Corporate Blogging

As the competition among corporations becomes more intense, not only do the companies need to survive, they also need to look for opportunities to be conspicuous.

Even though traditional media has been a solid medium that communicates the company messaging to the world for a long time, the trends of information consumption are evolving.

After some initial doubtfulness, companies are starting to realise the importance of blogging.

According to a research, 61 companies out of the Fortune 500 companies or 12.2% of the Fortune 500 are blogging as of 17 April 2009.


Corporate blog refers to blog that is published and used by organisation to attain its organisational goals.

The main advantage of blogs is that readers can reach and follow the posts and comments easily since the hosting is centralised and conversation threads are generally structured.

At present, all major browsers such as Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer 8 support RSS technology, which allows readers to read new posts easily without having to visit the blog. This is particularly useful for small-volume blogs.

Generally, there are six types of corporate blogs, which are sales blog, relationship blogs, branding blogs, knowledge blogs, collaboration blogs and culture blogs. These blogs can then be classified into either external or internal.


Internal blogs

Internal blogs are blogs that can be viewed by any employee and are usually accessed through the corporation’s Intranet. Internal blogs include knowledge blogs, collaboration blogs and culture blogs.

External blogs
External blogs refers to blogs that are made public where company employees, teams and spokespersons share their views. Sales blogs, relationship blogs and branding blogs fall under this category.

For more information about these six types of blogs, please visit http://www.corporateblogging.info/2004/08/six-types-of-business-blogs.asp.

Benefits of corporate blogging

I) Build rapport with customers

II) Provide two-way conversation

III) Increase website traffic from higher search engine rankings

IV) Position business as thought leader

V) Lead generation

For more information, please visit http://buzzmedia.com.my/blog/corporate-blogging-breakdown-what-is-it-and-why-does-my-organisation-need-it

Tips for corporate blogger

1) Know yourself

2) Know your audience

3) Engage your audience

4) Stay current

5) Cover your rear

For more details on tips for corporate blogger, please click here.

Followings are some of the more popular corporate blogs:

Google Blog

Adobe

Direct2Dell

GM Fast Lane

The number of corporate bloggers is increasing and it is expected that it will continue to increase in the future.

In order to compete with other corporations and keep up with the trends, corporations should start blogging if they have not done so.

In conclusion, corporate blog is a new, powerful marketing communication tool for every organisation.

Regardless of whether the organisation is small or large, small medium enterprises or corporations, for-profit or non profit organisations, as long as it is done correctly, corporate blogging can yield a huge Return on Blog.

References:

Corporate blog - Wikipedia

Do's and don'ts of corporate blogging

Top 15 corporate blogs

Review a local, transactional e-commerce site

Want to go for a movie on the coming weekend and you feel irritating to queue for the purchase of movie tickets? It is the time for you to purchase your movie tickets online!!

Golden Screen Cinema (GSC) offers the customer with the e-ticketing service named GSC E-Payment Ticketing on the GSC main website. All you need to do is sign up to become the member and you can enjoy the service.

In my opinion, there is a user friendly feature provided by the GSC to the new users which is the “e-payment ticketing tutorial”. This tutorial could be easily found in the website and it provides a clear step-by-step tutorial on how to purchase the movie tickets online.

Other than that, right after the step of selecting movie, there will be a pop up box to remind the consumers about the age restriction of the movie. For me, it is important as consumers might not be aware of the restriction and a pop up box brings the consumers' attention to the age restriction.





The service allows the consumers to pay via Maybank2u and credit card. Furthermore, there is “status page” at the end of the transaction which allows us to print out the hard copy as evidence of payment. The status page provides clear instruction about the collection of the ticket (such as remember the confirmation ID and the place to collect the ticket) which I think is very useful to avoid the consumers’ confusion during the collection of purchased ticket.


I am satisfied with the e-ticketing service provided by GSC as it provides a user friendly and easy environment for the consumer to purchase movie ticket online.



Reference:

Golden Screen Cinema Online

Pre-paid cash card for consumers

What is a prepaid cash card?

Basically, pre-paid cash card is an alternative way to make payment. It works by loading money into the card and you can use the card for various or specific paying purposes. It does not require deposit account and there is no credit or overdraft allowed. The limit of the card depends on how much electronic cash you have loaded in.

The application of prepaid cash card could be broken into a few categories:

1. Substitution of cash

- Prepaid cash card can be used as a paying or purchasing mechanism. We can pay by using this card rather than cash. It is convenient for the consumers because they do not need to carry much money when shopping. Other than that, it is safer than cash because we can recover the money loaded inside the card if the card gets stolen but stolen cash is usually not recoverable.

2. Purchase online

- Pre-paid cash card acts similarly with credit card which allows us to purchase items online. Online purchasing will be the future trend and it is usually not convenient for those people who are unable to register for a credit card. Pre-paid cash card can solve this problem as there is no requirement for salary or credit check during the application.

3. Accepted worldwide

- Usually, currency like Ringgit Malaysia can only be used to trade in Malaysia. However, present pre-paid cash card with Visa service allows us to pay for goods or services all over the world. A very popular example will be the Rush Visa Card in America.

4. Withdraw cash

- Most of the pre-paid cash card allows us to withdraw the balance in the card at ATM machine. However, it does not apply to all pre-paid cash card. The example of non-refundable pre-paid cash card will be the Touch and Go card of Malaysia.


Reference:

No Checking Or Savings Account? Use Prepaid Cash Card

Master Prepaid Card

Electronic Currency

Money has existed for thousands of years.
It has taken many forms, ranging from precious metals, conch shell etc. to paper notes and coins.

As Internet and computer become more common, money has evolved into a newer form, which is electronic currency.

Electronic currency, which is also known as electronic money, digital money etc., refers to money or scrip that is exchanged only electronically with the use of computer networks, Internet and digital stored value systems.


Followings are some of the examples of electronic currency:

PayPal

In today’s world, many companies are providing electronic currency services.
One of them is PayPal.
PayPal is a well-known leading online account-based e-payment service provider.
Users need to create a PayPal account before they are able to purchase online or transfer money to anyone who has PayPal account.
Payment can be made in any currency and may later be converted into any desired currency.




There are some characteristics which define “Electronic Currency”.

i) Real time & irreversible

ii) Private & anonymous

To know more on the characteristics of e-currency, please click here.




Advantages of electronic currency:

I) Privacy & confidentiality

Since the transfer of electronic currency is done privately and anonymously, no personal details are transferred to the merchant.

II) Security

The adoption of encryption method can enhance the security of electronic currency.

III) Convenience

Customers do not need to bring large amount of cash with them. Users can make online payment wherever they are and whenever they want using credit card size smart card.



Disadvantages of electronic currency:

I) Fraud

Hackers may hack into the user’s bank account and illegally retrieve his or her records.

II) Peer-to-peer double spending risk

Double spending is a problem where a piece of electronic currency is duplicated and both copies are spent.


Requirements of electronic currency system:

a) Security

b) Anonymity

c) Scalability

d) Acceptability

e) Interoperability

For a detailed explanation on these requirements, please click here.




In this digitalised century, electronic currency is becoming more common and popular as it makes our life much easier.
Even though there are some risks associated with electronic currency, consumers can actually choose to avoid it.
For instance, they can opt to include intermediary in their transactions to avoid peer-to-peer double spending risk.
Once the electronic currency industry is able to guarantee the safety and trustworthiness of the transactions, it will definitely benefit us.






References:

Electronic money - advantages and disadvantages

Electronic money - Wikipedia

What is digital currency: digital money & real cash

Internet security -Favourite Passwords Used Online

I choose the post entitled “Favourite Passwords Used Online”.

After I read this post, the first thing came into my mind is that the public users awareness on internet security are low. The password for emails, e-banking account, e-market and others is very important because it protects the personal identity of the user from being stolen. However, it seems that there are still large number of users do not realize the important of password choices and the selected password shows zero imagination which could be easy prey by another unauthorised person.

Some of the websites have discovered this problem and inserted the “password strength” module into the user sign up process right beside the password column. The purpose of this module is to notify the users about the strength of the password (weak or strong) chosen by them. G-mail is one of those who provide this kind of service.









Other than the tips stated in the article to create a safer password, there are also something we should avoid when choosing a password:

a) Don't use keyboard patterns (asdf) or sequential numbers (1234).
b) Don't use a password that contains personal information (name, birth date, etc.)
c) Don't use repeating characters (aa11)

There are other tips for password creation; you may refer to https://www.google.com/accounts/PasswordHelp for further reading and information.

Other than that, you can also refer to http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/technologynews/view/408503/1/.html for technology news about the Favorite Passwords used by the internet users.

It is always better to be wise during the selection of password as it is our responsibility to protect our identity and defend the internet security.

References:

Technology News: Favourite passwords: "1234" and "password"

How safe is your password?

Phishing: Examples & its prevention methods

As the usage and popularity of Internet increase, the security of Internet is also being threatened.

Many security issues have arisen recently as hackers are attempting to steal personal information from the users.

One of them is phishing, which is a process of duplicating a genuine Web page in the attempt to obtain personal information such as username, password, bank account and credit card details.

This is normally done by sending a deceptive e-mail claiming to be from an established legal entity with a reasonable request, such as authenticating one’s personal information and account details.

When users click the hyperlink in that e-mail, they will be directed to a sham Web site asking for their personal information. ]

Once they enter their information, the information will be stolen.

Here is a simple example of how that works.

http://www.google.com.my

By looking at the link above, we will think that it will direct us to Google’s Web site.
However, when you click on it, you are directed to Hotmail's Web site.
This is done by editing the html coding.


Phishing e-mails usually claim to be from any bank, eBay, PayPal or credit card companies. The e-mails will either state that the user has won a huge amount of cash prize and needs to follow the steps to claim the prize, or that the user needs to verify their personal or account details to prevent their account from being closed or deleted.
The earliest recorded mention of phishing was on the alt.2600 hacker newsgroup in January 1996, even though the term may have appeared earlier in the printed hacker magazine 2600.


Below are some of the examples of phishing e-mails and Web sites:

Phishing eBay Web site



















Phishing eBay e-mail












Phishing PayPal Web site




















Phishing PayPal e-mail



Phishing Citibank Web site




















Phishing Citibank e-mail

The number of phishing scams is increasing dramatically.
Therefore, we need to take certain steps to avoid being a victim.
A simple phishing scam can be revealed easily.


The followings are some ways to detect phishing scam:

I) Never click on the link provided in the e-mail

II) Look for misspelled words or grammatical errors

III) Not get panic by the content of the e-mail

A more detailed explanation can be found here.



As for a more sophisticated phishing scam, there are few ways to prevent phishing attacks.

1) Detect and block phishing Web sites in time

2) Enhance the security of the Web sites

3) Block phishing e-mails through different spam filters

4) Install online anti-phishing software

For more information on these four methods, please click here.




References:

Phishing - Wikipedia

Online detection and prevention of phishing attacks

An example of an E-commerce failure and its causes

Webvan was founded in 1996 and turned into Dot.com Company during 2nd June 1999. Louis H. Borders is the founder of this giant online grocer. The company did very well at the beginning and the business expanded very fast all over the United States. However, Webvan presented a net loss of $217 million and an accumulated deficit of $820 million during year ended 2007. There is no persuasive revival or recovery plan so far that could be found.

There are 4 main causes which contribute to the failure of Webvan:

Lack of planning and experiences

The founder of Webvan does not have any experience on online grocer at the first place. However, the dot.com company decided to expand so quickly into the unfamiliar and uncertain area. Moreover, Webvan ran the online grocer by its own way without depending on experiences of others. The lack of experience has caused poor management decision making and wrong business focus which lead to the failure of Webvan.

Other than that, the poor demand forecast also contributes a lot to the failure of Webvan. Demand forecast of Webvan is too optimistic where the management thought that online grocer has been dominant almost all of the market and people do not want to shop at supermarket anymore. The poor demand forecast causes the revenue of the company fail to cover the huge expenses invested in logistic, delivery and technology.


Lost control on spending

Due to the poor decision making and planning, Webvan tends to invest a very huge amount of money in various parts of the online grocer business.

First, Webvan invested a huge amount of money in technology and it was too expensive for a low volume and low margin products and sales. Secondly, Webvan invested $25 million to $35million per mega warehouses to build its fully automated distribution centers. Thirdly, Webvan withdrew $850 million merely for campaign and advertisement purposes. Last but not least, the take over action on HomeGrocer.com cost Webvan $1.2 billion.

The above-mentioned huge spending leads to an increase in existing debts and drives up the break-even point of the company. These expenses have become a disaster for Webvan when the sales demand was much lower than expected.

Poor quality control

After realizing about the lost control of spending, Webvan tried to solve the problem by cutting down the cost at the expense of their customers. The sales demand dropped again because of the poor quality control which worsened the situation of Webvan.


Loss customer focus

Webvan fails to understand the value chain of online grocery business. It is a vital part for an online grocer company to be more customers-oriented. However, Webvan tends to focus on the efficiency of the work progress while lost its focus to react when there is a change in customer requirement.

In the end, Webvan fails to meet customer requirement and therefore causes sales of the company to drop.

Reference:

Success and Failure of Pure-Play Organizations:Webvan versus Peapod, a Comparative Analysis