Latest Commonwealth Bank CCIQ Business News

Commonwealth Bank Chamber of Commerce & Industry Queensland Pulse Survey of Business Conditions for the March Quarter 2010

4 May

Business expectations have moderated from the all time high that we saw last quarter but remain quite positive despite a failure to see significant improvements in sales and profitability, according to the latest Commonwealth Bank Chamber of Commerce & Industry Queensland (CCIQ) Pulse Survey of Business Conditions.

According to the March Quarter results business confidence has declined 1.5 points with the Queensland Economic Conditions Index down to 55.8 per cent.

CCIQ President David Goodwin said the latest Pulse results show the Queensland economy is not yet out of the woods.

"National and state business confidence rebounded strongly in late 2009 on the basis of growing expectation that there would be an economic recovery in 2010 and the national and state economies would perform well this year," Mr Goodwin said.

"While most businesses continue to look to the future with optimism, a continuing concern is the divergence between expectations and actual business performance and the weaker than expected performance of profit, sales and revenue. This will only be compounded by the Federal Government's response to the Henry Review of taxes.

"Forty per cent of businesses experienced weaker sales and revenue in the first three months of 2010 and not surprisingly the majority of businesses (46 per cent) reported weaker profits.

"Queensland has gone from the boom state to the lag state."

Mr Goodwin said that the latest results further highlight the need for government to stop taking money out of the back pocket of business.

"Electricity prices have gone up and are about to go up again, WorkerCover premiums have just been hiked, employer superannuation contributions are to increase and we have not even had the State and Federal Budgets handed down or the dust settled from the Henry Review of Taxes released over the weekend. The reality is business is being hit on all sides," Mr Goodwin said.

"In addition businesses ability to invest is being constrained by the lack of finance. All of this is driving a more cautious approach from the Queensland business community and hesitancy to spend or invest.

"While there is reduced optimism from three months ago the reality is Queensland is increasingly a resource reliant state and we may well see a return in confidence should recent announcements of significant resource projects come to fruition.

"The key here will be to ensure that all benefit from this boom, otherwise we are left with a one-sided, two tier economy.

"Businesses in all regions of Queensland remain cautiously optimistic, but economic recovery is patchy and remains anticipated not realised.

"More than 850 Queensland businesses are telling us their sales are not yet reaching their targets and we must take seriously the growing chorus calling for a fair go from our country's politicians."

Mark Toon, General Manager Corporate Financial Services Queensland, Commonwealth Bank, said it's encouraging to see that business owners in Queensland have put 2009 behind them, and are focusing on a positive year ahead.

"That said, it's not all smooth sailing. Many business owners are concerned about rising interest rates, the winding back of the Government's stimulus measures, falling house prices and the upcoming Federal election," Mr Toon said.

The Pulse Survey has been measuring Queensland business confidence and expectations for over 20 years and is published in cooperation with the Commonwealth Bank. The survey is unchallenged in terms of being the most authoritative, timely and comprehensive snapshot of Queensland business sentiment with over 850 Queensland businesses interviewed as part of each survey.

Facebook - The Final Frontier?

According to Thomas Hobbes, a 17th century writer , society is only possible through the social contract, whereby citizens agree to surrender certain freedoms in exchange for order, peace and a relief from chaos. Where does Facebook fit in this?

Facebook, users are willing to enter into the social networking contract offered by the company. In return for  a personal page, ways to find and connect with friends, users are willing to let Facebook make MEGABUCKS by helping marketers advertise to them based on their profile information.

As Facebook's audience grew, so did the company's value to investors and marketers. Based on the information at Facebook's disposal, advertisers could tailor their marketing to smaller and more targeted groups. Instead of advertising on car Websites outside Facebook, marketers could have their messages appear beside only the Facebook profiles belonging to users who said they liked Honda Civics or Ford Mustangs, thereby maximizing the return on their investment.

The problem is, Facebook kept changing the terms of the user contract. Information that wasn't meant to be public became widely available. Default settings were changed so that more information could be shared with the wider Web.

Of course, this was all part of Mr. Zuckerberg's plan to gradually spread Facebook's tentacles across the Web, through new social features and open graphs. The idea was that Facebook would become the default social standard that would blanket the Web.

And now Facebook has decided to simplify its privacy settings.

There is now supposed to be a single page where users can control whether their information can be seen by their friends, friends of friends or everyone on the Web.

At last users will be able to block outside software developers -- the Farmville, hearts, tarot, horoscope etc applications to which you surrender your entire privacy and that of all of your Facebook friends so that you can play their games.

I guess it's just tough luck for those of us who have already surrendered that information..

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, a year ago concluded a 14-month investigation into the site's privacy controls, forcing sweeping changes.even with the changes announced this week. Apparently the Office believes that Facebook is actually more open today than it was then,

Recently some New York college students started taking donations to help fund a project that would develop an open sourced rival to Facebook where users' data would remain private, they raised more than $100,000 in a fewf months. This is a drop in the bucket however and what will become of it? Wait and see.

Will "Quit Facebook Day," an online protest started by a pair of Toronto men,  make a difference - of course not - About  25,000 Facebook users pledged to permanently erase their profiles from Facebook's database. Let's see - 450 million or more .... take away 25,000 Do the sums!

If Facebook users are upset about the privacy or lack thereof, why are they still signing up in droves?

Cheers

Charlie's Harmonic Business

Part 1

Sometimes there are days when you wonder whether you should be in business. It seemed like a great idea:

· Meet interesting people 
· Work whatever hours you want 
· Time off

Then the reality sets in:

· Not enough money. (Where does it go?) 
· Difficult customers 
· Up all night doing paperwork

Charlie Burns started this way. He quit his job. He was going to run his own business. From a small workshop, he looked for customers. He had enough money for two months; enough time...? Two months became too many months. He took a night job to feed his family. Little sleep, too many things took his time and nothing completed. He felt a failure to his family.

Charlie's son, Alan was at university, studying business. One night, around 2:30 a.m., Charlie came home from nightshift. Alan was waiting. They sat in silence. Then Alan said, "Dad, if you keep this up, you will kill yourself and what good is that? You had big ideas and talked about your goals. You are now too busy to talk. We hardly see you! That's why I am awake. The only time I can see you is now."

"You have always been my hero, dad, you knew all the answers. But now I want you to listen to me!"

"Things haven't turned out the way you expected. Your goals are even more distant. The unexpected has happened."

"Remember when I was at school? You told me I had to study because things will only get tougher. Did I listen?"

"No!" said his father firmly. "You played games, talked on the phone and watched too much television. When you started failing your exams, you realised you needed to work hard. Remember, I said you needed a study plan, broken down into weeks, for all subjects! You needed to plan to balance school, TV, family and sport!"

Alan smiled. His eyes glistened in the lamplight. "Listen to yourself, dad. Look how you approached your business. You didn't plan! Why not? You need goals clearly defined, including timeframes. You must consider strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. You need strategies to achieve the goals. The plan must cope with the unexpected."

The old man looked at his hands. The lad was right.

"That's enough for now, dad. We both need sleep. Promise me, you stubborn old man, that this Saturday, we will write your plan, the foundation of your business. We won't let it gather dust. We will review progress to keep on track. Trust me dad, it will save your life and it will save my future children's granddad. Promise?"

Charlie looked at Alan and realised how proud he was of this young man. "Yes, mate, I promise!" Charlie pulled out his handkerchief and wiped something from his eye. Alan smiled. "Dad, when we do this, you will see harmony in your business. I will help you with the right methods and techniques. And that's my promise in return!" Charlie wiped his eye again. He slept soundly that night.

This is the first in a series of articles written by Roger Seach on Business Planning. Watch out for the next installment or subscribe at http://bit.ly/a0e0GB

I just love to help people Please see us at http://bit.ly/6ATBdg on Facebook, Our website at http://bit.ly/9ko1er Cheers Roger

How 5 Top Companies win with TWITTER by Adam Schoenfeld

Last week at Social Media Breakfast, I learned that AT&T has 15 Customer service reps and a full-time analyst dedicated to Twitter. This got me thinking about how businesses organize, scale and manage a large Twitter presence. I looked at 5 case studies for 5 different approaches:

1.) Organize by Customer Services Reps: AT&T
ATT TwitterAT&T sends ~1,000 tweets per day per rep (15 full-time customer care reps). They have 14 Twitter Accounts for service plus a handful of content specific accounts (e.g. @ATTNews, @ATTmusic, @BizSolutions). Each customer service rep has a personalized account with the rep’s photo and bio. They add new Twitter accounts for each new customer service rep. (We previously talked about how brands use Twitter for customer service)
Others Examples: Comcast, Charter

2.) Organize by Product Group/Business Unit: Microsoft
Miscrosoft_on_Twitter
Microsoft organizes and scales Twitter by product or business unit. This strategy helps Microsoft target content and messaging to the unique audiences across a broad range of product groups. You’ll see a very different approach if you follow XBox vs. Office vs. Sharepoint, matching the diverse audiences.
Other Examples: Intuit, Oracle, Cisco, Dell

3.) Organize by Store Location or Geography: Whole Foods
Whole Foods TwitterWhole Foods has a massive Twitter presence with more than 200 total handles. These accounts are organized by city and store locations. Whole Foods also maintains one central account which has over 1.7M followers. Given the local nature of their business, Whole Foods can cater content specifically to local customers. I suspect we’ll see the approach as other retailers and restaurants scale on Twitter.
Other examples: Four Seasons Hotels

4.) Organize by Content Type: BuddyTV
Buddy TV TwitterAlthough BuddyTV is considerably smaller than the other case studies, they have a large and highly effective Twitter presence. BuddyTV has 18 accounts, each with a unique content focus for a single TV show. They also have one central account for general TV related updates (@BuddyTV).

5.) Put the Entire Company to Work: Best Buy
BestBuy Twelpforce TwitterWith their unique (and well publicized) Twelpforce initiative, BestBuy basically put the entire company to work on Twitter. The company is represented by 2,000+ employees. Each employee tweets for themselves, but also uses the channel to connect with customers, answer questions, and help solve problems. Best Buy even publicized the initiative with TV spots.

Adam Schoenfeld is the CEO and co-founder at 20 Decibels in Seattle. 20 Decibels is the Twitter campaign management and analytics solution that social media professionals have been asking for. Follow 20 Decibels on Twitter here.

Twitter Demystified For Business Users By Nancy C McCord

Twitter is the current top "hot property" on the Web, but its popularity and how to use it has mystified many business owners. Many people think that they want to, or should be using Twitter, but simply do not understand the platform, its use, or its place in building web exposure. This article will demystify Twitter and help you to learn how to use it in the workplace and to promote your business.

First, I have to say that I had been confused on how to use Twitter to benefit my own business until I downloaded TweetDeck. TweetDeck is a desktop application that allows you to review and post status updates on Twitter and Facebook simultaneously. I consider it a "must have" application for anyone who wants to make sense of Twitter. TweetDeck allows you to sort the people you follow on Twitter into groups, allows you to limit the number of Tweets (Twitter micro posts) to be shown at any one time, and also allows you to remove all Tweets you have seen with one click. Additionally, using TweetDeck, finally a Twitter search on a topic makes sense.

Since using TweetDeck, I have had a much better Twitter experience. As a Twitter newbie, visiting your own Twitter home page is intimidating; it consists of post after post from people who you are following, who you may not know much about, and it just seems like a huge volume of content. To get started effectively first group the people who actually have something interesting to say on TweetDeck and voila, you have a powerful tool that keeps you at the forefront of what is happening in your industry and on the Web.

So how do you get started with Twitter? Well the first thing is to start on Twitter yourself to understand what you like to read, who you like to follow, and to clearly identify what you like about Twitter. For me, it boils down to this: I like to follow people in my industry who say something of value, who provide a link to a new application or point me to an interesting new article, video, or blog site that I should review but may have never have found myself. Based on what I like, and the people who I find interesting to read, I now write my Twitter posts using this same formula to grow my own Twitter audience.

What I also like about Twitter is that the people who I follow also know how to show their true personality in their Tweets. Yes I do like to know what Danny Sullivan (famous search engine marketing guru) ate for lunch, but better yet is the link to the video he thought was funny. I love following Ashton Kutcher (movie star married to Demi Moore who just hit 1 million Twitter followers in April). Man, that guy is really funny and is having a ball with Twitter. His posts are great and he has just earned the status of the user with the most followers. This is why you can't hire someone to "Ghost Twitter" for you. It's about showing the real you - you can't fake that!

So how can you use Twitter for business? Twitter is an excellent tool for linking and this is the real value for businesses. By using Twitter to point people to content on your website, articles you have written either on or off your website, or by linking to a service you want to highlight, you drive traffic. On top of that, Google actually indexes Twitter and so your Twitter page can appear in the organic search results so make sure your bio is well thought out. Don't waste time using Twitter to point to blog posts, use TwitterFeed to post your blog posts directly onto Twitter. If you have a blog or website, you'll get new Twitter followers by posting your TwitterFeed right onto your web pages. People who may not have known your Twitter ID can simply click the bottom "follow me link" and start following you on Twitter.

What's important to be successful in using Twitter is to identify what you personally like about this new media and then deliver the same type of things that you like back to your own followers - work to provide value not drivel! So you've got to play with Twitter and learn how to use it first before you can really become successful with it for your business.

So how do you get followers? Well, I started by following everyone (who I found by doing a Twitter search) who had the last name McCord. Then I searched for web design, search engine optimization, and pay per click. Any site profile that looked good, I clicked to follow the writer. It was that easy. Many times people who you follow yourself will choose to follow you. That's how you initially build up your Twitter base. Over time you will start to identify your "Twitter voice" and refine the type of Twitter presence you want to have by changing your content style and the things that you Tweet about. As you refine your presence, you will build a following.

Another cool Twitter use is that you can reply to any of your followers by simply putting an @ in front of their Twitter ID. For example to send something to my attention use @mccordweb at the very front of your Twitter posting and click enter. Just remember that this post is seen by all followers on my site and on your Twitter site. If you need a more private exchange, go to the direct message link on the Twitter.com site and select a follower by Twitter ID name and send your message from there. This note will be private. If you are using TweetDeck you can click on a follower's Twitter ID icon and then select to send a direct message or @reply to them. TweetDeck will automatically insert the correct syntax for you in the Tweet.

For many businesses the ability for users to communicate with top management using Twitter is an invaluable resource. This one-to-one exchange allows a company principal to keep tabs on customer viewpoints, concerns, and interests. As a Twitter reply or direct mail does not use email and does not require a response, this is a great way to tap into social networking to test new ideas and to ask for user feedback. For example, if you have a new software product ask your Twitter followers for feedback on a specific feature, or provide a link to your beta version for their testing.

How you use Twitter is all about your personal business needs. The best advice that I can offer to you is that you need to use Twitter a bit yourself first to understand the medium and to find out what you like to read best using Twitter. Then, create your own Twitter network sharing information that you find interesting and have some fun.

Currently I am following 204 people and 183 people are following me on Twitter. Personally I find Twitter great fun and a very cool way to find out first what's happening in the world before you see it on TV, read it on the Web, or see it in the newspaper. That's the real power of Twitter; you share, you find out, and you know, all by a person-to-person exchange of information.

For those of you clicking in from my e-newsletter the rest of the content on Twitter applications and uses follows.

Below are some of the Twitter applications that I like and use regularly for my business.

Twuffer - I love this one, it is a Twitter post scheduler. Some people feel that Twuffer defeats the immediacy of Twitter posts or Tweets, but I like it as I will schedule Tweets on days that I am not blogging to keep my followers advised of things I find important. It is easy to use, allows you to Tweet ahead, and lets you select a posting schedule by day and time. If you are pushing content on a service or product this is an excellent tool to use. Set your Tweets up one week or one month at a time and feed your content to readers in addition to your regular Tweets. Make sure to use http://www.TinyUrl.com to change any long URLs you point to in the Tweet to a Twitter-friendly short version to save space.

Twitter Feed - This is another one of my top favorites. TwitterFeed allows me to show my blog posts from "The Web Authority" directly onto Twitter. It also allows me to post my Tweets back on my blog (by installing a widget) in my blog template - very cool cross interaction! I pick up many Twitter followers with this technique. Readers come to visit my blog and then choose to follow me on Twitter.

Twitter Grader - This one is a vanity application that allows you to see where you stack up against other Twitter users. Twitter Grader measures the power of a Twitter user based on followers, number of updates, and posting frequency.

TweetBeep - With this application, you can manage your online Twitter reputation. Alerts will be emailed to you whenever a Twitter user Tweets about your business, name, or domain. You select the alert criteria and what to watch for using TweetBeep. This is great for a business that is concerned about branding and online identity. PR professionals should make sure to use this tool to watch for comments about their clients.

Twitoria - Clean up your Twitter followers by finding out which people never use Twitter or post infrequently so you can delete them right from the Twitoria interface.

Qwitter - If you want to know when someone stops following you, sign up for this service. Actually, this can be an excellent tool to find out what a reader hated that you posted about and caused them to "chop" you, so you can fine tune your message. If you get a flood of drops after a Tweet, it allows you to learn that people don't like a certain type of Tweet - instant feedback at an anonymous level!

One big thing about Twitter that I have not even mentioned yet but is actually one of Twitter's best features is the ability to text-in Tweets from your mobile phone. Although you can't easily link to great content typically on the fly like this, the ability to connect with others without being tethered to a computer is an opportunity to show the "real you". Maybe your followers do want to know what you are eating for lunch or about a seminar you just attended, just be kind and don't vomit out Twitter spam using your Blackberry on meaningless drivel.

You can easily set up the ability to receive text messages from your Twitter account to your cell or Blackberry, but be careful as you may be inundated if you have a large following. I would recommend receiving Twitter updates via text message to your cell only from a small group. For example if you have a project team, set up a Twitter account for each member to allow them to post just to this small unique circle of team members. The value to track and interact with each other at anytime and anywhere using Twitter by computer or by cell phone adds real value for work groups and teams - particularly team managers. Twitter even allows you to make this type of group private.

Another feature of Twitter is the ability to add hashtags in front of keywords in your Tweets to help with sorting to allow others to find your important content. For example if you wanted to Tweet about a recent earthquake in LA you would use #laearthquake in the front of your Tweet. By using hashtags you enable Twitter to return your information for topic searches on newsworthy Tweets. You can visit Hashtags.org for more information on the current hot hashtags that are in use for today so you can follow, add to the topic, or create your own. For example in Twitter World, Fridays are the day you post with #followfriday and enter in the Twitter IDs you want to recommend to others. You would be amazed at the cool new people you can follow and interact with from recommendations of the people you follow.

In conclusion, Twitter is one of the hottest new mediums to arrive on the Internet scene since Facebook. Although it is not exactly "new", Twitter has just recently become very high profile. If you are in business, Twitter definitely warrants your attention. Not only is it a very smart new tool to use in your marketing arsenal, but I think that the more you use it you will grow to love it and find it fun to use. The ways that you can use Twitter are endless: for teams, for family members, for business networking, to stay at the forefront of news, to promote yourself and your services, and to just have fun connecting with others online. Just remember you can't really make sense of Twitter for business without using TweetDeck or another similar aggregating and sorting application. Thanks for reading, see you on Twitter, you can reach me at @mccordweb or visit me at www.Twitter.com/mccordweb.

Nancy McCord is an expert in the field of search engine marketing and Web visibility. She is the owner of McCord Web Services LLC based in the Washington DC area. Her firm provides web content writing, blog writing services, webmaster services, web design, and Internet marketing services. You can find out more about the services that she provides at http://www.McCordWeb.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nancy_C_McCord

How Healthy is YOUR business?

Do you own your business?

Of course you do! Or ....... does your business own you?

Do you find that working in your business requires less hours than when you worked for a boss?

Are you getting a fair return for your efforts and the sacrifices you make in your life?

Do you have a balanced life between work, family, sports, mental development, and social activities?

Will your business thrive and grow if you decide to take an extended holiday? Or any holiday? Or if you are off sick?

If you have answered no to any of these questions, you must take up my offer of a free business health check. It will take only about 20 minutes of your time and will provide you with a three page written, colour and charted report on the health of your business.

Paste this link into your web browser and follow - NO SPAM - NO GET RICH QUICK - NO HASSLES - NO COST! - I PROMISE.

http://bit.ly/Biz_Health_Check

It could save your life and I can promise you, if nothing else, it will only help to improve YOUR business and YOUR life.

Cheers

Roger

Another Get Rich Quick Site

I found this one posted via Twitter:

www.instantprofitmachine.com

It is promoted as a get rich quick scheme

Here is a review of it which shows another viewpoint:

http://cbtrustedreviews.info/profit

Please read and draw your own conclusions

Cheers folks

Roger