This is Tom

Tom is a teenager who loves interacting with friends. He uses Facebook primarily to find out what’s going on in his social circle. Tom’s friends upload photos and tag him on Facebook. He even shares notes with his friends and teachers in closed groups. His entire school and social experience has been translated online. Tom hits “like” on a brand page whose products he likes or who post interesting stuff on his News Feed.



This is Dick

Dick just kickstarted his own small business and uses Facebook to market his products. He invests in Facebook ads and sponsored stories to improve reach. Dick’s customers can find out about their favourite products on the page. They can even shop online through the ecommerce app that Dick has provided. Dick keeps track of his customers’ interests through Insights and finds out about what kind of product gets the most attention. He is looking to grow his fan base through recommendations.



This is Harry

Harry loves his job as a brand manager for a multinational company. As an advertiser, he keeps an eye out for changing social media trends and has evolved his company’s marketing strategy to include a curated digital reputation on Facebook through pages and apps. Harry keeps his company’s page content fresh and inviting. He introduces sweepstakes, virtual offers & game apps to keep the brand‘s fans engaged. Harry continually tracks activity on his apps using tracking software. Harry is looking for innovative ideas to capture the audience’s attention & create viral campaigns on Facebook.


In their own ways, Tom, Dick and Harry are changing the scope of Facebook every single day and are enriching the users’ experience.

At the end of the day, their actions are affecting you and YOU are affecting them!

. Six degrees of separation? Not anymore. Research has shown that Facebook friends are separated by just 4 people. [the average distance in 2008 was 5.28 hops, while now it is 4.74. http://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-data-team/anatomy-of-facebook/]

. More than ever before, YOU have the power to express your opinions for the world to notice.

. Your likes and comments are helping brands understand what you like.

. Your social circle is going global and bringing the world closer.


Want to know where you fit in among the three personalities? Let us help you. what do you think of our online persona?




Author Bio
Nabiha Zeeshan is a social media addict currently loving her job at Cygnis Media. She spends her leisure time researching on social media trends and consumer psychology. Follow her @NabihaZeeshan

The difficulty in conducting the project lies largely in the number of players it mobilizes. In contrast to personal projects or projects with low internal scale for which the need and fulfillment of this need can be done by the same person or a limited number of stakeholders, enterprise projects are way complex because expression of need and satisfaction of this need are usually worn by different actors.


In this way, it is necessary to ensure, throughout the project lifecycle that it clearly meets the expectations of the “client.” As opposed to traditional shopping (“buyer / seller”) where a customer buys a product already made to satisfy a need model, the project aims to produce an original creation that meets a specific need to be expressed rigorously. This expression of need is even more difficult as the project generally has no precedence in the company because of its novelty. In contrast, it is generally difficult to ignore existing solutions and focus solely on the needs in functional terms.

Many questions arise:

1. Who will decide to bring new information?
2. On what basis and with what methods (meeting planning) does one decide to disseminate tasks and authorities?
3. Who will and how to communicate on a Project?
4. Who will form the information flow model?
5. What skills are required for Management?
6. How do we alert users?
7. To be alerted? With what criteria?
8. What tools of analysis, what methods?


Given the magnitude of the task, we internet offer da series of project Management tools identifying several key points. It is very important to identify the bottlenecks and the kind of choke points in the project management, if these steps can be misunderstood or ignored it can lead to severe consequences. Then we have in the market various Project Management software’s like ProofHub to deliver the fruits of rigorous research and thoughts on Project Management issues and best practices, to make Project Management easy.

Author Bio:

Alex Hood is the marketing and business manager of ProofHub.com, a web-based project management software that helps to plan, coordinate and execute projects, and enables easy communication amongst teams and clients. Alex also writes blogs related to project management and collaboration.

SEO became necessity when search engines streamlined businesses and people begin to consume search results as their online buying assistant. Google became a key player and improved drastically since results manipulation started using odd techniques. But today continuous updates are affecting smaller brands on the one end while they are also encouraging to think out of the box on the other end.

Today we have a very special guest with us, the man behind my success, he might have taught you too through his work. It wouldn’t be wrong if I say you’re not an SEO professional if you don’t know his name or SEOmoz frankly. So did you guessed whom I am talking about…? Yeah he is the Guru of SEO “Rand Fishkin” , he was a consultant before he moved to SEO.

Since 2002 till today his passion of work is unsurpassed. What else to add further… you must be well aware of his achievements and his work speaks for itself. So let’s start asking him some questions that might help you guys..

Hello Sir, Hope you are doing well.


To begin I’ll ask you a basic question, in your opinion what is SEO and how this helps in growth of an online business?

SEO is a tactic that helps businesses earn web traffic. Since search is such an intent-driven activity, that traffic is often more relevant and valuable than traffic from other sources. Depending on the type of actions you’re hoping to earn from web visitors, organic search can be an exceptionally high quality driver of those actions.

What are your expectations regarding 2013 as we already beard a number of animal named updates from Google in 2012? How is the future going to be?

I expect we’ll continue to see more updates from Google on the UI & UX of their search results, as well as their efforts to fight web spam, and reward more holistic and high quality marketing. I hope they call the next update “Zebra” I think that would fit nicely with the theme


You are an inspiration to many but who is your inspiration in the world of SEO? Or name someone you’re an admirer of?

I have a lot of people I admire tremendously, but one of my favorites is Neil deGrasse Tyson of the Hayden Planetarium. He’s done so much great marketing for the world of science, all through transparent, authentic, generous, empathetic, and exceptional contributions. You can check out his Twitter account here: https://twitter.com/neiltyson

Most of the time spammers quickly gain top positions in search engine results, what will you suggests geeks doing white hate SEO how they can take lead from these doing black hate SEO?

I disagree with the premise. For the vast majority of search results, spammers don’t prosper nor do they gain rankings and visibility. I think this is why Google is so well used and well regarded, and why they continue to grow – they’re doing a good job filling most of the top results with high quality stuff.

In terms of learning from black hat activities – I think there’s almost always a white hat way to apply black hat knowledge. You just need to be creative

I have asked this question to many SEO experts how to one can leverage more leads if all the keywords are already on top? How to generate more leads?

Go outside the direct response to the broader field of building brand awareness amongst likely customers/influencers. For example, if you’re targeting terms around people buying hot tubs, expand to people who are searching for summer activities, or how to increase home values. If search is truly exhausted, social media and content marketing should loom large on your horizon.

Discuss a strategy you feel is best to gain top position in search results?

Have the absolute best, most useful, most unique content and target it toward those who are likely to help you share it with others. One of the best ways to do this is to include contributions, mentions, or assistance to those who help influence the field and then seek their help to distribute it. I covered this strategy a bit more in-depth in this Quora answer: http://www.quora.com/How-do-StackOverflow-and-Yelp-achieve-such-high-search-results-What-kind-of-SEO-are-they-doing

In last I’ll a question you might be asked several times what is your secret of success and advice your fans with some do’s and don’ts

Sticking with it! Honestly, there’s no secret. I’ve been in the field a long time, and I’ve never felt “good enough” to relax or step back. I think I’m permanently trapped in the mentality of underachievement.

In terms of dos and don’ts, the best resource I can point to is my personal blog: http://moz.com/rand, where I share a lot about what’s worked for me from a broader business and startup building perspective.

Thanks Rand you honored me and my followers with your valuable time it was a real pleasure for me to have you on board

Thanks Noman!

Facebook Marketing Applications are one of the most important platforms for business marketers. This is considered to be the smartest way to connect to more users/customers and to spread the word to a wider audience, ultimately making your stuff go viral.

1- Pagemodo:

Pagemodo offers apps that can help to engage viewers through templates, designs and cover photos.

Mission: “To empower small business owners and organizations to use social media channels to compete, succeed, and grow in the modern marketplace – without wasting time or money!”

2- Facebook “Causes” App:

Applications on Facebook that allow people to donate and participate in a good deed or a cause are really popular. The “Causes” Facebook application helps non-profit organizations and supporters to make their message go viral.

Mission: “Causes empowers anyone to start a campaign, take action, and have an impact. We use this space to showcase the movements that people create on causes.com.”

3- North Social’s Photo Contest App:

People on the internet love to edit and share photos. Photo sharing and photo contest apps can really help to make your word go viral. North Social, Facebook app provider, came up with a Photo Contest App which was got an overwhelming response from over 15,000 users.

Mission: “Our app is available for brands and agencies to launch viral photo contests.”

4- Band Profile Facebook App:

Music is important. And it is equally important for music to be shared with a larger audience. Reverb Nation’s Facebook app, Band Profile is one of the top music sharing applications out there.

Mission: “Quickly and easily create a customized profile for your band and your fans, complete with a free music player, photos, videos, tour schedule and wall.”

5- Tabsite’s “Engagement” Apps For Facebook:

To ‘engage’ more users, Facebook apps provider Tabsite launched a series of “Engagement” applications. Their motto is ‘Engage fans. Boost revenue’.

Mission: “Build Facebook Fan Page Tabs for Deals Sweepstakes, Reviews, Contests and more. Now with Pinterest and Instagram tools!”

So these were five Facebook marketing apps that can be used to generate viral sharing. But there are several others which serve the same propose. If you have any application to add in the list, feel free to comment.

Author Bio:

Sameera Ehteram is a social media addict currently loving her job at Carbonated.TV. She spends her leisure time researching on social media trends and consumer psychology. Follow her @SamEhteram

Image source: Google

There have been many predictions about the nature of IT developments in the next year or so, particularly for businesses utilising e-Commerce. However, the most important thing to consider and suggest is how you can improve your business by adopting innovative ways to ensure enthusiasm for whatever the coming months and years will challenge us with.

1. The most important thing is to understand your business models because there are many factors such as economics and globalisation that are affecting the change agenda. The business should be able to understand the value and the limitations of their assets and not just from a financial aspect. You need to create a model that will best fit your strategy and the impact that it is going to create. For this you need to make sure to move fast and steady as pace is everything in today’s times.

2.The businesses should start adopting social media as the user-base of the social networks is increasing considerably with time. There are a lot of opportunities on these social networks and these external forces can have a positive and a negative impact on your organisation. You need to ensure a practical strategy to secure your digital channels by going for proactive strategising your processes and governance. You need to make sure that digital strategy innovation is part of your business transformation agenda and that the employees are inclined into using the right tools for collaboration.

3. There are intelligent devices everywhere and over the coming years the number of connected devices and connected users will be increased to billions. These new devices offer new channels to market and will be major sources of information. Organisations need to ensure the understanding of these devices as who is going to secure, manage and integrate these devices. Utilising these devices will drive businesses into making real time decisions and solving analytics problems more effectively.

4. Today’s world is all about data. Data is being increasingly used to grow new revenues as it is all about responding to the market needs within seconds and not days. Organisations should plan for massive data growths and maturing legislations. Data should be classified that caters to the business needs including accessibility of storage of such massive data. Big Data is the new thing and you need to understand the ROI and the skills set required to deliver the positive results.

5. Businesses should plan for Windows 8 and new iOS devices because these apps and devices have greatly impacted our business but their management of services and integration is vital.

6. Due to recent turbulent economic conditions, cloud computing has found rapid acceptance among companies of all sizes. At present (2013), we can say that cloud computing has gone mainstream, with a variety of SaaS applications having been successfully deployed by businesses worldwide. Businesses need to encourage cloud organizational process and support readiness.

7. You need to secure your businesses online as attacks on both private and public sectors is rising and protecting significant infrastructure is becoming more and more problematic as businesses are endeavour to offer 24/7 service to their clients, partners and employees. Organisations should conduct regular security checkups and adopt new chip level technologies to enable high end security features. Moreover protect your data at rest and in transit.

8. IT Procurement is changing but IT budgets are moving out the control of IT departments. Businesses must ensure they have a single interface between the business and its multiple IT service suppliers. They need to ensure governance and process for new and existing services that are aligned to changing business needs.

Author Bio
Samir Feroze is the founder of VeriQual Ltd, a software services company specializing in RoR, PHP, Android and iOS. He has also founded Yello.PK which is the largest user-generated content driven website in Pakistan. His interests include advising start-ups on technology, Location based applications, financing early stage ventures and outsourcing. In his spare time he likes to work on rotary engines.

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Following are the top 13 suggestions that have been collected from the survey to deal with the challenges that the project managers had to face and for keeping track of the progress of the projects.

1. The organization should ensure that the project manager hired for that particular project is the right one and has the requisite technical and soft skills to manage the project and the technical team. It is quite obvious that poor management kills the IT projects faster as most of the developers are too busy coding and seldom have the time to think about the ‘big picture’, which is a project manager’s primarily role.

2. Once a project manager has been designated for the right project, the right team should be assigned to that project manager. The team can include Business Analysts, Software Developers, Quality Assurance Engineers, etc. The right team empowers the project manager to make decisions regarding the project with ease. The resources in the team must be allocated on the basis of their skills and capability and not on their availability.

3. Each team member’s strengths and weaknesses should be fully understood by the project managers. They need to be fully aware of the environment necessary for their team to perform well under minimal supervision and work hard to provide those desirable work environments. Hence, the project managers for any project must understand that they act as ‘enablers’ of success for each of the team members under their supervision.

4. The project managers now need to span out the project and define milestones. Once it has been scoped out, the project manager’s task is to cut it by half and from that it should be decided how to start and complete the project successfully. This methodology is based on the famous ‘Minimum Viable Product (MVP)’ philosophy.

5. Tasks should be defined and prioritized and the project managers should come up with some procedures and guidelines in order to solve conflicts that can occur any time. The managers should know that multi-tasking can have adverse effects hence few tasks should be delegated to their team to increase productivity within the team. This can be achieved by reducing the number of work items to be executed and start on the new ones when the previous conflicts have been solved.

6. The project managers should be involved actively on their projects and monitor it continuously. They should be aware of what is going on at all times. The managers should monitor the project at the resource level and not be completely dependent on the traditional project tools for guidance.

7. Email should not be used as the sole project management tool. Efficient project management applications such as basecamp, Assembla or blossom.io are a much better alternative, as it is easier to track the project’s progress using these applications compared to just email. These web-based project management tools allow everyone on the project to see the progress online with ease.

8. The managers should hold short weekly meetings with the whole team for each member to attend meetings in which the team discusses on what they did last week, their plans for this week and any roadblocks they encountered during that week. The project managers need to ensure that those roadblocks or hurdles for each member are removed in order to enable steady progress. This also ensures motivation and urgency for each team member to make progress each week.

9. Managing changes in the original scope of work is very important in keeping the projects under control.

10. Spending some time on the groundwork for scope and clearly defining will eventually help in keeping the project on track. Whenever a client sends a new scope, it should be clearly conveyed to the client that it will be included in the second phase of the project, having its own cost and milestones rather than being implemented at the current stage. This will save the projects from being out of control.

11. Milestones should be created for each member of the team and give incentives to the team members once they have achieved those milestones. This will help in keeping the team members motivated about the project and a sense of accomplishment. Milestones should be defined in the planning phase of the project; this will assure the project managers and the team on the progress of the project.

12. The project team should consider adopting Agile practices rather than using the traditional methods of managing software. This method allows the team to adjust their project to the needs of the market and the client rapidly.

13. The managers should track time being spent by the team members in the completion of the major parts of the project. This will educate the project managers to the in accurate estimates they had made earlier on the project. The best tool for this is toggle.com, a cloud-based service for tracking time of the team members.

Author Bio
Samir Feroze is the founder of VeriQual Ltd, a software services company specializing in RoR, PHP, Android and iOS. He has also founded Yello.PK which is the largest user-generated content driven website in Pakistan. His interests include advising start-ups on technology, Location based applications, financing early stage ventures and outsourcing. In his spare time he likes to work on rotary engines.

Photo courtesy: @insidefacebook

Facebook launched “Nearby” for mobiles as a local search product in December 2012. Previously, it only allowed users to see where their friends were checking in to. Facebook has now added new features and renamed “Nearby” to “Local Search” which will help users understand its functions better.

Here are a few things that Facebook has been busy adding to iOS “Local Search”:

1. Browse Categories:
Local Search now shows you a broad range of categories of places near you on the first screen of the feature. You can choose among these and see a list of restaurants, outdoor activity spots, bars, hotels, malls, art galleries and more.

2. Friends’ Favourites:
Your nearby places get sorted by your friends’ recommendations, star ratings and the number of check-ins. So you can easily find out what places appealed to your friends. Endorsements from customers just got more important for brands.

3. Business Descriptions:
The feature also allows users to browse through the business’ description, operating hours and price ranges. The feature will obviously pull this information from the brand’s Facebook page so it is crucial that businesses keep their information up-to-date.

4. Directions:
There is also an option to get directions to a specific place, call the company or check-in to the place right from inside “Local Search”. All this information in one place provides a greater motivation for users to visit places.

5. Facebook Page:
The feature provides a link to the official Facebook page and Timeline of the brand so the users can check out the latest updates and news from the brand itself.


With these developments, there are some things that have yet to be improved. Currently, Local Search does not show a lot of photos about brands or businesses. Compared with Yelp and Foursquare, this could be a major drawback for Facebook because its users would opt to use other facilities to find out more about these spaces.
Also, the search isn’t very helpful. For example, if you search for “pizza”, it will only show businesses that have the word “pizza” in their brand name, unlike Google Maps, Yelp and Foursquare that will also display restaurants that serve or deliver pizza but may not have the keyword “pizza” in their titles.

However, as is the case with all software, we hope it will improve as more and more users try it out and give feedback. Have you tried “Local Search”? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Author Bio
Nabiha Zeeshan is a social media addict currently loving her job at Cygnis Media. She spends her leisure time researching on social media trends and consumer psychology. Follow her @NabihaZeeshan

Facebook applications have become so diversified that they can serve purposes other than simply promoting your products. Ecommerce websites can provide your customers the ease of shopping online but Facebook e-commerce applications can help your customers make buying decisions in a socially influenced virtual environment.
You can either create a catalogue app that lists your products but links back to your ecommerce website or you can create a transaction app that allows the customer to make the purchase there and then.


1. Rules of Engagement:

Facebook is a social networking experience in a virtual world. The number one rule is to keep your customer engaged with your brand. Facebook applications can add that interactivity that isolated e-commerce websites may not. Facebook eCommerce apps can present your online shop in a fun way and grab your customer when he is most willing to accept friends’ opinions and be influenced by your brand ambassadors.

For example, Sensa Weight Loss has a Facebook app for online shoppers. The app is not only designed well, but it provides a lot of meaningful choices to the buyer such as taking recommendations from friends, sharing products on their Timelines and other social platforms as well. A recurrent “like” button also reminds customers to take an action if they find the product praise-worthy.

Take-away: Sensa Weight Loss’ eCommerce app lets users ‘get advice from friends’ showing that Sensa truly understands what an app on Facebook means to its fans.


2. Exclusive Shopping:

You need to understand the difference between an eCommerce website and an eCommerce app, not just technically but how your customers behave on each. On an eCommerce website, there is more room to spare so you can show your entire range of products with ease. On a Facebook eCommerce app, don’t make the mistake of overloading the customer with a lot of products on the first page. It will only make them run away. Research on what your customers talk about the most on Facebook or what their recent demands are and then curate your eCommerce app to show them exactly what they want.

For example, Penguin Books has an app that shows “Daily Deal”. The app presents one book out of the thousands of Penguin Books available and captures your attention immediately. It then shows the date and time when the daily deal will be available and lists eBook websites where you can take advantage of it.

Take-away: Penguin Books takes out the time to select one book and shows its readers that it really cares about their choices.


3. Reward for Using Facebook:

When your customers “like” your Facebook page and become a fan, they expect something in return. If you’re using a Facebook eCommerce app, it is always a good idea to reward your fans by giving them special discounts. After all, they are promoting your brand every time they like or comment on your post and giving you space in their friends’ News Feeds!

For example, Natural Body Inc. sells its products in a catalogue-like app and shows discounted prices along with original prices so Facebook fans know exactly how much they are benefiting. Even though the design of the app is very simple, the message is very clear: use the app and you get to save money. A counter at the top lists how many items you have in your shopping bag and the total amount you will be spending on them.

Take-away: Natural Body Inc. shows that it values its Facebook fans and wants them to keep coming back to their page just to use their Facebook Store app.


4. What do they think?

Letting your customers know that their opinion matters and that you care about their thoughts on your products shows that a brand truly wants to serve its customers. Feedback is crucial for any brand to recognize how it can improve on its products. Facebook eCommerce apps provide a very easy way to get this feedback: in the form of Facebook likes and comments. Within the app, you can simply add a space for your customers to put their thoughts in and share with you as well as other customers.

For example, Freeline Sports Europe’s eCommerce app sports two items with dedicated spaces and provides the user with a comment box so they can put in their product reviews right there. What a great way to make your consumers talk about you!

Take-away: Freeline Sports provides a privilege to its fans by adding a simple comment box and shows its own confidence in its products. This also increases the impressions their products make on Facebook.


5. The Bandwagon Effect:

This is a simple technique but can work wonders for your products. In an eCommerce app for Facebook, showing a simple counter for the number of people who have ‘liked’ the item creates an influence on the buyer’s decision process. This may be a small addition to your app but you shouldn’t underestimate the power of a recommendation. The ‘likes’ counter may give your hesitant customer the final push they need to add the item to their shopping cart.

For example, Road Runner Sports has added a Facebook like counter and a tweet button with each product to show the popularity of the item. You can browse by category and by price and within the list prioritise by the number of times the product was praised.

Take-away: When making an ecommerce app for Facebook, you have to realise that the essence of the social network should not be lost and with simple techniques like Road Runner’s, it shouldn’t be so hard.


Conclusion:

Always think about how you can add value to your application. Again, keep in mind that Facebook is a virtual social experience where people expect to interact with their friends and enjoy their time. If your app appears too boring or too static, your fan will switch to doing something else. To keep them engaged, add something ‘extra’ to your app depending on your brand’s personality such as a punch-line with each product, a celebrity endorsement message, a fun fact your customers may not know, a unique way of using your product etc.

Facebook eCommerce apps provide great room for interactivity and networking that websites and brick-and-mortar presences may not be able to achieve. When creating an app to boost sales through Facebook, engage your customers, give them exclusive product listings catered to their wants, reward them for using the app, ask for their feedback and show them if their friends like the same product.

Author Bio
Nabiha Zeeshan is a social media addict currently loving her job at Cygnis Media. She spends her leisure time researching on social media trends and consumer psychology. Follow her @NabihaZeeshan

Action: The most important thing is to just get it started and do not get caught up in details which might be important but do not require on initial stages. For examples dealing with paperwork, business cards, etc.  Remember that it is your online business so you should save the time, paper and resources on these miscellaneous items. Communication s and further information about your online business should be shared via emails, Skype and URL instead of going personally to meet your potential targeted clients.  Registering a business entity is the other caught up. It’s better to start your business in your name with minimal paperwork and cost.

Invest in Developing Marketing Skills: Whatever type of business you are operating; your prime focus should be in developing marketing skills in-case you already don’t possess. There are flocks of people who’ve done same business but in different part of world. Often they have written their experiences and what they have done to succeed in respective fields.  All you need to do is learn by Benchmarking those success stories and if they align with your requirements than even don’t be afraid to try their products. Target the untargeted group.

Ask for Assistance: If you are an introverted personality than you might be shy about asking for assistance. Do not allow your this trait to become a barrier to your success. Ask for propitiate people to provide your assistance in required domains.

Participate in The Community: Whatever forte you are in there is a community. For example if you are selling on eBay, there are lots of forums available to help those people out who are in need. Participate in those kind of community activities to get the benefits.

Do not allow your Customers to forget you: Customer Relation Management should be the  core of your business, especially when you are a Start-up and in growing period. Build a strong customer base and develop innovative ways to inform past customers about hot deals, latest products and keep them posted with updates about your online business. Your selected eCommerce solution might have provisions for incorporating various CRM solutions , which will enable you to start various campaigns.  Develop a strong communication between your online business and customers. Pamper them often to generate steady sales.

Build Robust Backend Operations: Backend operations are the backbone of your online business. Often eCommerce solutions provide a dashboard for analysing backend operations. Normally these back ends are equipped with Inventory Management, Credit card processing, Orders in queue and some.


Author Bio

Samir Feroze is the founder of VeriQual Ltd, a software services company specialising in RoR, PHP, Android and iOS. He has also founded Yello.PK which is the largest user-generated content driven website in Pakistan. His interests include advising start-ups on technology, Location based applications, financing early stage ventures and outsourcing. In his spare time he likes to work on rotary engines.

Did you know that every day, you conduct many reviews of web marketing experts? No other professional in the world is so constantly under scrutiny. Thousands of people every minute make decisions based on web marketing and yet we don’t every know it. Nor do we know the people who are web marketing experts. Many of us will never meet a web marketing expert, but we are still judging them every single day.

As soon as you open your email account in the morning, you start making judgements of web marketing experts. Why would a dodgy sex site think it was a good idea to send me that terrible email? You think when a spam email makes its way through your junk filter. I’m obviously not going to click on that link – it’s far too long to be from a legitimate website – and why didn’t they proof their grammar? You’ve been on your computer five minutes and you’re already thinking that a web marketer, somewhere in the world, made a couple of bad decisions at their job.

The reviews of web marketing experts continue throughout the day – but at least you’ll come across someone who has made a right decision. When you choose to click on a Facebook ad for a product you’re interested in or follow a link to an event that a promoter has posted on Twitter, you are sending the marketer a little thumbs up of approval. Well done, you’re saying, you’ve achieved your goal. You don’t know the web marketer and they don’t know you, but the two of you have communicated with a little click of a mouse. A little click that echoes ‘good job’.

And that’s the hidden truth of the matter. That only your positive reviews of web marketing experts get back to them. When their company’s website gets a hit or a sale, when they get more followers on Twitter or fans on Facebook, then they know they’re doing a good job. The only thing that tells them they’re doing a bag job is silence. Web marketers are a little bit like musicians or actors – at the end of the performance, if the audience is completely silent, you’ve mucked up in some manner. Hell, even booing or bad feedback is productive – at least someone’s paying attention and you’re probably getting more publicity. And all publicity is good publicity.