Plucking out a name and hoping for the best

Plucking out a name and hoping for the best

In the past few weeks I have had to book some accomodation and travel for an upcoming overseas holiday. All of it has been done online. I haven’t exchanged one word with another human being, except for a quick online chat with the good people at Eurostar to ask what I...

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Sundazed and confused

Sundazed and confused

For roughly a month between the middle of December and the end of January, New Zealand enters into, what is commonly known as, the silly season. It’s summer, the sun is blazing and the beach is calling. Kiwis take their annual holidays - to relax, socialise, spend...

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Being taken for a ride

Being taken for a ride

The first car I bought was a total lemon. I was young, eager, and stubbornly oblivious to the great advice I had been given, before forking over my hard earned cash to a gentleman who sold second hand cars through the classified section of the Christchurch Press....

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Checking the online vitality of your business

Checking the online vitality of your business

One of the most surprising thing to me when talking to business owners is the large percentage that do not do the simplest thing to analyse the strength of their business online - regularly Googling their business name. Searching your own business name regularly is...

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Marketing a reputation in boom times and bust

Marketing a reputation in boom times and bust

Marketing is a vital element to every business’ success and viability. Like other essentials, it needs to be nurtured and more importantly – it requires a commitment – to ensure that a business’ name, brand, and services are continually present where they are most...

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Are our phones making us a better species?

Are our phones making us a better species?

It’s strange that we still call them mobile phones. Using them as a device to make actual ‘phone calls’ is the very smallest part of their function and use. In reality they are extensions, connections to nearly any sort of information at any time – only hindered by...

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We can’t afford to mess with the truth

We can’t afford to mess with the truth

No matter which country you live in some things stay the same – the professions that top off the lists of most distrusted professions. Across the board it is politicians and journalists that take top spots (or bottom spots) in polls regarding trust and reputation....

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Google it . . .

Google it . . .

Not so long ago there were a number of search engines competing for consumers’ attention. Today that’s not the case and one search engine holds a solid monopoly – so much so that its name is now the popular terminology for online searching. Want to know the time in...

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We’re all going to Bonnie Doon!!

We’re all going to Bonnie Doon!!

About eight years ago I had to attend a conference in Sydney and after booking a fare looked online for accommodation. I searched by location and made my choice on price. So long as I was close enough to the venue and the price was right, then I was happy, or so I...

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