.
There are also a large number of young men and women, as well as those recently made redundant, that are starting up their own businesses and are looking to those of us already established in the industry for guidance on the way to go with this.
It’s up to each business owner to decide what sort of methods he will use. Do you want to sign on a large number of customers that will use your services once or over a short period of time or do you want to develop longer term relationships built on old fashioned, good service and hard work?
If you choose the first method and are tricking people into signing up for your services, not providing good value and are not getting results for your customers the bad news will get around quickly enough and you may end up out of business. This is especially true with so many people using social networking web sites. News of bad service travels much faster than good reviews.
Are you providing the best products and services? If not, are you providing better value for what you do? Do your customers fully understand what they are getting for their money? Take a look at your business and see if you can develop a business model that’s good for your customers as well as for yourself.
Let’s go back to “Big, Bad Google”. They state on their Corporate Overview page: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” They do this by providing “an easy-to-use free service that usually returns relevant results in a fraction of a second.” Looking just at the search side of Google’s businesses the changes they have made over the years have all focused on returning “relevant results” not because they are really nice guys, but because that is what makes people come back to use the Google search engine again and again. Focusing on this has brought about the “dominance” that is resented by their competitors and search marketing professionals that are looking for short cuts to success.
This resentment is even stronger now that Google AdWords have brought financial success as well. Google has made their products and services easy to use, with full documentation and helpful videos. They now have staff speaking at most industry conferences and using social networking tools to more fully communicate and assist users of all of their products.
This shows the importance of setting the right mission statement for your business and, once you have done this, maintaining your focus on that mission to bring best results for your business. What do you want to achieve in your business? Are you looking to just make a living or are you looking for greater satisfaction in helping others achieve their business goals; or do you need to be the best (in number of sales, awards, publicity)? Are you looking to build up your business to a point where you can sell it on to another bigger business? Your goals are going to be based on the type of products/services as well as what your personal needs are. I am not judging any of these goals, just saying that it’s important to define them and remain focused.
By developing the best mix of products and services with the right pricing structure you then have a business that is financially viable and, hopefully, lucrative with a base of happy, loyal customers (as well as happy, loyal suppliers) that are with you for the long term and referring you to their friends and colleagues – working with you to build a successful business that is around for the long term. Just have a look at “10 Things Google Has Found to Be True”.
Ann Donnelly has her own blog with News and Views on SEO, Web Development, Online Marketing and the internet in general — and maybe some other posts on business and life itself.
Her business O’Mahony Donnelly E-Business Development specialises in Search Engine Placement &
Offering a full line of Online Marketing Services:
- Web Design & Development
- Shopping Carts & Payment Processing
- Search Engine Placement
- Email Marketing
- AdWords Campaign Management
- Social Networking (Blogs, Forums, etc.)
- Online Customer Service
Vote, vote, vote!
Elections for the IIA Board have now opened and we have 12 smashing candidates from all walks of internet business. You can read all about them on IIA.ie and if you are an IIA Member you are encouraged to cast your vote before 5pm 30 July 2009.
A personal plea from the IIA staff: these people will be our bosses. You’ve met us, we’re nice people. Do right by us and make your choice wisely 
Each member company has one voting user. If you are a member please login to find out who this is. Click on Members Network and the information is displayed. If this person is no longer with your company please email members at iia dot ie with the following details:
Company name, full name, position and email address of the individual you wish to hold the vote.
Beware of the following scam
An IIA Member has drawn our attention to the following scam. It is also being discussed on Boards.ie. As Maiken from CCD points out:
1. Revenue do not correspond by email, only in writing.
2. Revenue will ALWAYS quote your PPS number to you.
3. Revenue will never look for credit card details.
4. Revenue letterheads will always be used.
The test of the email is as follows:
From: Irish Tax & Customs [mailto:service@revenue.ie] Sent: 13 July 2009 09:52 Subject: Tax Refund Number 2009IE291771TAX48/190 ATTN: Dear Applicant, 2009 - Recalculation Tax Refund After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of 284.23 EURO Your TRN (TAX REFUND NUMBER): 2 7 9 0 2 1 6 8 1 5, please fill the payment form attached in the email. Please submit the tax refund and allow us 3-9 business days in order to process it. Note: For security reasons, we recommend that you close your browser after you have finished accessing your refund status. - For security reasons, we will record your ip-address and date. - Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicted. Best Regards, George Thompson Tax Credit Office Agent info@revenue.ie Telephone: 0845 300 3900 Opening hours: 8.00 am to 8.00 pm, seven days a week
However this scam is particularly convincing and includes an attachment entitled “form_payment.pdf.htm” which opens the following:
This form also includes the same ominous warnings about false information leading to criminal indictment as if getting an email from the Revenue Commissioners offering to refund you money wasn’t enough of a shock
The Revenue Commissioners have posted a warning and recommend that you delete the email and if you did go so far as to include details, you should contact your bank immediately to take steps to protect your account from the scammers.
Typo causing problems for IIA Board Election nominators
Photo right owned by Valeriana Solaris (cc)
Earlier this week I posted a blog post about our upcoming Board Elections. Unfortunately I mistyped the email address for nominations in the HTML (not onscreen) which caused some difficulties. I’m sorry about this and it was corrected as soon as it was pointed out to us. The correct email address is board2009@iia.ie.
Nominations are being accepted until 5pm today so you still have just over an hour to get involved. All valid nominations will be published on Friday 17th July.
Summer school
Oh I wish I had paid more attention in the classes where they were doing the really hard core programming stuff back when I was in college. I often wish this but I wished it even more when SQT Training recently joined the IIA and I had a chat with the charming Lily Collison on the phone and she told me about App School.
I asked Lily to tell me more about App School.
There is a business opportunity for those who can develop iPhone applications. We here at SQT Training in conjunction with Patrick Collison and Mulley Communications will present a new 5 day training course in the development of applications for the iPhone. The course termed App School teaches people how to create iPhone applications for release on Apple’s App Store.
She also told me that they have already been featured in the Irish Times and the Sunday Business Post
There is interest from all manner of people and Patrick will be giving a talk at the Irish Computer Society on Tuesday 14th July.
If you think you have what it takes to make a killer iPhone App, can you please bottle it and give some to me? Details of the course can be found at www.appschool.ie. Sign up and when you’re rich maybe you can set up a funding programme for wannabe coders like me…?
Handknit iPhone from daddytypes.com. Click image to find out how to make your own!
Even a website needs some downtime
Between 12pm and 1pm today the main IIA.ie website will be unavailable for a period. We are adding a new module to the site that affects the functionality and the design of some aspects of the site. Although we have tested it in a live-like environment we would prefer to bash it about a bit in a live environment before releasing it completely. We hope you understand. We appreciate your patience.
You can check out our twitter feed for updates although I will of course be busy testing the new module!
Nominations welcomed for IIA Board
Voting in the IIA Board Elections will open on 17th July (not 14th July as previously stated due to current board members’ availability). However nominations are now being accepted. This is your chance to nominate an individual that you feel can continue and develop the work of the IIA. Our mantra is connect, inform, promote and the membership look to the board to act as advocates, promoters and experts on the online business and business online.
So if you feel that you, a colleague or a business associate has the right stuff please nominate them as follows:
- If you wish to NOMINATE someone, both you and your nominee must be paid-up IIA members. (Search the directory here.) If you wish to go forward yourself, someone else MUST nominate you. Nominations & seconded only accepted from the Voting user as per the membership details in the member network on the IIA website.
Send nomination e-mails to: board2009@iia.ie with Nominate in the subject field. - Each nomination must be Seconded by a paid-up IIA member, who should send a separate e-mail (from an address different to the original nomination) to: board2009@iia.ie with Second in the subject field.
- On receiving a nomination, a request of confirmation that the nomination is accepted will be made, and that if elected the nominee will serve on the board for a minimum of one year. (A short biographical note will also be requested by immediate return; 50 words or less).
- The Voting User in each member company will be able to user their vote online from Friday 17th July until Thursday 30th July when voting closes.
- An independent scrutiniser, the Company Auditor, will examine voting returns and confirm the result of the board elections at the AGM on September 10th followed by an as yet to be announced knees-up.
Yes you read that right – a knees-up! I will keep you posted!
IIA’s International Strategy Working Group Launched
A guest post from Mark Rodgers, Chair of the International Strategy working group and Managing Director of Cipherion Translations outlining how the first meeting went.
The IIA’s International Strategy Working Group kicked off last week with our first meeting in the Digital Hub. It was duly noted that everyone turned up for the WG meeting on probably one of the hottest evenings of the year in Dublin. Managing to finish the meeting having overrun by a mere 30 minutes ensured that focus was maintained: keep it simple, just do what needs to get done.
The brightest hope for Irish organizations at the moment is to develop a more international strategy and start seeking new markets abroad. In fact many Irish organizations are already operating internationally – from Ryanair to the mom&pop craft organizations that sell into the USA. It’s no revelation to most that the internet is really making it a lot easier for Irish organizations to do business internationally – and this working group aims to bring some of that knowledge and information to a wider IIA audience.
Member of the working group include Una Coleman (Codega Consulting), Jonathan Kyle (Greenjobs.ie), Cathal Cronin (Realex Payments), as well as Eoin O’Siochru (Enterprise Ireland’s E-Business unit), Stephan Brennan (The Digital Hub Development Agency) and myself from Cipherion Translations.
We’ll be kicking off with a survey of members in August on what information / training members are seeking to help make the process of targeting international markets at a lot easier. We’ve already plans afoot for a Breakfast Seminar in October as a well as an Easy-To-Use-Guide that’ll have all the necessary information to help organizations take the next steps in reaching wider global audiences. Others have done it and it isn’t hard.
So keep an eye out for our activities, read about us online and if you have some experience or interest, get in touch with Roseanne, IIA Membership Manager.
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