Getting Connected
The Business of the Internet

I have an online
journal

I have an online
journal

I have an online
journal
photo by: robsmith-qld

I have an online
journal
photo from: Henry of Pelham

I have an online
journal

people are changing
the way we do business on­line

what makes the internet special is
people not technology

five topics

1. Getting connected
2. Searching, surfing
and social media
3. Email
4. Taking care of business
5. E­commerce

five themes

1. Identity
2. Trust
3. Community
4. Efficiency
5. Connectivity

Identity

you have a brand

every action you take
(or don’t take)
contributes to your brand

when competing against the rest
of the world in today’s economy

you must be able to
answer the questions:

Who are you?
What do you do?
How are you shamelessly special?

product, person, company
the person made the sale

I am a person with
a unique identity.

I am:
emma@hicktech.com
emmajane@xtrinsic.com
ej.hogbin@utoronto.ca
emma@emmajane.net
ej.hogbin@gmail.com

Who are you?
info@
mail@
laura@

Be a person with
a unique identity.

Create unique email addresses.
Ask your provider for options.

“Some of the best brands are
those where personality
does shine through.”
Jennifer Rice

Spend 30 minutes every day
establishing your brand.

Use this time to:
1. follow­up on customer email
2. update your web site
3. participate in your
business community
4. participate in your
customers’ community

Trust

Trust
Photo by: xt0ph3r

verify the story

Who are you?
Photo by: carbonnyc

Evaluate identities
before giving your trust

On the web:
1. Look at the address bar
https:// and URL
2. Look for the lock
3. Assess the credibility of the vendor

Take your business on­line by
starting as an on­line consumer.

Experience buying on­line and
understand what you do (not) like

selling on­line:
offer the same assurances you
want as a consumer

investing in an ecommerce
system is not cheap.
explore alternatives.

look for other market places
to sell your products
Etsy, eBay, Amazon

use a trusted, third­party
commerce system
PayPal, Yahoo! Stores, Google Checkout

develop your identity
with a goal of gaining trust

Community

in the beginning web sites were
updated infrequently and only by
a computer technician

Photo by: geo

Photo by: geo

Photo by: geo

now web sites are
created by individuals
or a collaboration of individuals

Web 2.0
Social Media
community and collaborative

www.wikipedia.org
collaborative encyclopedia
www.facebook.com
social networking (and on­line Scrabble)
www.linkedin.com
business networking
www.myspace.com
social networking, music focused

Using Facebook
1. Find friends, share updates.
2. Create groups
3. Create events
4. Create (business) pages

communications within
your own web site

update your Web site on a regular
basis to encourage repeat visitors

do you already have
a newsletter?

blogfodder

convert your print newsletter
into an online “blog”

blog: contraction of
“web” and “log”

submitting new stories on a
regular basis is good for search
engine rankings

updated regularly, actual
information about the yarn shop
updated regularly
all the keywords
and with incoming links

add audio to make a podcast

add video to make a vodcast

Communication Photo by: ehnmark

newsletters are a great way to
“push” content to customers

e­newsletters are cheap (yay!)

but safeguards have been put in
place to prevent you from
sending bulk emails

Photo by: Grumbler

most providers allow you to send
20­50 emails at once

if you have more names (yay!)
you will need to use a
bulk mailing system

a bulk mailer is software that
combines your message and
your list of contacts to
send individual emails

Services: Yahoo! Groups, Constant Contact
Software: PHPList, Mailman

know your audience
be polite about attachments
wherever possible: use plain text

Efficiency
Photo by: xoe

1. alerts
2. summaries
3. finance efficiencies
4. useful software tools

Enter keywords in the
search engines to find
customers and competitors
related to your business.

Repeat daily.

Or have the search engine
notify you when
things of interest show up on­line.

remember this story?

google alerts
www.google.com/alerts

monitor your competitors
monitor your customers
watch for trends

don’t forget to search for your
own name too
an “ego­google”

keep track of what others are
doing through bookmarks
(“favorites” in Internet Explorer)

or use a news reader to help you
keep track

visit only one
site for a
summary of all
other sites
Photo by: trainman74

popular on­line news readers:
www.bloglines.com
www.google.com/reader

Efficient finances
Photo by: Loneprimate

on­line banking
on­line bill payments
exporting bank statements
importing statements into your
accounting software

use useful tools

this presentation is made with:
OpenOffice.org
Creative Commons licensed photos
from www.flickr.com

“OpenDisc is a high quality collection of
free and open source software (FOSS) for
the Microsoft Windows operating system.”
www.TheOpenDisc.com

Connectivity
Photo by: ppdigital

Dial­up – through the phone
DSL – through the phone
Cable – through the tv
Wireless – over the hills
Satellite – up in the air
http://www.greycounty.ca/broadband/providers.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_Internet_access

DSL – Digital Subscriber Line
Available in­town.
Bell Aliant, Bruce Telecom,
Wightman Telecom

high frequency noise
gets tired quickly source: wikipedia

Cable
Available where there is cable tv.
Amtelecom, Markdale Cable, Persona,
Rogers Cable

Where you have cable,
you have connection.
source: wikipedia

Wireless
Available in rural areas where there are
towers in place
Nine providers locally. Check
GreyCounty.ca for more information.

If you can see the tower,
you can have power.
Photo by: Andy_pants_in_Fred

Satellite
Available everywhere
Computer Service Center,
Logans Satellite and Internet,
Leeson True Value Hardware

The sky is the limit.

connecting your computer
to the world

typical
home
1 2 3
business
set­up

Computers can also
be connected
Photo by: Chainsawpanda

WAN:
Wide Area
a router
Network
Lots of computers

LAN:
Local Area
a router
Network
Lots of computers

connections
are generally
a router
made by
routers
although sometimes they have
more complicated names
Lots of computers

The router is
your gateway
between the
two worlds.
Photo by: Troy B Thompson

Please close the gate
Photo by: Pikaluk

five tips to closing the gate:
1. add/change the router’s
admin password
2. enable your firewall
3. be suspicious of suspect things
4. create accounts that aren’t
administrators for every day use
5. ask for help

throughout the presentation we
talked about the experience I
had with mr. speck.

email daniel and thank him for
using google alerts
www.henryofpelham.com

1. Identity
2. Trust
3. Community
4. Efficiency
5. Connectivity
emma@hicktech.com