5 October 2008

Telstra marketing harassment

A story on The Age website talks about aggressive telemarketers acting for Telstra.

TSA Telco Group has been contracted by Telstra to win back customers who have switched to a new telco.

There are claims the company ignores the Do Not Call register and employees pose as Telstra staff. Read more »

Tags: communication, Telstra
0 comments


29 August 2008

Penfriends

I was reading on Sue’s website how Americans think Vegemite is uniquely Australian. It’s not really and it’s not a must-have daily item for most Aussies either.

Anyhow, my brain turned full circle to the topic of penfriends.

Remember them? Young readers probably have no idea what I’m talking about. Read more »

Tags: communication
2 comments


13 July 2008

Pre-paid mobile phone rip-off

The Herald-Sun today reports that pre-paid mobile phone customers are spending up to $1 billion a year on phone calls they never make.

“Millions of mobile owners who pay upfront for their service allow call credits to expire,” the paper says.

Pre-paid phones make up more than half the national mobile phone market. Read more »

Tags: communication, consumer, mobile
4 comments


13 July 2008

iPhone not such a big deal

The introduction of the iPhone to Australia on Friday was a marketing success for Apple. They created a real buzz and a perception the product was so sought after you’d be lucky to get one.

That turned out to be the case. Whether it’s true, or whether release numbers were deliberately restricted, I can’t be sure.

There were none for sale in Mount Gambier, apparently. In Melbourne, only selected stores were stocking them. Some people queued for hours to get one. Read more »

Tags: communication, mobile, Technology
1 comment


6 May 2008

Five bad email habits

Continuing from the previous post, this list is based on observations and personal experiences:

1. Sending group emails to people who don’t really need to know;
2. Attaching large files;
3. Sending an email to someone in the same room about a mundane matter;
4. Asking to be notified when the email is deleted;
5. Phoning to see if the email was received (true)!

Tags: communication, email, etiquette, office
1 comment


6 May 2008

Slaves to email

I don’t intend to cross-post regularly between here and OzComments, but the issue of being slaves to email seemed worth mentioning at both places.

Sharon MacNevin from Email Management Solutions issued a statement today after speaking at a conference in Perth. In summary:

MacNevin said the rapid growth of email means that many organisations and individuals have forgotten the business guidelines for written communication, sending, receiving and filing of mail.

“People feel compelled to reply to emails even with just a ‘thanks’ adding to the overwhelming number of emails people receive. A simple ‘NRN’ (no reply necessary) can reduce the overload significantly,” she said. Read more »

Tags: communication, email, etiquette, internet, office, Technology
0 comments


29 April 2008

Twitter spam

Jessica Dolcourt writes about Twitter spam on Webware.

I go through periods when I tweet regularly and then I do nothing for a week.

For such an inactive and boring tweeter I was surprised to find that 15 followers had jumped on my bandwagon in the past few weeks. Read more »

Tags: communication, Technology
0 comments


30 March 2008

Yakedi! free SMS

I wrote briefly before about Yakedi! It’s a free web-based service for sending text messages to Australian mobile phones.

I’m so impressed with Yakedi! that this post is simply a blatant plug to say thanks and well done.

I read somewhere the modern human has evolved to be more dextrous with his thumb than his pointer finger, thanks to the phenomenon of text messaging. Read more »

Tags: communication, features, mobile, Technology
3 comments


21 October 2006

Phone tone rage (PTR)

A Kalgoorlie Miner columnist, Kitty Prodonovich, wrote today about “phone tone rage” (PTR).

It is quite amazing how the repetitive tones from an innocent little phone can incite so much anger and frustration, but they do. And it’s not just the phone rings; you can also have different sound for message alerts and other thing. One of the guys I work with has an extremely loud whistle every time he gets a text message, which fools me every time. And yes, it does bring out the PTR in me. I basically just want to smash his phone each time it whistles.

Kitty admits to variously having Barry Manilow singing Copacabana and WHAM’s “Wake me up before you go go” driving her friends and colleagues mad. Read more »

Tags: church, communication, design, Kalgoorlie, mobile, NSW, PR, work
1 comment


7 December 2005

Web site spam

Web spam has become more sophisticated as the control methods improve. I closed down some sections on this web site because I couldn’t be bothered fighting the battle.

Some examples here and on other sites that I run include:

1) My former links directory kept getting automated spam submissions, even though approval was required before links were added. Read more »

Tags: blog, communication, email, family, History, PR, spam, work
0 comments