Job Vacancy: Marketing & Communications Executive

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) is a mutually owned membership association for operators of Internet Protocol networks. It provides a neutral interconnection facility and peering platform, known as an Internet Exchange Point (IXP), and represent the interests of its members on matters of public policy.

LINX currently has a vacancy for a Marketing & Communications Executive. This position offers the opportunity to work at the heart of the Internet Industry in a dynamic team-motivated environment. LINX can offer you – in addition to an attractive remuneration package with benefits that include private health cover – life insurance, pension and income protection.

For more information please visit: https://www.linx.net/job/markcom.html

Please note: No agencies! Unsolicited emails or phone calls are not welcome.

Businesses that blog get 55% more visitors

From FurlongPR

Based on a survey in August of 1500 businesses by Hubspot, those that blogged had 55% more visitors, 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed pages.

Most businesses accept, even if they don’t anticipate these sort of figures, that a blog will revolutionise their static corporate website, but trying to get momentum for that internally can be a trying business. Who’s going to write it, what will it look like, who’s going to build it.

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Internet history and future the focus in special anniversary edition of the LINX magazine, HotLINX

HotLINX20 - 15th Anniversary Issue

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) has announced the publication of its Internet magazine, HotLINX, which is available for download now from the LINX website.

HotLINX20: https://www.linx.net/files/hotlinx/hotlinx-20.pdf

In this special LINX 15th Anniversary issue we take a comprehensive look at the history of LINX and how it came to be the organisation it is today. LINX CEO John Souter gives his take on the milestone and this is backed by archive content and interviews with those who has seen LINX develop from the very beginning.

Elsewhere there’s a special report on LINX’s work to meet increase bandwidth demands plus a round up of all the latest public affairs information. In the membership section we have three new member stories plus all the latest member news and stats.

In a comprehensive industry events section we look back at the fourth European Peering Forum in Copenhagen while previewing the upcoming LINX member meeting in London.

You can download a PDF copy of HotLINX20 today at www.linx.net/files/hotlinx/hotlinx-20.pdf. Printed copies can be ordered by emailing: hotlinx@linx.net

Internet History in the Making

Regular readers of this blog will remember that my day job involves the production of membership magazine for the London Internet Exchange. The publication in question is called HotLINX and I have been working on it one capacity or another since 2004. It has, in fact, been around a good deal longer with the first edition published as long ago as the Summer of 2000.

The Internet industry at that time was very different to what it is now. Just take a moment to consider your personal circumstances and how much you differently now compared to those early days. For me, I used the Internet for the first time in 1996 at work but I didn’t go online at home until as late as 2002. I had a PC before that but it was used purely as word processor and for games.

One of the reasons I mention early issues of HotLINX today is that for the first time in many years those early editions are back available online. In fact, some have never been available to download or view at all. With LINX celebrating its 15th anniversary in November I wanted to give the people the opportunity to see just how far the Internet has come in the last decade.

Premium pricing boost McDonald’s profits

After I posted on the topic of price testing and how low prices don’t always encourage sales another example of how offering premium products can boost profits was reported today.

Article source: BBC Business

Selling more expensive burgers has helped McDonald’s third-quarter profit climb 6%.

The fast-food restaurant chain’s global net income for the June to September period rose to $1.3bn (£760.7bn), from $1.2bn a year earlier.

McDonald’s said new more costly products, such as the Angus Third-Pounder burger, were popular with US diners.

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This demonstrates how using a clever pricing strategy can attract and retain new customers. While people are generally eating out less often during the economic downturn McDonald’s have clearly seen opportunity where they can persuade potential customers that they don’t have to give up entirely on good food.

Obviously the whole eating experience is not the same as a posh restaurant but it is a convenient halfway house. While some cut back others are beginning to see their situations improve with each group will meet in the middle with a quality product that suits both their pockets and their perceptions of their personal circumstance and that of the McDonald’s corporation.

Price Testing and the Entrepreneur Channel

While skipping through some TV channels yesterday I put on the Entrprenneur Channel (Sky 682). At the moment I tuned in they were advertising a DVD product of a live event called Millionaire Marketing. One particular concept is worth repeating and that of price testing. You may think cheaper will get more sales but it aint necessarily so. People attach value to price and there was a fantastic, if extreme example, of how this works.

If you needed brain surgery would you go to someone who offered a $99 weekend special or the expert who charged $25,000?

Personally, I’d have more confidence in the latter!

Twitter and Facebook aid small firms

From www.bbc.co.uk

By Claire Prentice
New York

It is the 21st century equivalent of word of mouth.

From mom and pop diners to cupcake shops to technology start-ups, small business owners across America have been thrown an unexpected lifeline in the midst of the recession by social networking sites.

Companies that have jumped on the Twitter and Facebook bandwagon are reporting a surge in customers while others struggle. With minimal marketing budgets available to many small businesses, social networking sites offer a quick and, more importantly, free means of promoting their wares to a global audience. In the face of stiff competition and a global economic downturn, it is a route more and more companies are going down.

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What to name your Facebook Business Fan Page

by Mark Ijlal

Malik asked a question about naming Facebook Business Pages:

1. Name it after your business. For a local business and especially a location based business like a restaurant / attorney / CPA / retail stores – this is more than adequate after all their name is what is known and how people find them. Yeah I know it is the old Yellow Pages approach but for millions of businesses who you and I both know will use a Facebook Business Fan Page as a business card to put their name, address, phone number, 4 pictures, products or service information, some half hearted coupons and update it once a month – this is more than enough. Maisano’s Italian Restaurant, Aaron’s Auto Repair Shop, Attorney Scott Yaldo and Great Lakes Real Estate Property Managers all will work for their respective businesses.
2. Name it after your website. For Threadless, Zappos, Salesforce and millions of businesses that run entirely on the web and that is where their customers are found – the name of the LLC that owns the business is unimportant; there is no physical location where customers are walking in; the only name that is known to their customers and prospects is their website. So name it after your website that makes the sale.
3. Name it after your brand. Starbucks. Nike. Detroit Pistons. A hit HBO show like True Blood. People know and love your brand. Why not erect a Fan page where they can all hang out and share their love of your brand with each other? Brands know it and they are busy doing it.
4. For firms that sell the invisible: services, advice, consulting, coaching, PR, B2B with long sales cycles: Name it,  so it means SOMETHING to the people who matter the most: your past, present and future customers. And yes that means that you will be active in building this Fan Page as your hub for your business on Facebook.

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Article source: http://bx.businessweek.com

Turn Web Traffic Into Foot Traffic

By Justin Kitch

A solid web presence is essential–even for the smallest brick-and-mortar businesses.

“Call, click or visit” has been a common call to action in small-business advertising for most of the past decade. The underlying assumption, of course, is that a small business has a telephone number, a place of business open to the public and a website. While a phone is probably a given, a brick-and-mortar store may or may not exist. And odds are that a small business does not have a website.

For years I’ve quoted an old survey that said 60 percent of small business don’t have a website. But lately I began wondering if that number was still accurate. I was shocked to see that it has held steady through the first decade of this century. An April 2009 survey by The Discover Small Business Watch found that only 38 percent of small businesses with five or fewer employees even have a website. A full 62 percent remain “non adopters.” And that number has decreased only three percent since 2007, when 65 percent of small businesses were not on the web.

It continues to baffle me why any small business wouldn’t use the internet as an essential sales, marketing and customer relations tool. Establishing and maintaining a web presence is incredibly cheap and easy these days. And web advertising is much more powerful than most traditional print or broadcast advertising in that it enables the business owner to engage customers in a two-way conversation and gain valuable feedback on their products and services.

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Article source: www.entrepreneur.com

Flyingstartups.com a great resource for new businesses

It seems that first shoots of economic recovery are beginning to show so maybe now is the time to start considering taking that business idea out of your head and make it a reality.

If you don’t know where to start you could do a lot worse than look at the website www.flyingstartups.com. It’s a great resource for budding entreprenneurs with lots of useful advice and ideas. Amongst the website features are member forums and a facility where users can keep track of their progress and get feedback in what are known as Pilot Logs.

Steve Parks is the founder and he has written a number of books to help those looking to get a new enterprise off the ground off to the best possible start. Why not take a look and see if it inspires you to get started. It’s a supportive community which may just help make that dream of yours a reality.