Ricky’s Online Business Blog

What is Web 2.0 like?

In tradition Web 1.0, it is like a class where the teacher teaches the subject matter and students receive.  Students may ask questions occasionally and the teacher will answer.  It is basically a one-way or two-way communication.  Relationships exist between the teacher and each individual student.  The teaching materials are produced by the teacher him/herself.

But in Web 2.0, the teacher plays more of a facilitator’s role.  The students discuss among themselves on the subject matter.  Communication flows to and fro in many channels.  Relationships exist not only between the teacher and students, but among the students as well.  The teaching materials are produced by the students themselves as they learn and are guided by the teacher.

This is just an analogy of Web 2.0.  What do you think Web 2.0 is like?

I attended a full-day paid seminar on “Internet Marketing 2.0 for Millionaires” by eOneNet.com, said to be the number 1 Internet marketing company in Asia.  I expected to learn more about Web 2.0 technologies to improve my online businesses.

I am glad to have heard their founder Fione Tan speak. She is a reputable expert and coach on Internet marketing, who has been running successful online businesses herself and so is an authority to speak on the subject matter.

The seminar gave us the basics of Internet marketing. Fione even motivated us to go for the gold in Internet business. Just look at her lifestyle. So enviable! Furthermore, her presentation was excellent and humorous, making us laugh from the beginning to the end.

However, I think the seminar was more suited for beginners as the content covered was quite basic, though it did remind give me some areas which I have overlooked. Frankly, I didn’t learn much about Web 2.0, which was the reason I attended the seminar.

It could have been better if she could teach us more on Internet marketing itself and leave the promotion for their Internet marketing coaching service at the end, instead of inserting advertisements in the sessions. And perhaps speak less on motivation as well.

Anyway, kudos to them for their success in this field. The country is proud of you!

SMS is a relatively simple technology that has been around for many years, compared to other MMS and other more advanced mobile technologies. Yet as the lowest common denominator of all phones, SMS is still popular and its usage is still growing! We cannot ignore such fact that it is still useful for many people.

SMS is easy to implement in an online business. But it seems many people still do not know about this and so under-utilize it. Recently I helped develop an online registration system for a sports event and proposed using SMS in the system. The idea wowed many people thinking it’s one of the latest technologies!

Here are a few ways I’m using SMS to help automate my web sites and improve customer service. Let’s see whether any of these can be helpful for you too.

• Whenever you have got a new enquiry, a new order, request for support or any other matter that requires your immediate attention, use SMS to notify you. Time is money!
• Whenever your customer does something important on your web site, such as registering as member or placing an order, send an acknowledgment to them by SMS. They could be wowed by your immediate response!
• Whenever you need to send a reminder to customers, or want to do follow up, send them SMS!
• Build a permission-based SMS mailing list and broadcast to your prospects or customers for promotion and branding reasons. But don’t send too frequently.
• Use SMS so that your users can register with your service by SMS, instead of going to your web site!

SMS can be sent from mobile to mobile, mobile to web, and the other ways round. There are many potential ways of using SMS to innovate your business. Why not contact me if you are interested?