Hello again everyone and let me start by saying how quickly another year has passed before our very eyes. This week I'd like to take a step back from  Business, Social Media and all things Sales and Marketing and focus instead on something more important.

Namely family and friends and how at this time of year it's certainly a time to reflect on how fortunate we are to be surrounded with so many good people who all help enrich our lives and really help to make life worth living.

On a personal note I'd like to thank all the readers for their support, feedback and input as it makes doing the Road Scholars Marketing blog so enjoyable.  As well I'd also like to wish you and those special to you a very safe and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

And so until next time, good luck and as always, good marketing.

Regards,
Daniele.

Twiiter Currently Testing The New Twitter Offers

Twitter and E-Commerce

With the natural evolution of Twitter and the inevitable movement towards e-commerce, Twitter are now testing on limited basis to some merchants in the USA, the ability to perform commerce functions straight from a tweet on the Twitter site.

Still in its test phase, advertisers will be able to directly connect with their prospects through Twitter and perform eCommerce functionality in selling them their goods and services. This new functionality is called:  Twitter Offers and will allow any participating business to design card-linked offers and promote them via the Twitter network.

Simple System

The Twitter Offers will appear in users timelines, at which point if they like the offer being made by the advertiser, will be able to add the offer to their personal credit  card through a short and simple process and then actually gain the product being purchased by presenting the digital card at the business, organisation or retail store.

This system has added benefits for the user as the entire transaction is directly linked to the credit card and consequently the need for any type of voucher or additional card is unnecessary. Like all other purchases made on any card, the results of the purchase will later appear on the credit card statement within a few days as per normal, providing a permanent record of the financial activity that has been undertaken.

Measure ROI

Apart from the general simplicity and ease that this model delivers, it will also continue to meet the key criteria of measure ability as it will also allow the business to be able to directly attribute specific sales to promotional activity and thereby provide a true measure of the respective return on investments (ROI's) of the various campaigns being undertaken on Twitter.

Like many other social media giants such as Facebook, Twitter can also access it's customer database to provide strong targeting capability. Advertisers on Twitter are able to target the advertising to specific demographics within the Twitter group hereby ensuring that an appropriate message will always be sent to the specific targeted groups.

Security

From a security point of view, Twitter Offers that are linked to a users credit card will be fully encrypted and stored to facilitate both easy claiming or to make additional purchases on Twitter providing the same level of protection as an SSL certificate would for your website.

At any point this data can also be removed as required. Although there have been no tight timelines spoken of to date, it is almost certain that over time as the process is refined and polished, this feature will be rolled out to the masses. So stay tuned to see how this new commerce initiative progresses in 2015.

And naturally if you'd like to learn more about Twitter, any of the other Social Media Marketing platforms of digital media in general, simply attend any of the free Digital Enterprise Workshops listed here on:  www.vecci.org.au/dep/workshops and sign up for any of the seven free two hour workshops which will also qualify you for a free four hour coaching session specifically focused on your business needs.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

NBN: Like The Classic Castrol Commercial Where Oils Aint Oils, NBN Aint Necessarily NBN Either.

The Most Asked About Topic: The NBN

As we quickly approach the end of 2015and the first half year of the highly successful Digital Enterprise Program that I have spoken about often in this blog, my co facilitator and

course design Trent Rebeiro and I were recently reviewing the year as a whole and discussing what areas of discussion have been the most talked about and requested by the

majority of attendees to the workshops and the coaching sessions alike. Without much doubt one of the most talked about if not the most talked about topic has been that of:

The NBN. There have been many questions but here is a summary of the main ones that keep being asked from workshop to workshop.

What is the NBN?

The NBN stands for the National Broadband Network and represents the name for the proposed and improved national broadband set up that would provide all Australians access to quick internet speeds that would provide obvious advantages to all internet users whether they be businesses or just normal everyday users.

How fast would this new system be compared to what we have now?

Obviously if we are going to go to the trouble of sending all the money to develop the costly and time consuming infrastructure necessary to support this new system, the improvement in

operating speeds would need to be significant. Well here's where it gets a little murky.

Under the original plans that the former Government were basing its costings around, the system that would have been bought in was the:  Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) NBN which is the gold standard and probably the system you will have seen overseas if you have been lucky enough to already see it in action. This version of the NBN would deliver around 72Mbps (Mega Bits per Second).

To put this into context ADSL (or Asymmetric digital subscriber line) which many people reading this will be currently using even now only provides  somewhere between 8 to 12 Mbps.

The problem however is that the current discussions by the Government today is that the form of NBN being discussed is not the: Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) NBN but the largely outdated and much slower version of: Fibre To The Node (FTTN) NBN which has been around for over ten years and only delivers a relatively modest 24 Mbps speed or one third of that of the FTTP option.

Now this speed is admittedly double the speed of existing ADSL speeds but a fraction of what it could be with an optimal setup.

How do the costs compare between FTTP and FTTN?

Again I'm reminded of another famous TV ad for Johnny Walker where the liquor store owner asks: "would you rather have the scotch you'd rather pay for or the one you'd rather drink?"

It's a little bit like that in that in absolute terms the FTTN is certainly cheaper in raw dollars at around thirty five billion dollars whereas the FTTP would be double the cost but would provide triple the speed at a more cost effective price per Mbps received.

What is the best option moving forward?

Ultimately this question will be discussed, debated and in time decided by our political leaders, but from a purely factual basis the FTTP is not only the most cost effective option, but more importantly represents the network of the future that can be used and scaled up for years to come. Those nations that previously invested in the FTTN model have now been forced to pretty much treat the investment as a sunk cost and pay the full amount to upgrade to the required FTTP level, to be competitive with out areas that have it and the advantages that it delivers. Sadly the reality is that having FTTN is not a stepping stone to the FFP. It is a completely different system that cannot be refitted and updated using the same infra-structure and consequently represents wasted funding that in no way lessens the future investment in FTTP.  Ultimately time will tell what Australia end up doing and we will have to watch this space to see.

And as always if you'd like to learn more about the NBN or any other aspect of social media just sign up for a free Digital Enterprise Workshop here on:  www.vecci.org.au/dep/workshops and sign up for any of the seven free workshops which will also qualify you for a free four hour coaching session specifically focused on your business needs.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,

Daniele.