GeniusNet is proud to host the ION e-Letter. ION is New Zealand’s leading virtual community for innovators, entrepreneurs, mentors and investors.

Making Sense of Social Media

We think 2009 will be the year of communities, so businesses need good advice when it comes to devising social media strategy. Navigating corporate blogs, twittering and online community development are rapidly becoming core activities for marketers in both small and larger businesses. But there seems to be an explosion of “social media consultants” bursting onto the scene. Who can you trust? ION member Simon Young offers advice through his company iJump and has loads of free resources available on the iJump TV site. Well worth a look.

BizChat Offers Sound Advice to SMEs

Speaking of community sites – serial entrepreneur and technology columnist/blogger Ben Kepes has launched a free online community that provides advice and knowledge sharing for New Zealand’s small and medium enterprises. Got a question about GST? Need help with your export documentation? Struggling with a curly HR problem? Chances are you can get an answer to your question on the BizChat forum from resident experts or from other forum users.

Your Shiny New Online Business

Do you have a brilliant idea for a new online business in 2009 but not sure how to get started? Get in touch with GeniusNet and we will help you formulate your idea. We’ve got access to skilled web developers, social media experts, data hosting suppliers and project management people. And if we can’t help, we will probably know someone in our network who can.

Kiwi Tech Appraises Video Evangelism

Last year’s W2W event saw local tech firms promoting themselves at a live demo session and through videos exported onto YouTube. With talks from both entrepreneurs and technology researchers, the half day event attracted media and investor interest. Organisers hope to repeat W2W again in November this year and are looking for cutting edge tech firms to audition and project partners/supporters. Presenters must be able to clearly articulate a value proposition that entails a globally scalable, NZ owned and built technology opportunity.

iPhone innovation impresses

An iPhone application that allows users to search for and register domains on the go has had thousands of downloads from Apple’s App Store. Wellington based web technology developer ideegeo Group Limited launched the iPhone app to promote its new domain registrar site iWantMyName. The iPhone tool not only differentiates the registrar in a competitive marketplace, but also demonstrates Kiwi expertise in translating e-commerce applications into a mobile setting. The company is also launching an Erlang user group because of its success in rolling out very high volume, low latency e-commerce solutions using this emerging programming language.

Real Life Networks Important Too

Virtual communities are spreading like wildfire and we are proud to say that ION was one of the earliest in NZ. But it’s important to get out from behind your PC or laptop sometimes and go meet real people. That’s how you build trust. Wellington ICT network Unlimited Potential has loads of networking events planned for 2009. If you want to promote your tech venture or a networking event through ION, please log in and post on the ION forum or let us know by reply with a comment below. Happy to help.

www.ion.net.nz