Research has found that students who use the social networking website 'Facebook' perform worse academically. The report indicates that students that use facebook on a daily basis are underperforming by as much as a an entire grade in comparison to students who do not subscribe to the site - so being a user of Facebook could be the difference between getting an A or B.
About 83% of British 16 to 24 year olds are thought subscribe to 'social networking' sites which include, Facebook, Myspace and Bebo as a way of keeping in touch with friends. However, when a sample of Facebook users were questioned, 79% said that they believed that the time they spent on the site did not affect their work.
As you would expect, Facebook defended itself by saying that there was academic research to show the benefits of services like Facebook - although without any evidence from Facebook as to what these benefits were, can I hazard a guess that it was to seek assistance from friends when trying to answer tricky exam questions when revising which may have resulted in them getting a grade B when a grade C would have been their more likely acheivement!
Sunday, 12 April 2009
Sunday, 5 April 2009
Poor websites miss sales
Research by BT has found that small businesses are missing out on valuable online sales opportunities because they fail to maintain their websites properly.
Jerry Thompson of BT Business says: "Most small businesses understand that it is vital to have a website and are quick to get online, but unfortunately many websites are withering on the vine because customers cannot actually find them".
About 25% of retail spending this year - around 78 Billion - is predicted to come from online sales, but experts warn that firms must improve their websites significantly if they want to benefit from the growth in e-commerce.
Findings show that one in six businesses has no facility for customers to buy goods through their website. More than 40% of sites have pages that contain missing or broken links and incredibly, only one in 3000 small firms utilises keywords even though this greatly increases the chances of search engines selecting their web sites.
Not surprisingly, one in ten small businesses rates their own site as very poor.
Thompson concludes, "As well as taking basic measures to make their website more visible to search engines, firms should plan the content to ensure that it reflects the services or goods they offer."
The report backs up what we have found -many businesses are only paying lip service to marketing their business online, but this is often because of the confusing nature of the whole topic. Worryingly, much of the advice being offered by "experts" is poor or misleading and in many cases "Search Engine Optimisation Specialists" are profiting because of the clients lack of understanding of the correct approach.
source or article; Daily Mail, April 5th 2009
Jerry Thompson of BT Business says: "Most small businesses understand that it is vital to have a website and are quick to get online, but unfortunately many websites are withering on the vine because customers cannot actually find them".
About 25% of retail spending this year - around 78 Billion - is predicted to come from online sales, but experts warn that firms must improve their websites significantly if they want to benefit from the growth in e-commerce.
Findings show that one in six businesses has no facility for customers to buy goods through their website. More than 40% of sites have pages that contain missing or broken links and incredibly, only one in 3000 small firms utilises keywords even though this greatly increases the chances of search engines selecting their web sites.
Not surprisingly, one in ten small businesses rates their own site as very poor.
Thompson concludes, "As well as taking basic measures to make their website more visible to search engines, firms should plan the content to ensure that it reflects the services or goods they offer."
The report backs up what we have found -many businesses are only paying lip service to marketing their business online, but this is often because of the confusing nature of the whole topic. Worryingly, much of the advice being offered by "experts" is poor or misleading and in many cases "Search Engine Optimisation Specialists" are profiting because of the clients lack of understanding of the correct approach.
source or article; Daily Mail, April 5th 2009
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