Gone Fishing But No Sign Up On The Door.
Posted 25 Nov 2009 in ecommerce , online shopping |
I’m a big fan of well produced Irish food. I source meat and fish from free-range and organic producers and butchers around the country and fill my freezer. However, it is one sector that has not adapted well to selling online and there is certainly a gap there for someone to come in and take over that online space in Ireland.
I really enjoy the meat from McCarthys of Kanturk and currently have a good stock in my freezer. I placed an order online last Saturday for a relative of mine in Dublin. Said relative is currently unwell and I wanted to make sure that (a) she would be home when the delivery arrived and (b) that she would have someone at home to help her with the delivery. So after ordering online on their website, I sent an email to McCarthys to follow up with delivery instructions and tell them suitable dates. By Wednesday (the day AFTER I had requested delivery) I had heard nothing. So I picked up the phone and gave them a buzz.
I discovered that the “fella who looks after that is away for the week, and we don’t have passwords or anything for the computer”.
I believe said fella is back next week, so I have a good chance of delivery sometime next week.
Retailers who conduct online transactions, and are happy to take immediate payment from customers, need to understand that online doesn’t operate on a 9am -5pm, Monday to Friday basis. And you certainly can’t put a ‘Gone Fishing’ sign up on the door.
Twitter’s Poor Implementation of new RT functionality
Posted 7 Nov 2009 in Twitter |
Logging into Twitter yesterday evening, Twitter informed me of a new RT functionality:
Hi there, you’re part of a beta group receiving this feature, which means you may start seeing retweets in a new way. People who don’t have this yet will see your retweets prefaced by “RT”.
I also noticed that when following new users I was given the option of either opting in or out of receiving their Retweets. I thought this would be useful functionality where many of the people you follow overlap and know each other. It is not uncommon to see the same RTs on many occassions within certain sets of people.
Logging in this morning and seeing the new RTs in action has been a letdown though:
1. Retweet Display
Image 2: What a RT now looks like
- The profile pic of the original poster is shown in your timeline & you only see a small text attributing the RT to the user you follow. I think this is mistake #1.
- I trust the people I follow before I trust people I don’t know. It is disconcerting to see unknown profiles show up in my timeline.
- I shouldn’t have to search to see who sent the RT - I should see the profile pic of the person I am following.
- The above example was Retweeted by @Eirepreneur, a Twitter user whose input I value and whose RTs I am likely to read. However I see the profile pic of someone I have never heard of (no offence to mikebutcher).
- This indicates to me that Twitter don’t realise how users read Tweets. I scan quickly for anything of interest, I do not read all of the Tweets or RTs in my timeline.
- Logically, I should see @Eirepreneur’s profile pic in my timeline and only the username of the Retweeted user.
2. Retweet Functionality
Image 3: Automated Retweet Link
- There is a new “Retweet” link underneath each Tweet as per image 3 above.
- However this “Retweet” option is not as handy as it first seems unfortunately.
- The Tweet is automatically send to followers without giving users the option of editing or commenting on a RT!
- I can’t stress enough that this ability to edit and add to a RT is a fundamental part of the spirit of Retweeting.
- Users recommend articles, ideas, users etc to their followers.
- Users comment on RTs. Users compliment, ridicule, discuss, debate, encourage.
- Ideas propegate and develop via creative use of RTs.
We can still of course use the ‘old-fashioned’ method by copying and prefacing with the letters “RT”. That’s what I’ll be doing until Twitter listen to the feedback and make some changes before they roll out the new functionality across the board.
These are my initial thoughts. Any other comments, compliments or gripes about the new functionality are very welcome!
Google Local Not Quite So Local
Posted 5 Nov 2009 in Activate Clients , Google |
Activate Client, the Temple Gate Hotel in Ennis Co Clare was until recently appearing in Google in the Local Search results for various permutations of keywords ‘hotels ennis’. For a location based business such as a hotel, getting on that map of 7 listings on the homepage of Google is very important.
However, this week I heard from Temple Gate that they had an issue with a client who booked a room under the impression that the Temple Gate Hotel is close to the 02 in Dublin (some 240km away). In fact they had found the hotel in Google by typing in ‘hotels near 02 dublin’. I tried to replicate the search myself and found that Temple Gate Hotel was showing up on the map in the local search results, and for some strange reason Google maps was now placing them firmly on Ennis Grove in Dublin 4! Not only that, their map listing for Ennis related searches had disappeared.
I have come across cases where it took some time to get an old address updated, but this is the first where I have seen Google change a correct location to one that has absolutely no connection to the business in question. We have now tried to reclaim the listing and update the address. Any of you who have gone through this process will know that the options for doing so are limited. You can either get Google to send an automated text or phone the telephone number they have on file for the business to confirm. I didn’t fancy the chances of an automated Google call to the receptionist so opted for the postcard. It’s rather ironic really that we are waiting for snail mail from the U.S. from one of the the biggest Internet companies in the world.
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