| Date | Title | Description |
| Sign up to see | Sign up to see | Sign up to see |
| Mar 15, 2017 | Nokia 3310 retro buzz masks mobile industry’s wait for 5G | One of the most popular things to come out of the recent Mobile World Congress 2017 was the new Nokia 3310, a revisionist take on Nokia’s classic feature phone. But while some indulged in nostalgia, others in the industry were desperately h... |
| Feb 16, 2017 | Video has never been easier or cheaper to produce: Why you should consider making one for your startup | Even if you’re not a member of the Dollar Shave Club, you probably recall the stir the brand made when it launched its product with a very clever and funny video on YouTube.
That was five years ago and Dollar Shave Club is still delivering ... |
| Jan 27, 2017 | Four Google resources every entrepreneur should know about | It is almost impossible these days to run a small business without an online presence of some sort. And it is almost impossible to have an effective online presence without at least a little knowledge of how to use the many tools Google put... |
| Dec 15, 2016 | How Facebook’s “scrappy younger cousin” Snapchat became social media’s pop sensation | By The Bendalls Group chief executive Fi Bendall
While Facebook still looks unassailable as the king of the social media world, Snapchat has emerged as the scrappy younger cousin with a mind of its own and features that younger users can’t ... |
| Nov 23, 2016 | What’s blockchain and does it matter beyond fintech? | One of the hottest topics in tech and innovation over the past year has been blockchain technology. Blockchain is shaking up the global fintech industry, threatening to disrupt the way we think of fundamentals such as money, banking and fin... |
| Nov 21, 2016 | Five quick and easy innovation hacks for a maturing startup | Fi Bendall, founder and chief executive of The Female Social Network. Source: Supplied.
Creativity and innovation don’t have to cost a fortune in R&D.
If you can create the type of culture in your business that values risk-taking, colla... |
| Nov 2, 2016 | SME opportunities abound in the digital disruption landscape | Last week, I wrote about why businesses have to worry about more than just their direct competitors in this age of Uber-inspired category disruption.
The fact is we are seeing incredibly rapid and far-ranging transformations going on throug... |
| Oct 19, 2016 | How fast is fast when it comes to technology and behaviour? | I still pinch myself remembering not so long ago being stuck to the phone on a wall or side table, with my mother listening, not being able to walk anywhere. It made for some awkward conversations!
Fast forward to today, and my 12-year-old ... |
| Jun 16, 2016 | Is your business ready for the death of the website? | Is the website really on the way out or is about to become a boutique e-commerce accessory? Either way, it means businesses will have to rethink how they approach digital engagement.
Most businesses, especially retailers, now have multiple ... |
| Mar 17, 2016 | Are we about to see virtual reality finally go mainstream? | McDonald’s rolled out a fun little experiment in Sweden recently when it released 3500 virtual reality headsets – which were actually Happy Meal boxes that could be folded and transformed into VR headsets.
It was a novel way of introducing ... |
| Feb 12, 2016 | What we can learn about digital disruption from AngelList’s trending startups | By Fi Bendall
AngelList is one of the hubs for all things startup in Silicon Valley. Launched in 2010, it started as a meeting place for tech startups and investors – a sort of pick-up joint for crowdfunding, if you will.
Its trending list ... |
| Oct 2, 2015 | Mobile, the big killer of traditional TV | Mobile is killing off TV and traditional media as we know it. Even one of our biggest media owners mentioned to me this last week, that video consumption will consume all. In the US where there is better bandwidth than in Australia, consume... |
| Sep 30, 2015 | Mobile, the big killer of traditional TV | Mobile is killing off TV and traditional media as we know it. Even one of our biggest media owners mentioned to me this last week, that video consumption will consume all. In the US where there is better bandwidth than in Australia, consume... |
| Jul 23, 2015 | Friends with benefits or the untapped long tail of social influence | On many occasions I have continued to prompt, push and advocate that social media influence is not really “likes”, nor is it cute marketing campaigns to drive Facebook traffic.
The true commercial benefit of social media is the power of the... |
| Jul 1, 2015 | The BBC is not forgetting | The EU Courts made a ruling last year that search engine links about a person that are irrelevant or outdated can be removed by request.
In Australia, the same law is under consideration by the Australian Law Reform Commission’s recommendat... |
| Jun 17, 2015 | Strategic principles for businesses operating in a digital disruptive economy | Digital technologies are not new. They date back to at least the 1980s. What is new is how this technology is being deployed.
The big change is data and information is readily available, trade secrets and proprietary information is hard to ... |
| May 27, 2015 | Could you pitch your business in less than 60 seconds? TEDx, Steve Jobs and the 1-minute pitch | Could you pitch your business in a minute to grab five big ones? Let alone do it at TEDx.
Well that’s what 20 small businesses did to try grabbing $10,000 from St George Bank Kick Start Program live at TEDx Sydney last week.
The atmosphere ... |
| Apr 15, 2015 | The power of blog: Nine tips to get you writing | Social media has not only changed how business is run, it has become a platform that enables anyone to be a media owner, a publisher, as well as engage and build a customer base.
The buzz around social media comes from being connected to yo... |
| Apr 1, 2015 | How ‘open innovation’ is helping big business think like a startup | Recently, I have seen examples emerging of what is being described as ‘open innovation’.
One of my favorite thought leaders, Harvard Business School legend Clayton Christensen, has written on the topic in the past and multinational food com... |
| Mar 25, 2015 | Can business-to-business brands succeed on social media? | Many commentators say not every brand should be on social media, and many don’t believe it’s a place for business-to-business (B2B) companies. Well, think again. This mattress company proves the naysayers wrong.
Yes, Leggett & Platt mak... |
| Feb 11, 2015 | Small business banking on innovation | Small and medium-sized enterprises are the unsung heroes of the Australian economy. They employ around 5 million people and contribute more than 45% of GDP.
Small businesses contribute massively to the economic well-being of this country; t... |
| Dec 3, 2014 | Want to start up a retail business? Learn from one of the best | This week I was fortunate to have a meeting with the extremely successful Paul Greenberg from NORA (National Online Retailers Association), and former managing director of DealsDirect, about the ins and outs of retailing.
Paul Greenberg is ... |
| Nov 19, 2014 | Rhetoric, rhetoric, rhetoric: Forget free trade deals and look to the grassroots | This was reported in The Sydney Morning Herald:
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has hailed the G20 summit in Brisbane as a “weekend of achievement” that had the Group of 20 “shift a gear” from being responsive to proactive to world events.
World... |
| Nov 12, 2014 | How to choose the best technology business solutions | Having worked in tech for many years, you would presume I may be a pro at choosing technology solutions to help my business. Not true! It astonishes me the variables and options on offer to small business owners that make choosing what’s wh... |
| Sep 17, 2014 | The case for being weird and remarkable | Since the late ‘80s when I started working in consumer electronics, which was the kick-start of the technology revolution, nothing has changed my life and how I live my life as much as the radical impact of our fully digital world.
I have s... |
| Jun 18, 2014 | Crowdfunding in Australia takes a step forward with CAMAC report | Here’s what you need to know from the recently released Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee report about crowdfunding for startups and SMEs.
After my article last week, an entrepreneur who has a vested interest in crowdsourcing reac... |
| Jun 11, 2014 | Need investment capital? Three key tips for crowdfunding | In many forums with my peers from the small business community, there is a constant theme about raising capital and how hard it is – especially small to medium amounts of capital.
Investors want too much and banks don’t do it without taking... |
| May 21, 2014 | Forget the home page, it’s dead and buried | I have long suspected that internet home pages were dying. You just have to be a regular user of the internet for news, to know the news finds you, via social media shares, as opposed to you typing in a URL.
So the final evidence came to me... |
| Apr 30, 2014 | Facebook’s search optimisation tips are now even more important | As Facebook launches more features and becomes a mobile-centric platform, it’s time to make sure your business is Facebook optimised.
Nearby Places is a current feature that allows users to search for local businesses, such as restaurants a... |
| Feb 19, 2014 | Groupon sweetens the deal for small businesses | Groupon in the US recently launched Deal Builder, an automated self-serve option for business owners to advertise their own discount promotions.
Small business owners who jumped on the Groupon bandwagon previously were often left disappoint... |
| Feb 12, 2014 | Barclays’ epic failure once again illustrates data breach dangers | Barclays, one of the three biggest banks in the UK, is facing the worst data breach ever in the history of high street banks. It has been revealed this week that the personal details of 27,000 Barclays customers have been stolen and sold to... |
| Feb 5, 2014 | Digital direct marketing is the future: Why it’s about more than just email | Digital direct marketing (DDM) is so fundamental to marketing I am stunned at how many marketer’s still don’t use it to its full potential.
Marketers tell me they are the stewards of the brand. But in the digital age, there is a case that c... |
| Jan 22, 2014 | Retail giants and their battle against cyber security: Is your business the next victim? | It is quite common for people to worry about the dangers of using their credit card to shop online or being conned into falling for phishing scams on the internet.
However, there never seems to be any concern when you’re standing in a store... |
| Jan 15, 2014 | Five health and lifestyle apps that will help you keep your New Year’s resolution | Each New Year, you hear countless people make resolutions and they usually revolve around health and lifestyle.
I’ve curated a selection of a few of my favourite and highly rated health and lifestyle apps that may help with your own 2014 Ne... |
| Nov 13, 2013 | A reflection on our virtual voice | Twenty years ago, businesses, restaurants, day cares, shopping centres and every other part of society that ticked was run on image. If something wasn’t what it was cracked up to be, you wouldn’t know until after it let you down.
Then, as t... |
| Oct 16, 2013 | Dear Google, selling user endorsements is just plain wrong | I know social networks are doing everything they can to generate revenue out of unsuspecting social networkers, but selling user endorsements just seems so wrong for so many reasons.
Whilst it was good of ‘do no evil’ Google to let users kn... |
| Oct 9, 2013 | A new way for business to use Facebook data at street level | The idea is simple: Allow people to use their Facebook logins to access free Wi-Fi in business establishments from small family-owned restaurants to international airports.
Launched in the USA, working with Cisco, Facebook persuades its use... |
| Sep 25, 2013 | Social media networks are now commercial beasts chasing old revenue models | One traditional ad executive described me and others like me (early adopter digital natives) as the bunch of misfits who gave the internet popularity. I can really understand why the rise of the internet has really upset a heap of people, f... |
| Sep 18, 2013 | Social media engagement metrics are faulty | There is a never-ending cycle of social media performance charts, using dubious metrics, to qualify ‘the most engaged brands’.
Social media engagement is subjective and contextual. Attempting to apply a mass measurement for engagement acros... |
| Sep 11, 2013 | Is social media a fad? | Lies, lies and damn statistics just aren’t going to wash. Every research report being released shows social media is here to stay.
Firmly putting the consumer in control. Pew Research shows a whooping 72% of Americans are regular social med... |
| Sep 4, 2013 | How to improve your website and e-commerce offerings: A pharmaceutical case study | The ability to perform business transactions electronically and having an online presence is crucial to the success of any business.
However, it seems the Australian pharmacy industry is struggling to keep up in the world of e-commerce.
Aus... |
| Aug 28, 2013 | Changes to Gmail: What you need to know and how it will affect email marketing | Google has made some significant changes to Gmail. The most significant is likely to cause more issues for email marketers – it is the introduction of tabs to your inbox.
The tabs enable auto-sorting of incoming mail:
Primary – The real ema... |
| Aug 21, 2013 | A cheeky little guide to how Australians can join the Netflix revolution | For Australians, two things remain the same: death and Foxtel. Imagine a time in which the tiny convict colony we live in can experience the type of content being shown all over the US and UK at the click of a button.
Bendalls account execu... |
| Jul 31, 2013 | You need a LinkedIn strategy: Here’s why and how | The 2013 Sales and LinkedIn Study, interviewed nearly 3100 business owners, consultants and career salespeople, 79% were small business owners. The study provides excellent insight on using LinkedIn as a free prospecting tool: “84% of respo... |
| Jul 17, 2013 | A media industry up its own proverbial is great news for smart SMEs | Paul McIntyre’s perfectly understandable rant in AdNews about the media industry disappearing up their own channels is further mounting evidence of the extent to which the media industry has been ignoring all that has been going on around t... |
| Jul 10, 2013 | Online privacy: How much do you have and how can you protect it? | With NSA and Ed Snowden making headlines, along with Facebook on the next run of confusing its users on privacy with its full launch of Facebook Graph Search now rolling out (Australian date not announced just yet), just how far can you pro... |
| Jul 3, 2013 | Your data strategy 10-point plan | Data is big news and making data part of any marketing strategy is a must.
Data strategy is a core enabler to ensure long-term brand health. Marketers may collect data and use it to improve communications with customers, but how do you crea... |
| Jun 26, 2013 | A how-to guide to conversion rate optimisation | Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is all about getting better conversion rates.
It gets wrapped up too often in geek lingo that makes it seem like a dark art. In conversations about spilt testing on what colour is used, where to use it and... |
| Jun 19, 2013 | Conversion psychology and how to generate sales leads online | B2B marketing firm Pardot has just released a fascinating white paper, ‘Using Psychology to Increase Conversions’, which looks into the psychology behind lead generation in the digital realm.
The world of marketing is in flux as a result of... |
| Jun 12, 2013 | Beware the rise of the digital phoenix | In March 2010, SmartCompany reported: “So-called ‘phoenix’ activities have been around for quite awhile. They arise when a business is deliberately liquidated in order to avoid the payment of tax liabilities, wages, superannuation and leave... |
| May 29, 2013 | Forget business accountability – let’s just go social! | The newly released 2013 Yellow Social Media Report, launched by AIMIA/Yellow Pages, endorses so many positive aspects of changing communications to have arisen from social media and digital interfaces. I am hoping, at last, business WAKES U... |
| May 22, 2013 | Gamification, is it a game changer? | The hype of gamification has been built on the potential powerful engaging responsive design that gaming induces on cognitive behaviour to grab attention, memory, perception and high levels of engagement.
Great examples of gamification incl... |
| May 15, 2013 | Digital disruption still bites | Even now after 3,099,585 presentations loaded to Slideshare.net on ‘Digital’, ‘Online’, ‘Mobile’ and ‘eCommerce’, there is still reticence in regard to all matters digital in the boardrooms of companies large and small.
Whole industries hav... |
| May 8, 2013 | The true, personal dangers of social media | I was horrified by the news recently that Brown University student Sunil Tripathi, falsely linked to Boston bombings on Reddit, had been found dead, his body dragged from a river.
It is shocking that a bunch of anonymous Reddit users can ca... |
| Apr 17, 2013 | What makes someone a ‘digital expert’? | I have come across many imposters in my time; many of them claiming to be ‘digital experts’ who make promises and just don’t deliver.
I am able to spot an imposter, although for the non ‘digital expert’ an imposter can be hard to recognise,... |
| Apr 3, 2013 | It’s not a matter of if you go mobile… you have to do it now! | Wherever you look there are surveys throwing big figures around about small business and mobile marketing. Here are just a few that I’ve come across:
How many mobile apps do small businesses use regularly? Seven productivity apps and four b... |
| Mar 27, 2013 | Digital roundup: What’s the world coming to? | This week we may well ask what has the world come to, as Twitter turns seven, Google Plus is now the second largest social network in the world, and kids are becoming millionaires by developing apps and selling their IP and soul to Yahoo!
W... |
| Mar 20, 2013 | Emotional arcs help your social networking engagement | There’s one absolute in social communications. It is often overlooked in a rush to publish the sales message first. The absolute is that emotion works.
It can be good emotions, enthusiasm and humor. Or it can be challenging emotions, emotio... |
| Mar 13, 2013 | Content strategy? FAQs answered | The world of publishing and creative has been challenged by the dawn of the online publishing model.
You are a publisher if you have a website, if you have a blog, if you tweet, if you write a Facebook post, if you respond in forums or part... |
| Mar 6, 2013 | Social outreach is more than just spruiking bloggers | There were 2.4 billion internet users recorded in 2012. That is enough to change the world we live in, and it has.
Social outreach and social connections matter, whether you are a government or a big company, people power expressed through ... |
| Feb 27, 2013 | How videos go viral | There is no red button on the wall that you can press to send a video viral. However, there are common attributes to videos that have been shared a lot and considered a viral success.
Theme
Humour, usually in an ironic, parody style
Inciden... |
| Feb 20, 2013 | One of the oldest online marketing channels still delivers: Your guide to affiliate marketing | I ghost wrote this piece in 2006 and it is still totally relevant today. I am still astonished that so many people still don’t know about affiliate marketing or use it, especially small business owners. A model where you only pay when a sal... |
| Feb 13, 2013 | Mobile strategy tips for SMEs | With mobile firmly established, there is nowhere to hide in this phase of the technology boom. Google are predicting 40% of smartphone owners are researching their purchases via their mobile and 46% of tablet owners do the same.
SMEs are ju... |
| Feb 6, 2013 | Why crowds and networks are smarter than most companies | Since the advent of the internet, the power of the crowd has been foremost in the changing society.
We have leaderless collaborations, such as Wikipedia; we have organised social movements like Get Up! that have emerged to challenge governm... |
| Jan 30, 2013 | The dark art of data: Facebook is delving deep into your mind | Reading an article from The New York Times, ‘For Search, Facebook had to go beyond “Robospeak”‘, the article struck me on a number of levels; one being, there is a general acceptance that computers and software can’t read context or sentime... |
| Jan 23, 2013 | Why can’t Gillard do this? New York launches digital tool kit for small businesses | Ok, let’s face it, the USA is pretty much in recession hell and they launch this initiative with Mashable. All at the same time that the Australian government withdraws, or should I say defers, any interest, payments, grants and pretty much... |
| Jan 16, 2013 | Mobile challenges smart TV industry: It’s about value-add not replication | Reported in AdAge from CES in Las Vegas, the consumer electronics companies were touting their new interactive smart TVs while debate emerged about whether consumers even want them.
It does beg the question about how much UX has been conduc... |
| Dec 12, 2012 | No excuse – like it or not, you have to be tech savvy | Today we live at home, in business, on the bus, on the train, in the sky, wherever we are in a tech-driven world. You cannot ignore it; you cannot run away from it, you have to get with it.
By not doing so you render yourself obsolete, you ... |
| Nov 28, 2012 | Forget about the technology, it’s all about psychology | Reading Steve Rubel’s recent post “Want to Win Friends? Forget About You and Get People Talking About Me”, I was pleased to see I am not the only one who gets “prioritize psychology over technology and understand how the two intersect”, as ... |
| Nov 21, 2012 | Chief digital officers will soon become boardroom regulars | Technology research firm Gartner’s prediction of a chief digital officer becoming a staple in the boardroom is based on major digital transformation of organisations and, in my opinion, 2015 seems a little far off.
Gartner analyst David Wil... |
| Nov 14, 2012 | A digital marketing strategy is “recommendation in the pocket”, not ads | Marketing has changed from ads to “recommendation and pockets”, with huge purchasing impacts from both recommendation and mobile search.
Consider the facts:
According to Nielsen’s latest Global Trust in Advertising report, which surveyed mo... |
| Nov 7, 2012 | Five ways small business can capitalise on big business digital ignorance | For small businesses, the corporate misalignment of digital and social media to marketing campaigns has levelled the playing field. The opportunity to get ahead has never been more exciting.
Using all the free and low-cost social media and ... |
| Oct 31, 2012 | Almost 30% of Asia Pacific companies have no digital strategy | The Grayling Pulse Autumn 2012 report has found a stunning 22% of global companies on average don’t have a digital strategy. In Europe and North America, about 78% of organisations have a strategy, but in the Asia Pacific region only about ... |
| Oct 24, 2012 | Do you know who you are? Google knows who you are, or does it? | Do you know who you are? This is a really important question in today’s digital economy.
I was gathering information on this when I came across a useful tool called Brandyourself.com. It was invented by Peter Kistler, a university graduate ... |
| Oct 10, 2012 | ROI formula for a digital sales and marketing strategy | A couple of weeks ago, I posted a video blog with Nando’s posing the question of how you can determine ROI from a digital media or social media campaign.
Proving ROI and building a business case for investment in digital, from internet–to–i... |
| Sep 26, 2012 | VIDEO: How to judge ROI through social media | Judging a return on investment through social media is one of the hardest challenges when it comes to developing online campaigns. If you don’t know what works, and what doesn’t, how can you hope to maximise your time? Today I spoke with Na... |
| Sep 19, 2012 | The digital native: A people strategy equals transactional engagement | The biggest mistake organisations, big and small, make is they don’t get the digital native.
In 2005, Rupert Murdoch infamously said, “What I worry about much more is our ability to make the necessary cultural changes to meet the new demand... |
| Sep 12, 2012 | Creating a social media communications plan | Public relations has gone through a radical change over the past five years. This is as a result of the growing influence social media channels have had on consumer perception and on traditional media.
A new skill set beyond the glossy PR s... |
| Sep 5, 2012 | A guide to building a digital strategy: Part five | Last week I covered the methodology of how to find an audience online, this week I am going to cover how you build momentum and an online community.
Getting people to participate in your community is critical to building it. Peer-to-peer sh... |
| Aug 29, 2012 | A guide to building a digital strategy: Part four | Last week I left you with the challenge of getting your content strategy right, and this week we look at the challenges of creating audiences online.
This is not a one-blog topic – so part four will be broken down into a number of posts to ... |
| Aug 22, 2012 | A guide to building a digital strategy: Part three | Technology will do what you want it to. However, producing decent content in a digital world where there is so much content and earning audience attention is not an easy task.
Then add to this a few more challenges:
Where will you content a... |
| Aug 15, 2012 | A guide to building a digital strategy: Part two | Few companies have been committed to digital transformation and now those that haven’t are certainly starting to feel the pain in the digital economy.
To build a digital strategy, you need to build it inside your organisation, not just outs... |