By Having just come back from a weeks holiday in Crete, I’ve decided to change everything.
The holiday was incredible, we stayed in this beautiful hotel called the Abaton. If you’re looking for somewhere to completely relax and unwind, then this is the place to go. Here’s what our room looked like…
Relaxing allows the mind to wander, to contemplate and from that comes new ideas.
One of my ideas is to transform this newsletter slightly. You’ll already notice that the email design has changed, I hope you like the new look.
But the biggest change is what I’m calling “entrepreneurial shots”.
Every day I will be finding the three best stories, how-to’s, strategies, approaches and just plain humorous tales from the world of business, internet marketing and entrepreneurialism and sharing them with you in this newsletter (along with my personal brand of commentary).
Since I look at over thirty websites and blogs each day, it seems sensible for me to share this work with you by distilling it down into drinkable shots.
So let’s begin with the first day of entrepreneurial shot.
Michael
[divider]
Using Facebook Messenger And Chatbots To Grow Your Audience
Automated Conversations… Should You Use It?
There’s a growing trend of using artificial intelligence in support and sales to do the work of responding to questions.
It’s estimated that by 2020 over 80% of all interaction online will be done without you interacting with a real human.
Seriously?!
Yup, I’m deadly serious.
Personally, I’m not going to be using them, it just feels wrong (at the moment). However, they’re big news and they’re big business.
So… if you’ve been considering using them, and let’s be honest you probably have been, then you better make sure you know what you’re doing.
This article with give you some beginning guidance on it.
[divider]
4 Ways to Develop the People Skills You Need to Grow Your Business
The Science Of The First Impression
There’s no doubt that you will grow your business faster if you are comfortable interacting with people.
And if you’re interacting with people then you’re gonna need some people skills.
You will either be:
a) Terrified of networking
b) Uncomfortable with networking
c) A networking god
Very few people naturally fall into category (c). There will be some, but the chances are you’re not one of them.
Which means you’re either going to be uncomfortable, at best, or flat-out terrified of it.
But don’t worry, it’s something you can learn.
The best way to learn is to force yourself to do it, but before you do that there are some basics you can put in place to make it as easy as possible.
[divider]
Facebook You Asshole
The Two-Sided Tosspots
You may have figured from the headline that I am not currently Facebook’s biggest fan.
Why?
Because it seems to me that the entire (published) principles of why Facebook was created have already been forgotten in the short time it’s been around.
They’ve reportedly given user data to 60 companies.
I mean… who the f**k do they think they are.
Or is it just they’re not making enough money for their shareholders and have suddenly found how hard it is to actually sell user data, which is what the entire businesses value is based on.
Problem with that valuation is… if you can’t sell it then suddenly your business has no value.
Ooooops.
Apple, Amazon, Samsung and Microsoft are amongst the sixty companies that had data sharing agreements with Facebook.
It’s now being claimed that:
“Without explicit consent, device makers were allowed to access data of users’ friends, even after Facebook said it would not share such information.”
Whether it’s true I don’t know, but every time I hear another story about Facebook my trust disappears that little bit further.
What do you think?