Elanthy has a simple online ordering service which will be upgraded in time. They offer a range of other olive oil related products for sale. Elanthy use Oreniki olives native to the Kalamata region of mainland Greece, which is where their olive oil mill is based. Their base is in the Cotswolds, distributing by courier to restaurants and households in the UK and abroad.

Twitter shows a strong overall trend, apparently referring about 10% of all traffic from social networks.

Facebook dominates the social media sites referring traffic to websites

If any conclusion can be drawn from these statistics, it is that Facebook page updates continue to rise in importance since Google started to index them, underlining their importance in a corporate social presence.

Capture this QR code to see this page in a mobile browser

Apparently in the USA Google is sending out 50,000 windows stickers to businesses with ‘their’ QR codes on, allowing users to quickly access websites, hopefully optimised for mobile usage. Try the QR code on the right to see what this page looks like when optimised for mobile use.

As a long time advocate of QR codes I am glad to see that they are being pushed by Google – they are one of the most effective ways of attracting and gaining user attention and  driving them to interact with brands, products and services. In Japan (where the QR code was invented) they are used everywhere, but they have taken sometime to catch on in the West – this is a shot in the arm for linking the offline world with the online world.

If you would like to know more about QR codes and how they could benefit your organisation, please get in touch and I would be happy to discuss how they can fit into your digital strategy.

Secure your sensitive information

When you want to send sensitive information to a colleague, friend or family member, do you trust it to email?  When you want to send a password to someone that couldn’t hear it over the phone, do you embed it in a document and hope that nobody will find it?

If you value the security of data you send to others, make sure you send it securely – email is actually not a secure medium, so never trust passwords to it.  Protected Word documents can be easily opened as I recently found out when I forgot the password to an old file, but was easily able to open it using an online service.

Try Encryptedtransfer.com to secure any piece of information, whether it’s a username and password or a confidential piece of data, or even the latest share information for your company results – anything you want to be kept private will remain that way. And the best thing about it – IT’S FREE!

I use it for password distribution with clients – if you have a nifty use for the service, please comment below.

You will find one on my contact page which is actually just a link to my website (which will automatically format for mobile phones so that a QR code makes sense), but I use this to demonstrate what a QR Code can do for businesses.  I also use them on my business card to link to my website, and with the addition of a URL-shortening service such as Bit.ly you can track the links. Then you can also change the destination as required, by using redirects on your server or any number of other tricks. The QR Code destination itself can be modified at source – I use BeeTagg‘s code generator where you can monitor clicks and change the destination.

tee-shirt with QR-code - a bit geeky, but proves a point

I also created a tee-shirt with one of my QR codes on it.  It’s not the sort of thing I would necessarily wear out in public, but it proves a point at least!

You have a choice, so take it

Microsoft browser choice

Every Windows user has a choice of which browser they use, but so few take up anything other than the standard Internet Explorer offering.  For them, this article and the BBC News story about it will fall on deaf ears. But for those interested in making their online research and daily surfing more interesting, enjoyable and engaging, have a look at the rivals and what you can do with them.

I use Google Chrome as my default browser, as it is clean, simple, quick to load and has a number of useful extensions.  I used to use Firefox but it became bloated and now runs slower than Internet Explorer (for me). I sometimes switch to Apple Safari as I like the interface and I sometimes use a Mac.

As you will discover if you see the IE advisory page (not everyone will see the message due to their Windows settings) there are other less well known browsers that you could use. Some are worth a try but the mainstream offerings are the more stable, longer term bet for the average user.

Here’s the full list offered by Microsoft as part of its settlement with the European Commission:

• Avant
• Chrome
• Firefox
• Flock
• Green Browser
• Internet Explorer
• K-meleon
• Maxthon
• Opera
• Safari
• Sleipnir
• Slim

Google makes email social

Following the initial flurry of criticism (I would hardly call it a storm as other commentators have done) for Google Buzz, the search giant’s social network offering, the service has been running for nearly two weeks and tens of millions of users have tried it and continue to post thousands of posts and comments every minute, so it looks like it is here to stay.

I say that’s a good thing, as Buzz is more than just a flash in the pan – its integration with GMail makes it a powerful networking ally, letting users post status updates, share content, read and comment on their friends’ posts.

Although they made a hash of the launch by not fully testing the service with a full beta testing group, Google has addressed the initial concerns (and I am sure that won’t make a mistake like that again) and users seem happier with the revisions.    The service has of course lost some traction, but the nature of social networks means that this will only be a temporary setback as friends connect with their friends and the inexorable rollout goes further and further.

As Google’s first foray into integrated social media it’s a step in the right direction. It will clearly develop further (and most likely even further than Yahoo’s similar service) and at least addresses Google’s lack of social media activity since Orkut, which has been overshadowed almost everywhere in the World (except South America for some reason). At least Buzz has avoided the fate of the Facebook/Beacon ad fiasco, which was terminated in 2009 for violating privacy.

So, go and create your Google Profile to ensure that others can find you, and try Google Buzz as a way of staying in touch. See the official Google Gmail Blog for 5 Buzz Tips to get the most out of the service.

Please get in touch if you want to know why you should be using this or any other social networking tool for your business or charity.

The goal is to form enduring connections with our fans and create new and magnetic social media experiences…Social networks are finally the interactive dimension of storytelling

The opportunities afforded by social media, when executed with experience and understanding, are evident in any number of sectors, but media is still hung up about piracy and therefore nervous to implement it. But Murdoch understands the power of the social:

Fans remain the best salesmen of our content, even if that behaviour is on the borderline of piracy

Read the original story on Broadcasting & Cable.

There is a lot of noise about the privacy implications of all this, but it’s really all about connections to find information you can already find, so this, in my opinion is just shortening the distance taken to find it. It is in its infancy now, so expect this to be a growing trend for Google and search in general.

Filling in your Google Profile is really all that is required to get the most out of Social Search.