Facebook is well known. And well used. For good reasons.

It is THE place people go to communicate, share and stay in touch with each other. 

It is also increasingly the place businesses use to promote themselves to the world - through their Facebook pages.

I'm not going to run through all the how-to's of setting up Facebook pages - but would like to say this:

If you're a business - get yourself a Facebook page, enable it with some of the increasingly clever new apps out there (just look at www.ibiwa.com for an example), and start using it in your promotion and advertising.

• Hosting is Free
• You've got access to Millions already online
• It allows you to build contacts ...
• It's good for SEO (used correctly)

So get at it. As we like to say down here in this corner of the world. 

I was walking to the tram today, and was amazed at how much 'stuff' people put out on the verge of the road for what is called "Hard Waste Collection" (here in Melbourne). In the distance of my 500m walk to the tram I counted:

• Over 35 TVs
• 10 mattresses
• A few BBQs
• Loads of old sofas
  ... and much much more.
  

I guess given the chance, everyone likes to clear out their stuff. By clearing out the old, and unused - there's less clutter, more space to move around in, and generally it makes us all feel a lot better.

So now - what about your website?

Is there stuff in there that could be removed, edited or tidied.

Could it perhaps benefit from a springclean too?

 

It's Valentine's day. Well at least on this side of the world!

So happy Valentines!

I hope someone has taken, or takes the time, to surprise and thank you for what you mean to them in their lives. And in so doing makes you feel valued and special.

Take the home page of Google today.

• What can you do to surprise people?
• How can you make them feel valued and special?

I'm betting that you've had this experience.

You visit a website to buy something or to find some information.

The next day, you start seeing adverts for the same website you visited yesterday. Almost like the adverts are following you!

Well they are.

They're ads that make use of what's called either remarketing or retargeting technology. This is where a temporary cookie (given to you by the website you first visited) identifies you to the Advertising Network that runs ads on the other sites you visit. The ads shown to you are then adjusted to suit.

All a little scary I know.

But I guess it's no different from using your rewards card every-time you make a purchase at your supermarket. The data gathered profiles you, and other shoppers, so that they can offer more suitable products in all the right places!

Now the good news is, that if you want to opt out of these ads - then simply visit either:

Google's advertising opt-out page - http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

OR

The Network Advertising Initiative opt out page. - http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp

So there you go. Tell me about your experiences with how ads have followed you. And what your thoughts are on this.

We're all going somewhere these days. Busy, busy.

And our mobile phones, iPads, iPhones and Androids follow us wherever we go.

It stands to reason that we're consuming more and more information from our mobile devices, including browsing websites.

So here's a question.

Do you know how many people have visited your site in the last 30 days on a mobile phone/ device? You may be surprised!

Oh ... sorry. To find this out simply log-in to Analytics, and select from side tab:

Visitors > Mobile > Mobile devices.

And there you'll see the following:

I'm currently in Melbourne sitting in a newly opened Coworking space called the HubMelbourne. And yesterday I plugged in with the very hospitable guys at Inpsire9. It's really nice to see these collaborative, communal and creative work environments becoming real. Even nicer for me - as visitor to Melbourne - as I get to meet - and talk to some cool people - just by being in the space.

I feel that the more and more virtual connections there are online - the more and more need there is for real connections offline. People are social animals - and whilst social media allows us to scratch the itch of connecting and keeping in touch - it doesn't really nourish the hunger for real human interactions.

It's nice to be here. Thanks again to the co-working community in Melbourne.

I was lucky enough to just have attended a breakfast event put together by the Eastern Bay of Plenty Chamber of Commerce where Rob Fyfe gave a very insightful and interesting talk.

Rob's approach to how he is guiding a large business like Air New Zealand is refreshing in it's approach. And it all centres around some very sound ideas and principles:

• Motivating staff to express (and be) themselves
• Telling and sharing good stories (with staff and customers)
• Engaging and listening to customers
• Embracing and expressing our 'Kiwiness' to the world through our: unguarded, willing and authentic can-do approach
• Constantly innovating 
• Being small and fast - but acting big
• Creating interesting, edgy 'advertising' that entertains and which results in a high level of talkability (and therefore viral reach)
• Trying and failing (and then fixing) - rather than never trying anything new

I've just read a great book called "Personality Not Included" by Rohit Bhargava - that captures this personal, authentic approach to doing business in today's world. And it mirrors a lot of what Rob has been doing for over 5 years.

I'd love your thoughts on this - and also to share my own story (called "13 Years of the Web in 7 Days)