Living on the Internet

Why do we share stuff?

2012-01-14T12:59:00.001Z

Are we being magnanimous or self gratifying?

Why do we tweet stuff out, write stuff, share links of stuff we have found? Is it because we genuinely want to share information or is it because we want to become renowned as a sharer of information?

Is it human nature?

Would love some feedback from thems what knows...

How the internet REALLY started

2011-09-09T23:24:00.000+01:00

In ancient Israel, it came to pass that a trader by the name of Abraham Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot.And Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg. Indeed, she was often called Amazon Dot Com.
And she said unto Abraham, her husband, "Why dost thou travel so far from town to town with thy goods when thou canst trade without ever leaving thy tent?"

And Abraham did look at her as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load, but simply said, "How, dear?"

And Dot replied, "I will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for sale, and they will reply telling you who hath the best price. And the sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."

Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the drums. And the drums rang out and were an immediate success. Abraham sold all the goods he had at the top price, without ever having to move from his tent. To prevent neighboring countries from overhearing what the drums were saying.

Dot devised a system that only she and the drummers knew. It was known as Must Send Drum Over Sound (MSDOS), and she also developed a language to transmit ideas and pictures - Hebrew To The People (HTTP).

And the young men did take to Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung. They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Sybarites, or NERDS.

And lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the deafening sound of drums that no one noticed that the real riches were going to that enterprising drum dealer, Brother William of Gates, who bought off every drum maker in the land. And indeed did insist on drums to be made that would work
only with Brother Gates' drumheads and drumsticks.

And Dot did say, "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others." And Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel, or eBay as it came to be known. He said, "We need a name that reflects what we are."

And Dot replied, "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators." "YAHOO," said Abraham. And because it was Dot's idea, they named it YAHOO Dot Com.

Abraham's cousin, Joshua, being the young Gregarious Energetic Educated Kid (GEEK) that he was, soon started using Dot's drums to locate things around the countryside. It soon became known as God's Own Official Guide to Locating Everything (GOOGLE).

That is how it all began. Big Al from Tennessee had nothing to do with it.

Procrastination and deliberation...

2011-09-01T18:43:00.000+01:00

Is there a place for it in today’s fast-paced Internet world? ... “Act in haste repent at leisure” springs to mind!

Everything moves so fast today; communications travel at thespeed of light so does that mean we have to be constantly making split seconddecisions? It would seem that we all feel we should be in order to ‘keep up’and not lose out on that vital moment because of deliberation. However, it canbe argued, that this significantly increases our margin of error.

Are decisions made too fast these days and therefore qualityand details are suffering?

With the advent of social media channels and manycommunication messages being ‘cast in stone’ with no chance for taking anythingsaid back again are we not well-advised to skip a beat sometimes before we saysomething and ‘look before we leap’?

For the slightly more mature and deliberate Internet userthis may not be a problem. However for the younger more impetuous customersomething that they publish now may, in the future, have repercussions. Thishas been a fear I have heard voiced by many Internet ‘professionals’ and users– a young person today posting their full-blown activities of youth which maynot have a place in the public domain when, in thirty years’ time, a businessdeal is scuppered because of their social trail being traced back to theirpast.

I know for a fact that I would not like my, in my opinion, well-spentyouth, coming back to bite me on the nose today. I would like the option ofchoosing who is in the know about my past and which events to keep well andtruly under lock and key.

Maybe in this unknown future of business such activities willbe totally ignored. Or may current Facebook activity will come back and biteour youth on the ‘on the nose’ in their future professional lives?

The Role of Community and Social Media Manager... here to stay!

2011-08-26T01:30:00.000+01:00

There is a whole new 'buzz' role that is emerging in the job market; that of a Community Manager.

So what is it?

Social media is seriously impacting on businesses around the world. When, and I chose that word carefully - I do not use 'if'! - so WHEN you begin engaging in social media activity one of the main things you have to realise is that it is a massive commitment: as are all relationships.

Social media is about relationships and relationships require input, work and time - at least they do if you want them to work and be fruitful and beneficial all round. So whether you are embarking upon social media for yourself personally or on behalf of a company you really have to consider how much time, and effort you are prepared to invest.

In the business world enter the role of Community Manager. My first experience with community management was back in 1996 when I joined a parenting chat room. Now you might think that this kind of a chat room would be self-run and members would just come and go and chat as and when. However, there was a considered structure to this chat room with a kind of 'shift work' mediation going on by the Mums AND Dads within. This led to the whole experience being very interactive and friendly and knowing there was someone there mediating gave the whole room a much more controlled and approachable aspect.

New members were always greeted in a friendly manner and if they were shy or wondering how to get involved they were always helped and encouraged by a mediator. This was a successful community because the community WAS managed.

So the role of a Community Manager can actually make or break a community. There has to be someone moderating and keeping an eye on the community at all times. Making sure people behave themselves. Making sure people don't feel left out. Making sure that topics are interesting and engaging... and so on.

A recent study surveyed over 250 UK marketing decision makers about their views in June 2011 (source: EPiServer UK).

The importance of social networking for businesses

Unsurprisingly, businesses are generally flocking to use increasingly popular social networks and social media platforms:
• 55% said they were already running online communities
• Almost three-quarters (73%) were running an online community or were looking to do so in the next 12 months

But, the focus on social media is a relatively new trend, with 57% of those running an online community only starting to do so in the last 12 months, and 29% in the last three months.

When asked about the channels they were using, marketers indicated that a broad range of social mediums is being adopted; Forums (41%), LinkedIn (48%), Facebook (52%) and Twitter (43%) were by far the most popular.

It is interesting to note that only 15% were using blogs, but that 7% were already using relatively new technologies around location based social networking. One in ten were also already experimenting with social communities on their company websites.

Benefiting from social media

When asked about the main reasons for using social media, respondents were split in their thinking. The majority saw social media as a way to engage with current and potential customers (44%), followed by a means of customer research (43%), customer retention (36%) and lead generation (18%).

It’s interesting to compare these findings with the benefits marketers said they were already receiving from their social activities.

Leading the way was increased customer loyalty – cited by 43% of respondents – but it is encouraging to note that increased sales turnover was reported by 28%, despite only 18% seeing lead generation as a primary reason for embarking in social media. Only 5% said they weren’t seeing any benefits.

So, taking all this into consideration - I really do feel that it is a question of 'when' not 'if' businesses eventually adopt and integrate the whole Community and Social Media ethos into their general business practice.

Social Media = Human beings just being human...

2011-08-18T06:00:00.000+01:00

Social media is just human beings being humans and it is quite astonishing how warm and cared about one can feel on Social Media.
The main ones that 'get us' are clearly Facebook and Twitter. There are a whole bunch of ‘mates’ who just share information, have a laugh, meet up and just care about those closest. The stronger relationships mainly happen once you have met in person. This is where the online/offline integration and tweetups must take place.

No screen in the world or history of all that is technical will ever replace face to face and the human touch. Unless we reach a point of a ‘total recall’ scenario where we can be effectively put to sleep – hooked up to something technical and all meet virtually in our minds eyes and think we are face to face and touching etc. but actually we aren’t… one for the future I think. For now we have to actually shift our positions and make the effort to meet. And meet we do.

Once you have connected, engaged and met; your friends and colleagues are there – all the time fingertips at the ready to chat and help and interact – give and thou shalt receive. If I have spent a few hours beavering away at some document, talking to clients, setting something up, writing for our websites – whatever it might be work-wise… if ever I need a break I just open my tweet deck and see who’s there, saying what and if I’m in the mood I might jump in and muck about – if people who I know well are mucking about. Or if I see someone who I haven’t heard from in a while making a comment I will say ‘hi, long time no see’ or such like.

Whatever it may be people are there – happy to see you as you are happy to see them. Once you have built a network of good friends there is always someone there. And if there isn’t sometimes it is nice to develop new streams and relationships as well. The possiblities are endless. People need people and people are out there – it’s up to you to find them, engage with them and build your network of friends and colleagues and advisors and people you can advise. It’s fun and all it costs is time… however the more you do it the less time you need to spend doing it!

Chocolate Mint Herb - Seriously

2011-07-20T14:44:00.001+01:00

Chocolate Mint Herb!

There's a herb called chocolate mint that actually tastes a bit like mint chocolate. If it's dried, the chocolate mint aroma is especially strong. It can be chopped up fresh and sprinkled over ice cream, cake or anything that could use a mint chocolate flavour.

It might sound a bit strange, but mint is good in drinks in the summer. When you make your ice cubes, just put a leaf or two of mint in the water before you freeze it.

If you wait until the mint leaves dry out (or dry them in a food dryer), you can make tea from them:

Ingredients

1 or 2 tablespoons dried chocolate mint leaves (these should be slightly crumbled but not powdered)
A packet of hot chocolate mix or some instant coffee mix (optional but recommended)

Method

Bring the water to the boil.
Put the leaves in a tea strainer and hang the strainer over a cup.
Pour the boiling water into the cup.
Leave for about 15 minutes then stir hot chocolate or instant coffee mix into tea

The Time-Bank

2011-07-02T12:55:00.002+01:00

Time is a commodity that is becoming so precious to us all
that we never seem to have any spare! What little time we do have spare are we spending it wisely and therefore managing to save more time for later?

The Time-Bank

What if you could bank any time you save? What would you do with it?

We are always talking of time in terms of a business or even a personal cost so why not create an account for it? Make it your daily challenge to actually do things in such a way that you are able to save 10 minutes, say, here and there and actually bank that somewhere.

Once you have an hour saved then you could treat yourself to that time! The idea would be to spend that time on yourself or, even more important, spend that time on a loved one... Your family, friends and people who you never seem to have enough time for.

Let's face it, we could all spend more time with our friends and family than we do. Don't leave it for retirement! And there's another thing - are those of us who work digitally even considering retirement? If you can work digitally then why stop? I know I certainly can't see it for myself!

So, work wisely and in a time efficient manner - get into good habits, be aware of what you re doing and bank that time.

Time-bank Top Tips:

Be aware of your wants and needs: you may well want to go check out that latest website for that new gadget someone told you about but do you really need to? Bank 10 minutes if you don't!

I'd love to hear your tips about how we could all bank time...

Care and share - leave a comment :)

Perfection: Do you know what it is?

2011-06-30T00:21:00.000+01:00

"Just because there is a word for perfection we all seem to think we know what it means!` [Idries Shah: Reflections]

So when do we deem something as `ready` and fit for purpose? When are we happy with what we have produced and ready to publish, distribute, promote, reveal to others? Are we striving for perfection the whole time or simply `that`ll do`?

In this new digital world where we are all so busy, what are we expecting? What scale of perfection is required? Are we expecting the very best or do we settle for adequate from ourselves or others? Are we forsaking quality for quantity?

In the world of the Internet where `stuff` happens at great speed we tend to accept errors and imperfections in things - documents, visuals etc. - speed overrides quality on many levels and I am of the opinion is such a shame: I am, admittedly, also to blame for this however I make a conscious effort to make sure that what I `publish` is as good as it can be without sacrificing too much of that precious commodity `time.

That said, you can usually tell when care and time has been taken to do something `properly and get it right: it is ironically refreshing when this happens and tends to stand out and inspire us.

There is just so much badly executed stuff out there. Lack of care is apparent at every click and we are all guilty of it. I say that we should skip a beat and start looking at producing quality over quantity. At the end of the day it doesn't actually take that much longer to produce a quality document with less grammatical and spelling errors.

Check your blogs... check your tweets... check your status updates... just BE AWARE. Absolute perfection is probably not necessary in most cases but awareness of good quality versus bad quality is. and consistent bad quality will eventually come back and bite you on the nose. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder but poor quality is poor quality which ever way you look at it.

And on a final note; is striving for perfection a barrier to progression?

A Great Individual Can Far Exceed the Value of Many Mediocre Minds

2011-06-28T22:48:00.004+01:00

Why a Great Individual Is Better Than a Good Team - Jeff Stibel - Harvard Business Review

Didn’t You Learn… ‘Don’t Talk To Strangers’?

2011-06-28T21:51:00.003+01:00

Didn’t You Learn… ‘Don’t Talk To Strangers’? - Hallmann Marketing

Living the Life of Social Media

2011-06-19T19:43:00.002+01:00

It’s a commitment! I have been chatting on the Internet for 15 years. #fact.
Since its inception there have always been tools to communicate on the net, however the last year or so it has gone mental: In a good way. Having spent most of my career in the overseas property industry I have had to communicate digitally for quite a while. Cost effective not to mention fast! AOL buddy system was first, then MSN with Skype hovering in the sidelines. MSN was brilliant. Still is. Once I had my key professional contacts educated as to the advantages we all saved time and money being able to communicate in this way. If a client on the phone, for example, asked me if a particular unit in say, Turkey, was available, I was able to send an instant message to the sales department – if they were online of course – and get an immediate reply straight from source… Deal done! Magic. Simplistic but you get the picture.

Back in about ’98, I was introduced to something called Adobe Atmosphere. This was the coolest 3D world and was the prequel to something called Secondlife. Secondlife is there now but it has become much too complicated and commercial so not for me I am afraid. However Atmo was amazing. It was, literally a 3D environment where a whole load of us, mainly designers and coders used to hang out and chat. There was a split screen scenario with the ‘world’ you were in at the time at the top and then the ‘chat’ stream below.

We all had 3D Avatars (avatar means God’s likeness on earth as a person) which we could make to look like ourselves. If there were any natty features missing there was usually some whizzy coder who could sort it out. From time to time some other whizzy coder would turn up and ask us all to come and check out his ‘new world’ he just created. We would all trot off then into some new space which would usually be mind-blowingly awesome. I remember one place which would make Hogwarts look like the local corner shop. It was heady stuff! If I remember rightly Adobe Atmo was originally devised for NASA (www.digitalspace.com) headed by a very clever chap called Bruce Damer. Bruce came to stay with us once when he was over in London one time and I am the proud owner of a signed copy of his phenomenal book Avatars!

So, ticking along nicely with MSN and Skype fast forward a few years and along comes Friends Reunited. Great idea and made the inventors a small fortune however it was a bit clumsy and restrictive. The idea, however, was as most of us want to get / be in touch. Curiosity killed the cat! It was around this time that MySpace and some little-known programme called Facebook were released. I opted for Facebook – easy and seemed far less restrictive than Friends Reunited. Although I have been on Facebook for quite a long time I only ever befriend people who I really actually know or who come highly recommended. But that’s just my use for it.

So: Fast forward to early mid 2009. Decided to check out this twitter malarkey. Dabbled. Didn’t get it. Left it alone. Fast forward to April 2010. Decided to dabble again. I was more than curious and determined to master this new tool.

The last year has opened up a box of magic tricks. I am probably a bit of an idealistic romantic however I think the Internet is now some kind of magician. The possibilities of connecting, learning, understanding, having fun, doing business etc. etc. are endless. How many times have you heard someone say and indeed thought “don’t know how we ever managed without it?” There will come a time when there won’t be anyone left on the planet who will remember a time without it.

So what has Social Media ever done for me?

I have found friends or friends have found me who I had completely lost touch with. Especially friends overseas.
Connected with lots of friends from school – boarding school so bonds are strong – we keep in touch or randomly just comment nice to know we are all there. Facebook.
I met one of my now best friends and business partner Chris Hall online. Twitter.
I have made some amazing friends with fun, lovely, intelligent people. A blend of online and offline because of online connections. Twitter.
I do great business. LinkedIn. Twitter. Email. Blog. Website.
I have immense fun. Twitter. Facebook. Empire Avenue

People communicate as an alternative to texts – sometimes the fastest way to reach someone with a message. Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn.

How has Social Media changed your life?

For better or for worse? Or what do you think is next?

Please do share your story…

To Tweet or Not to Tweet: That is the Question

2011-06-10T22:02:00.000+01:00

To do or not to do social media marketing? That IS the question!

Talking to the owner of a very successful business the other day it occurred to me ‘does this business really need social media marketing (SMM)?’ – the immediate, glaringly obvious answer to me, of course, is ‘yes’ – however I would really like to consider this carefully and see if, even to my own business detriment, if the answer is actually ‘no’.

To do this we have to clearly and carefully consider the cases for and against!

FOR Social Media Marketing for a successful business

Let’s look at everything that social media enables apart from lead generation which of course it does too.

1. Customer services

SMM creates the opportunity for us to be able to immediately respond to customers. Set up features whereby clients can immediately engage with a company and air their grievances.
It is statistically proven that if a customer has a route to engage with a company immediately and have an outlet where they can have a moan and are responded to, they are more likely to return, stay as a customer and actually sing that company’s praises!

2. Customer retention

As above, SMM allows companies to keep in touch with their existing clients through many channels. Not just email.

3. Community

This is becoming a highly vital part of every company – the community they create both internally and externally. If a company is creative and fun and comes up with a feast of engaging tactics within their community they will retain existing clients and attract new ones

4. Communication

- Special offers, changes, news – all of these things are part of customer retention but worth mentioning as their own point. SMM allows all of these communication to take place in a create, effective and highly targeted way. If you have your community segmented with profiles etc. Then all of these communications can be tailored exactly to your customers needs and wants. This is called ‘personalisation’ and this exactly what web 2.0 is all about and had enabled.

5. Personality and voice

- businesses today have a personality and a voice. This also enables community. SMM allows a company voice to speak to everyone, potentially. However, more importantly the business can speak to its stakeholders at any given moment through the most appropriate channels.

AGAINST Social Media Marketing for a successful business

I can’t think of anything … Hmmmm – can you hear my brain churning???? Kidding… here goes

1. Cost

Nothing in life is free! There is a distinct and exceptionally costly cost to social media; if you don’t do it right. Like any other traditional marketing you would undertake for your business if you don’t do the research and if you don’t plan it properly it can go horribly wrong.

Getting traditional marketing wrong typically costs a lot of money. TV, print, radio etc. Carry a very high price tag. However time cost is relatively low. Social media marketing, on the other hand carries a high time price-tag and relatively low financial one. The time price-tag can be high as well however if you are paying a member of staff to do it for you and they are not really knowledgeable enough in the medium to do this type of marketing.

Which leads me nicely into talking about…

2. Knowledge

Training, learning, understanding. Social media marketing is a bit of a science to be honest. Not everyone can do it. There are people who tweet a bit, Facebook a bit and dabble about in LinkedIn, for example. This is all fine however these are just tools. A means to an end.

Understanding how to set objectives, create a digital marketing plan.
Understanding how to formulate a strategy from researching the industry and target market. Knowing what topics to cover and what people will engage with.
Knowing how to use social media and Internet marketing to find, engage, convert and keep clients and meet the objectives of a company demonstrating ROI (return on investment) and knowing how to use the tools to track all of the activity – this is what needs to be learned.
Know how to change a campaign and switch tactics because of macro influences on the business – this is what needs to be understood.

Not so simple…

So bearing all this in mind. Does a successful company need to do social media marketing. I don’t think the answer is a generic one. Each particular business is different and that decision needs to be made individually.

The main question that a successful business needs to ask is “what are the consequences,in the future, if I DON’T do social media marketing?”

Do you know the answer?
Let us know!

Have an opinion?…

We NEED to know!

Attracting and Doing Digital Business

2011-05-21T22:04:00.002+01:00

How attractive are you?

The pre-digital business world

People do business with people. Maybe in a previous world it was the company who people did the business with however even then it was the personalities within the company that made the company what it was. The only difference is that today this is far more transparent.

As we evolve towards a more synergistic and independent worker culture it is imperative that personalities and characters are finely tuned, appropriate and, above all, authentic. We are rapidly becoming a corporation of independents who draw on and employ each other’s skills and we support, advocate and recommend our ‘colleagues’ at every opportunity – or at least we should!

The digital business world

This new social world both off and online creates a platform on which we can all survive independently but, ironically, we are totally dependent on each other as well. We are dependent on people who know us and we are dependent on people who don’t know us. When I say ‘dependent’ I don’t mean that in a make or break scenario but in a supportive one.

At the risk of stating the obvious we all like what we like and we don’t like what we don’t like. So it is like-minded characters and personalities that tend to attract and form natural teams and groups (some call them ‘tribes’ but I personally prefer teams and groups). It is these natural organic teams that we are part of which are our support networks and we rely on their friendships, understanding and characters to support and even promote us in our daily digital lives. This is social media.

Attracting the business

This is how we attract business. And our colleagues and teams without, or maybe even with, knowing it are constantly working on our behalf supporting and enhancing our personalities and characters as we are supporting them.

“Look at me I am really clever and look at what I can do” really have no place in social media. Leave that to others. If you are good enough, believe you me people will find out… you really don’t have to say a word! Once we have attracted the business, whilst clearly part of our personalities and character, it is then that our experience and intelligence kick in.

Doing the business

Once you have attracted that client now you can use every ounce of how clever you are and what you can do to help your clients.

What if you have a company and are doing your social media mainly in the name of that company? You have to think carefully about this. Ideally you should be thinking along the lines of giving your company a personality and a character.

Being the business

Make sure that all the people within your company and engaging digitally on the company’s behalf have strict guidelines as to your company personality and brand. Like as not, their own character will be compatible or you would not have employed them in the first place, right? This should not be too hard however the rules should be crystal clear.

Conclusion

This is all totally in-a-nutshell, clearly – but I hope you get my drift.

Attract business with your personality and character

Do business with your intelligence and experience

Middle Age Texting Codes

2011-04-19T09:19:00.001+01:00

These are hilarious!

ATD -at the doctors.

BFF -best friend fell.

BTW -bring the wheelchair.

BYOT -bring your own teeth.

FWIW -forgot where I was.

GGPBL -gotta go, pacemaker battery low.

GHA -got heartburn again.

IMHO -is my hearing aid on.

LMDO -laughing my dentures out.

OMMR -on my massage recliner.

OMSG -oh my! sorry, gas.

ROFLACGU -rolling on floor laughing and can’t get up.

TTYL -talk to you louder

An Ode to Twitter

2011-04-04T23:52:00.000+01:00

"What can twitter do for me? What does it do for you?

Do you really 'get' it... or just pretend you do?

I tried it once; it didn't work, no one followed me.

So now my name's just sitting there for everyone to see.

I know I should, but sure I can’t; what’s it all about?

Well if I don’t, it won’t matter much; I’m sure I won’t miss out"

"What can twitter do for me? It's only a waste of time.

Just a lot of incessant noise; to be honest it's a crime

How people think they can reach the world...

Well they're not coming into mine!"

All the above are valid points but ignorant, I have to say

Twitter won't work if you 'try it once' or don't give it the time of day.

A relationship needs nurturing; daily through and through,

And Twitter's about relationships not just me and you.

You need to be engaging with people everywhere

You'll soon suss out the good ones; the ones who really care

About what you do and who you are and what you truly know.

And when you find them, engage and keep them; never let them go.

Be interested, be interesting and never directly 'sell'.

Because if you do your 'Twitter World' won't really go so well!

Be interesting and interested and help whenever you can

You'll soon build up a following and block out all the spam.

Be interested and interesting and offer sound advice

It doesn't cost a penny to be kind and decent and nice.

The Internet is just a route to many magical things

Friends and love and knowledge and so much more it brings.

Leaving from your fingertips and back to your head and heart

The technology is everything; yet such a tiny part.

The techy side is just the route, but its people at each end

Never forget this when you type and in the time you spend.

Make some time to understand exactly what to do.

When communication channels grow, we must do so too.

You mustn’t lose out you must begin: this isn't going away

The Internet and twitter et al are truly here to stay

And if you don't embrace it; learn, engage and find

I promise you this, without any doubt, you'll just be left behind.

So what to do? Where to go? How to get it right?

It’s not so hard but it isn’t easy; won’t happen overnight.

We think you should be independent but you also need a hand

To well and truly ‘get’ it so we help you understand

Exactly how to set it up and learn just what to do

To find, engage, convert and keep those clients just for you.

Find help for all your Internet marketing from Hallmann Marketing

How Social Media Changes Lives

2011-03-19T10:16:00.001Z

I have been chatting on the Internet for 15 years. #fact. Since its inception there have always been tools to communicate on the net, however the last year it has gone mental! In a good way.

Having spent most of my career in the overseas property industry I have had to communicate digitally for quite a while. Cost effective not to mention fast! AOL buddy system was first, then MSN with Skype hovering in the sidelines. MSN was brilliant. Still is. Once I had my key professional contacts educated as to the advantages we all saved time and money being able to communicate in this way. If a client on the phone, for example, asked me if a particular unit in say, Turkey, was available, I was able to send an instant message to the sales department - if they were online of course - and get an immediate reply straight from source... Deal done! Magic. Simplistic but you get the picture.

Back in about '98, I was introduced to something called Adobe Atmosphere (Wikipedia explanation link). This was the coolest 3D world and was the prequel to something called Secondlife. Secondlife is there now but it has become much too complicated and commercial so not for me I am afraid. However Atmo was amazing. It was, literally a 3D environment where a whole load of us, mainly designers and coders used to hang out and chat. There was a split screen scenario with the 'world' you were in at the time at the top and then the 'chat' stream below. We all had Avatars (avatar means God's likeness on earth as a person) which we could make to look like ourselves. If there were any natty features missing there was usually some whizzy coder who could sort it out. From time to time some other whizzy coder would turn up and ask us all to come and check out his 'new world' he just created. We would all trot off then into some new space which would usually be mind-blowingly awesome. I remember one place which would make Hogwarts look like the local corner shop. It was heady stuff! If i remember rightly Adobe Atmo was originally devised for NASA headed by a very clever chap called Bruce Damer. Bruce came to stay with us once when he was over in London one time. No idea where he is now so Bruce, if you find this get in touch!

So, ticking along nicely with MSN and Skype fast forward a few years and along comes Friends Reunited. Great idea and made the inventors a small fortune however it was a bit clumsy and restrictive. The genius idea was planted as we all wanted to get in touch. Curiosity killed the cat! It was around this time that MySpace and some little-known programme called Facebook we being plotted in a small way. I opted for Facebook - easy and seemed far less restrictive than Friends Reunited. Although I have been on Facebook for quite a long time I only ever befriend people who I really actually know. But that’s just my use for it.

So: Fast forward to early mid 2009. Decided to check out this twitter malarky. Dabbled. Didn't get it. Left it alone. Fast forward to April 2010. Decided to dabble again. I was more than curious and determined to master this new tool.

The last year has opened up a box of magic tricks. I am probably a bit of an idealistic romantic however I think the Internet is now some kind of magician. The possibilities of connecting, learning, understanding, having fun, doing business etc. etc. are endless. How many times have you heard someone say and indeed thought "don't know how we ever managed without it?” There will come a time when there won't be anyone left on the planet who will remember a time without it.

So what has Social Media ever done for me?

I have found friends or friends have found me who I had completely lost touch with. Especially friends overseas.

Connected with lots of friends from school – boarding school so bonds are strong – we keep in touch or randomly just comment nice to know we are all there. Facebook.

I met one of my now best friends and business partner Chris Hall online. Twitter.

I have made some amazing friends with fun, lovely, intelligent people. A blend of online and offline because of online connections. Twitter.

I do great business. LinkedIn. Twitter. Email. Blog. Website. SlideShare.

I have immense fun. Twitter. Facebook.

People communicate as an alternative to texts – sometimes the fastest way to reach someone with a message. Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn.

How has Social Media changed your life? For better or for worse? Or what do you think is next?

Creative B2B Branding (no, really)

2011-02-23T10:42:00.003Z

Is an essential read by Scot McKee for all B2B companies. Scot is 'shake-ing 'n' vac-ing' [you'll get the reference when you read the book ;)] the B2B branding world with his new book as per the title of this blog. I defy anyone in business not to read the book without nodding your head and exclaiming 'bloody hell' a few times. Oh and read 'branding' as reputation and reputation as branding... same thing you know?

I just want to quote one sentence from his book:

"If we are to build a brand to last a hundred years, we should agree the definition. A brand is how we are perceived. Those perceptions can change, be influenced, hold value, establish and encourage loyalty, or be damaged irrevocably. So when seeking to build a business brand, we should be careful with those little suckers. Like any kind of vehicle, brands need maintenance to keep running smoothly. But unlike an engine, we need to look beyond the mechanical, the functional, the 'product'. If brands are what an audience 'thinks' and perceives about a business, then it is the perceptions that we have to shape and maintain if we are to succeed in the long term - which is a very different task to simply changing or updating a product."

If you are a business to business company then do yerself a favour. Buy this book - oh, and read it as well!

Then, of course, engage Hallmann Marketing to help you

Are you at the top of your game by hard graft?

2011-02-19T22:17:00.004Z

Don't you love it when you can do something swiftly and it is genius! It just works. Doesn't take you long and it is a masterpiece!

Think about it. It didn't actually take you five minutes, a day, whatever it was... it actually took years.

Years of learning what you know. Going wrong, grafting, crying, sweating.

Last night I had the privilege of introducing two top, top Chefs who knew of each other but didn't actually know each other. I knew them both and thought a meeting would help the younger one as the more established Chef could give him some pointers/ideas etc. Just connecting.

It was fascinating to just sit and listen [yes occasionally I can sit there without saying anything...]. Now, I don't know if you have met many 'top' chefs but they didn't get to where they are by being shy and retiring types. (In fact Gordon Ramsey compared to these two is quite mild really!). The 'chat' was heated and stirring - puns intended.

The long and the short of it is - the glamour and panache of what you see on the outside is only the result of someone's hard graft behind the scenes. What we see in these 'Master Chef' scenarios isn't the half of it. To get that delicious meal, beautifully presented and served in front of you in superb surroundings took blood, sweat, tears and years. The catering industry has to be the hardest one I can think of; I started and ran a restaurant in a previous life, working in the kitchen and I wouldn't do it again if you paid me.

The older of the two Chefs and slightly more successful, to date said emphatically that given his time over he wouldn't do it again! Not in a million years! In fact he secretly yearns to be a detective :)

So what am I getting to? That to do something well, instinctively and repeatedly requires experience, hard graft and dedication. You can only truly be at the top of your game when you have been at the bottom and lived to tell the tale. People who have been through that in any walk of life are usually the ones who really care about their clients and their business. There might be the odd 'potted' few who have lucked out on something, but more often than not the graft and experience is behind - they just make it look easy.

So next time you are on the receiving end of something truly exceptional; plate of food, pitch, presentation, event... whatever it is. Just stop to think what went on behind the scenes to create that moment of exception.

Make sure you create some yourself too: CARE.

P.S. For all those social media 'Gurus' out there: the same applies to you too. You won't get far being a 'one-trick' pony.

The nine most annoying habits of train commuters | Love/Hate Travel?

2011-02-13T10:34:00.000Z

The nine most annoying habits of train commuters | Love/Hate Travel?

"EXPERIMENTS IN THE LABORATORY OF CONSUMERISM 1959-67"

2010-08-30T21:48:00.003+01:00

The widespread fascination with the Mad Men series is far more than just simple nostalgia. It is about how we feel about ourselves and our society today.

In Mad Men we watch a group of people who live in a prosperous society that offers happiness and order like never before in history and yet are full of anxiety and unease. They feel there is something more, something beyond. And they feel stuck.

I think we are fascinated because we have a lurking feeling that we are living in a very similar time. A time that, despite all the great forces of history whirling around in the world outside, somehow feels stuck. And above all has no real vision of the future."

Full article... BBC - Adam Curtis Blog: MADISON AVENUE

In The Search For More Revenue, Skype Connect Launches To Enterprise Customers

2010-08-30T21:16:00.000+01:00

In The Search For More Revenue, Skype Connect Launches To Enterprise Customers

Marketing Mania...

2010-08-24T17:16:00.001+01:00

What is the most important issue facing marketing today?
This was a questions posed on LinkedIn recently in order to collate responses for a University presentation. I was directed there by the very wonderful - soon to be my very good friend (we have connected but not met yet :)) Mr Al Tepper. Al is the Head of Digital & Marketing at EMP PLC and has a fabulous personal Internet space where you can read his deliciously enlightening and thought provoking ramblings.

There were some very interesting responses.
Al's response succinctly put conversation at the forefront of marketing: "... Marketing represents the conduit a business has to the conversation taking place. In the past, marketing has sought to shape and manage the conversation. Marketing could adopt this approach as access to the conversation was limited and barriers to entry were insurmountable for the general public.
Now access to the conversation is both free and ubiquitous and the public are slowly becoming fully engaged in the conversation, so the role of the marketeer is less to shape and more to be shaped.
Businesses must listen to the market instead of just talking to it."

My tuppence-worth was as follows...
I am also with a Mr JR Griggs on this "Find a problem in the market, create a solution, be different than everyone else with the same solution, research your market and target the right audience, put a call to action in all of your advertising, educate your market, build a data base of customers, market to that database, Joint Venture with others who have the same type of customers. Understand that the internet and Social Media are just tools to use your marketing in. The basics never change."

SIMPLES! ... in theory

In practice, however, there is so much 'Buzz' and 'Noise' out there it is very hard to hear anything at all! It requires more focus and determination and actually can be as simple as finding where the target audiences 'hang out', hang out with them on and offline (there are more networking opportunities around than we've had hot dinners... get out there!) and ask them what they want; what turns them on! We need to thoroughly research and know what the client's business objectives are, who the target audience is... find them, know what they want and then 'sock it to 'em'... appropriately!
INTEGRATION - Marketing plans need to be totally integrated with targeted on and offline solutions... challenge... getting the 'mix' right. I repeat again 'appropriate' for all concerned: the prospects and the clients AND the business.
A business needs to determine what the benefits are about the products and / or services they offer. I stress BENEFITS not features. In the fast-paced world we live in today we all want to know as quickly as possible "what's in it for me?" - this in itself is actually harder than it sounds. There is more often than not a very subtle difference between a feature and a benefit.
My final word (s)...
RESEARCH | NICHE | FOCUS | TARGET | INTEGRATE
Oh, and make sure that website is well planned, 'spot on' and appropriate speaking to your well-researched and targeted audience to solve their problems immediately!

Anyone else care to comment - lively conversation is the spice of life :) -

All thoughts on all marketing most welcome

Critical MAS: Friendships for the soul

2010-07-29T21:08:00.000+01:00

When you are a kid you want to be friends with everyone. You want everyone to like you and you think that you like everyone. Sadly this never happens. However, as you mature and evolve as an adult you find that friendship tends to be a process of accumulation and then elimination!

Chemistry: We lean towards and subsequently attract like-minded people.

I have recently had the immense pleasure of meeting a truly wonderful and inspirational gentleman called James Knight. I have had the fortune of spending some time one-2-one with James discussing his iMA programme and understanding more about it. Without trivialising it iMA is simple. Regardless of race, forget black or white; the human race can effectively be divided into four primary colours: red, blue, yellow and green. Each colour speaks the same language and communicates in the same way and therefore responds instinctively to people of the same colour who 'speak' the same language.

The science bit is that we are either left or right brain driven. The fundamental difference being passion (right) and process (left) - there is so much more but this is very 'top level'. Added to this is speed of thought. So, if you are a passionate fast thinker you would probably be yellow. A passionate slower thinker is more than likely to be blue. Reds are process driven fast thinkers and greens process driven but like to think things through slowly.

James has spent many years studying and learning and refining the detailed languages of each colour and the apparent simplicity of the programme is because so much work and research has gone into making something as profoundly complex as human nature simple!

James has devised a simple yet awesomely effective way of determining your colour and language. You are given a set of 10 statements and all you have to do is compare each set of statements. Select the statement that best describes you, most of the time in most situations, and with most people then 'voila' - you get the results. You can then go on and join a whole community of like-minded people who speak your language! How cool is that? You can check out iMA here: What colour are you?

When we communicate and connect with someone who speaks our language we are elated. We are excited that we are understood. We therefore relax and communications are successful and happy. And who doesn't want to be relaxed, successful and happy???

In Social Media - if you are seeking to communicate with many people on many levels it is CRITICAL that you understand how to communicate. How to connect with different people on their level and in a language they understand. I urge anyone engaging in Social Media to look at iMA and truly understand how we all want to be spoken to. If you do this then you can communicate with everyone successfully.

On a more personal level when you connect with people who speak the same language you are on the way to creating a 'Critical MAS': That's a Critical Mutual Admiration Society.

Isn't it just the best feeling in the world when you can surround yourself with people who you think are wonderful and who think you are wonderful too. This may sound idealistic and even altruistic however I defy anyone to say that this would not be a wonderful place to be. And it is possible: even more so in today's connected world.

Since becoming socially active on the Internet I have connected with and met some amazing people. I think they are wonderful and they think I am too. We have fun together we do business together.

In this 24/7 business world 'Critical MAS' is vital. These people will feed your soul and you will hopefully feed theirs.

Business: less rumination more communication!

2010-07-21T22:49:00.001+01:00

Communication is important in every aspect of life of a human being. Businesses are a life form in itself. Especially so when starting up. All businesses need to communicate in one way or another to transact in order to make money. However, poor communication could lead to profit loss as well as businesses as well.

There are many forms of communication. Of which written and speech communication is vital for survival. Written form of communication provides in black and white what your business stands for. It can be used to execute and prosecute. Hence, mastering the basics of written communication is necessary for small businesses.

Written communication also come in different forms. It could in the form of contracts or in the form of emails, for example. There are different etiquette that needs mastering and it will do good to take up a crash course or even pick up a good read at the library.

Next mode of communication, which is speech is vital. This is especially important for small businesses as their businesses would grow into big businesses and corporations through the transaction (read sales). A salesman would know the value of good communication skills. As someone rightfully said, you need to walk the talk. You could end up losing a sale because you were not able to close a sale due to lack of communication skills. Without knowing the vital characteristics of communication, a salesman will never be able to close a deal. How would it be possible anyway.

Firstly, it is important to build a rapport with the client you are conversing with. If you are not even able to converse well, how would that establishment be possible! It is one thing to know and quite another to teach what you know. To teach, you need to communicate. Also, communicate effectively and tailoring it to your audience is equally important. For this you must know how to use your communication skills to your advantage. Some clients would prefer someone who knows a certain language. Suppose you are from America and you know the Japanese language. The client you are meeting would be more than ready to strike up a deal with you.

Secondly, you need to converse your products and services. If you know all your products and different services you are offering but are not able to relate to your client, you have lost the deal. It is disheartening and equally depressing to take in the feeling that a great product could not see the light of the day because of mere communication skills.

Communication is not only necessary when you are dealing with external clients. Your business should start from the insiders. Those who work for you are equally important in the development of your business. You need to communicate your expectations of them and they should be able to relate these expectations into their work. Moreover, the front-liners of your business should be able to sell you products and services with consistent messages that should be effectively communicated to them. As such, avoiding miscommunication to the ultimate customers.

In conclusion, the importance of communication skills cannot be underrated. Communication is necessary for any business.

by Wahidabi Sulaiman

Social Media: Is it nature or is it nurture

2010-07-13T04:34:00.002+01:00

"Social media is raising the bar for businesses who now must deliver much higher levels of customer service to succeed. Positive and negative customer experiences are shared online and act as a powerful accelerator… It is helping to connect people and businesses in new relationships that help and enrich them."

I can't remember where I found the above but it leads me to wonder how those people who find it hard to socialise in 'real-life' (that place which exists outside a computer screen) get around their shyness and ability to 'connect' online.

Is it easier, harder, just the same? Is 'socialising' and being 'friendly' nature or nurture? I'd suggest a bit of both.

In my 'online/offline-life' I have always found, without exception, that the people who are chatty and 'connected' and able to express themselves well in a chat room, or in any digital environment where they communicate with others, do so just as easily offline. Those who are more reserved and, dare I say it, fearful of 'chatting' are equally so in person. And, of course, vice versa.

So, is it to be that those individuals who are naturally open and not in the least bit shy of getting stuck into a conversation are going to be the only ones to succeed in this new social media world that is enveloping our daily lives? Is it to be that those fearful of getting involved and saying 'stuff' are going to be left behind sat in the corner not really knowing where to go and how to play with the others. Bit like that kid in the playground who sat on his own desperate to play with all the other kids but just didn't know how?

So how do we help the wallflower kid? How do we enable and nurture those of us who are unable to jump in 'feet first' and just start communicating? How can a really shy, introverted person do this especially when you have to provide a subtle mix of what you know with who you are?

You can't permanently hide behind a re-tweet! Just 'copying' what someone else knows. You have to stand up and share your own knowledge backed up with your personality and understanding.

I find this actually really concerns me. As a natural chatter-box and communicater since the day I learned to talk I have never had the problem of shyness or lack of confidence but I really 'feel' for those that do and even more so now when, to some degree, the future of modern day business depends on it.

I would love to hear from anyone who has had to overcome a natural shyness and lack of confidence and nurtured themselves into a position where they have been able to communicate and connect with complete strangers.

I would love to hear from anyone who is really struggling with the above or anyone who knows someone who is.

I think that for those of us who find this whole social 'stuff' a 'piece of cake' need to stop for a moment and try to help those who don't find it quite so easy.

Let's try and make a difference by helping that kid stuck on her own in the corner of the playground come and play with the more confident kids so she can build her confidence and also make a difference to our lives.

Let's try and nurture those who don't find it so much in their nature to communicate and connect.

Keyword research - don't do it at your peril

2010-07-01T23:06:00.000+01:00

Having delivered our workshop today on keyword research I thought I had better write about it whilst still on my soap box. And when I say keyword I do mean 'keyphrase' as well (sometimes known as 'longtail keyword' - basically this is when you enter more than three words to find something).

It never ceases to amaze me how businesses steam ahead with their websites, Internet marketing and advertising without doing keyword research. I just don't get it :(

Keyword research is the single most important 'exercise' that anyone wishing to do anything on the Internet should do! It will tell you everything. The purpose of identifying targeted keywords is to enable you to grow your business online by attracting customers in the most cost and time effective way possible. And if you don't identify your keywords you simply won't get anywhere.

You should be researching keywords in depth even before you chose your URL / domain name. Knowing the keywords your potential customers are searching for could even give you your URL.

Eight years ago (before Google) with a really lovely simple tool called Overture (bring it back please) I found that when looking to buy a property overseas about 3 times more people were searching using the word 'overseas' than 'abroad' - so I bought all my URLs (I was in the overseas property industry for many years) with the word 'overseas' in it rather than 'abroad'. No brainer really when you think about it.

A year ago I found a great one for our business 'how do I start my own website' so guess what? http://www.howdoistartmyownwebsite.com became a site to sell our website planning guide.

It all about getting inside your target markets' minds and identifying the words and phrases that your prospects and customers use to find your products and services so that you can deliver effectively and efficiently to meet their needs and requirements. Simples :)

Google's (and when I say Google we mean search engines in general) whole reason for existence and one and only mission is to deliver RELEVANT content to us when we are searching for something on the Internet!

So your mission, as a business, should be to provide that and make sure Google can find you and that you are providing that relevant content.

What are the benefits?

Allows you to compete successfully against the big guys

Saves you market research time

Enables you to discover business opportunities

You can focus your time and money on the more profitable areas of your business

Allows to really make your marketing work efficiently

It's all measurable. You can track and test your keywords all the time so that you know which are more effective and make swift adjustments

Carve your keywords into your brain!

Everytime you write anything on the Internet think 'keywords' - think 'what are my keywords and can I use one here? Can I 'tag' something? Can I write an article using a keyword?' Writing a blog, a tweet, making a link - if you can 'keyword' it - do it.

How often should you research your keywords?

Depends on your business: But at MINIMUM every 4-6 months. If you business is seasonal then every time you come up to a 'selling' season. Keyword 'ranking' can fluctuate dramatically according to the time of year. Valentine's day, Easter, Christmas, school holidays etc. If your business depends on these times of year for a 'boost' then before you start writing anything pre-season then research the keywords flying around at this time.

How do I search for keywords?

There are some tips and tricks and knowing how to 'read' search engine results but the main specific methods are:

Google search-based keyword tool

More powerful tools and currently market leaders are Wordtracker (British) and Market Samurai (Australian). They are not expensive and certainly worth their weight in gold.

TIP - with both tools if you just want to perform a 'one off' for now there is a 'free trial' period that you can take advantage of.

There is a heavy learning curve and time (as always) to invest however worth the investment because as I said:

Don't do it at your peril.

You could always invest in the services of an SEO expert however as with everything on the Internet there's the good, the bad and the ugly and the more you know about it yourself the more 'empowered' you are to make the right decisions as to the most appropriate routes for your business.

Good luck and if you have any questions - just shout!

Social Media dissected and explained!

2010-06-24T00:35:00.002+01:00

Social media marketing done wrong is worse than not doing it at all. Make the wrong move and you could create negative buzz out there.

Social Media Marketing done right is more powerful than any single direct mail campaign, trade show, or print advertising campaign you might do. More powerful than even a few mail drops, show booths, or print buys.

All of the above traditional marketing media typically require expenditures in the £££-tens-of-thousands range – and there is no residual, synergistic, or accretive effect with these media.

Social Media Marketing does create a foundation for long-lasting benefits and activities that complement your other business initiatives.

So, spend your money on social media instead, right?

Not so fast.

Take the time to plan and develop a programme that will work for your company first.

Here are the basic questions:

What do we want to accomplish?
Where do we participate?
Do we need a set of rules?
Who should be involved in this initiative?
What online assets do we need?
How will we keep score?

What Do We Want to Accomplish?

Just because it’s hot, it doesn’t mean you should engage in Social Media Marketing.

There are a number of objectives you may have, and you should clearly state these at the outset:

Participate because our competitors are (this is real, there is a cost to having a competitor take over the conversation)
Be there because, if we are not, our brand image may suffer as people meet frustration that they can’t find us
Enhance brand presence online (and overall)
Generate traffic to our website
Create links to our website to improve SEO visibility
Generate sales & leads directly from participation
Provide customer service
Gather market feedback from customers & potential customers (and use it to improve our products, services, processes, etc.)
Analyze and understand competitors’ moves (not just social media activities – there has never been a richer time for Competitive Intelligence gathering than now!)

Where Do We Participate?

This may be one of the more difficult tasks. You will have limited resources and this will force you to choose between social communities/networks.

A first pass, using your instincts, may help you prioritize the discovery process. For example, you may know already that MySpace is not even a candidate for you because it just doesn’t fit.

But, after your first pass, you will still face some decisions that will impact your strategy.

Looking back at your Objectives, you can then think about whether or not you are looking for conversations, traffic, links, eyeballs, targeted demographics, etc.

Three basic questions to ask:

1. Which of the “major players” do we focus on? – Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Digg, Stumbleupon, etc?
2. Are industry/niche forums a better use of our time?
3. Shouldn’t reaching out to bloggers be a part of this effort?

Do We Need a Set of Rules?

If you are employed by a large company, you will almost certainly have some rules to abide by. Even if there are not rules that have been created specifically for social media, you would be doing yourself a service by thinking ahead and anticipating what your Legal and (traditional) PR teams might require. If you are a publicly-held company, this is even more critical!

You may have reached a decision that you will have multiple people in your organization work on the social media effort. Perhaps even multiple departments.

It would be a good idea to create a written list of “do’s” and “don’ts” for people in the company to reference (even if your company is a nimble, entrepreneurial company that does not typically ask for lots of documentation – you can keep it simple).

Who Should Be Involved In This Initiative?

Human resource allocation is one of the major stumbling blocks in launching and maintaining a social media programme!

Here are some questions that may help decide what kind of skill sets you need (and then how many people you need) – will our implementers need?

Deep industry and product knowledge
Technical knowledge of products
Customer service experience
Understanding of the entire strategic picture for the company
Access to company systems and databases (products, customer lists, technical info, etc.)
Online marketing experience

Another key question that has to be answered – do we need a senior executive to participate?

You may want one of the faces (or The Face) of the company to participate in some way – contributing to a blog, building a network in Twitter, writing thought leadership pieces to point people to, etc.

What Online Assets Do We Need?

You will ultimately need Content to facilitate social media interactions. Whether the content is housed on your website or used on other sites, you will need information to help people understand more about your company and tell others in their networks about.

And it has to be interesting.

Spend some time looking at what is resonating in social bookmarking and news sharing sites like Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon, Delicious, and YouTube.

Can you create content that will also appeal to people? Do you already have the content somewhere and just aren’t using it? If you need to create it, who will do it?

Remember, content can also take the form of promotions, contests, and other attention-grabbing events.

How Will We Keep Score?

As someone recently asked me – “how will we know when to either pop open the champagne and celebrate, or pull the plug?”

You should develop an internal Social Media Scorecard!

One of the “unfortunate” aspects of Social Media Marketing is that many of the benefits are hard to capture with hard metrics. However, you should do your best to create a series of measurable outcomes that can be tracked. I recommend updating your Scorecard at least monthly.

Some outcomes you may want to capture (an Excel spreadsheet should do the trick):

Traffic (visits) sent to the site from specific social media websites
Leads/sales that you can track back to referrals from the specific social media sites (using Web analytics and conversion tracking)
Downloads of white papers by social community referral source (again, with conversion tracking in place)
Number of followers and fans in each community
Links generated during the time period (use Yahoo! Site Explorer, look at the “Inlinks” tab, select the option for “Except from this domain” and the option for links pointing to “Entire site”
Use a search engine like Google and type in your brand name in quotes (e.g. “komarketing associates”), and write down the number of Results shown (e.g. 7,950 for us at this time). Updates to this number monthly will give you a general sense of how your brand has expanded online (obviously there are other PR and advertising activities that will contribute to this number, but you can at least take credit!)
Reviews in YouTube
Blog subscriptions (to your blog)
Subscriptions to a newsletter you offer during the time period

In terms of tracking activities, you can keep track of number of:

Contacts made to bloggers (you could separate these into comments left on blogs and personalized e-mails sent to the bloggers)
Posts made in forums
Updates on Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Sites/reviews submitted in Stumbleupon, Reddit, Digg, etc. (not just your own site/content!)
New content created for use in social media

Qualitatively, you can add a Notes field to your spreadsheet and make notations about outcomes that were especially significant (hit Digg homepage, great review by Blogger X, link was Retweeted X times, etc.)

I think you can see from everything described in this article that an effective Social Media Marketing program takes a lot of planning!

And don't forget the time you have to take to make sure your website's commercially effective for when people arrive there! SMART|WP website planning

Article from komarketingassociates.com

Does a business really need a website?

2010-06-12T18:54:00.001+01:00

In today's commercial climate the answer to this is invariably "yes", you do need some sort of presence on the vast network that is the World Wide Web. A primary reason for this is that a presence on the Internet creates a hugely powerful extension of your current sales platform and potentially has access to well over a billion users worldwide! Read full blog here CarolVerity latest blog

Website planning: Do or die a digital death!

2010-06-08T16:08:00.002+01:00

Well, that might be a bit dramatic but it has led you to read this! It is essential however, as a business owner/manager to really, really understand what you are letting yourself in for before going to a designer or anyone involved in building a website.read more here...

"No buddy loves me"

2010-06-05T00:18:00.004+01:00

No buddy loves me!

14 years ago I sat with a new baby boy, a second hand computer with a massive 500mb hard drive, a 56kbps AOL Internet connection and a buddy list with no one in it! Friends and family totally 'poo-pooing' email and an 'it will never catch on' attitude.

Today I sit with three teenage boys, a 10-year-old-teenager-in-training daughter, a laptop with a slightly larger 360gb hard drive, a 20mbps connection staring at people with thousands and thousands of 'buddies' in their twitter et al accounts! All my friends and family have emails... safe to say... 'it caught on'!

So where's it going? What is it all about? @PennyPower with @ThomasPower of #ecademy fame in her fantastic book 'Know me, Like me, Follow me' - pretty much sums it up. She says that you have to know 'what song you are singing' and be totally 'open, random and supportive' - I would add 'authentic' to that. It's about caring and not being afraid to show you care. There is much, much more and I urge anyone planning to 'engage' in Social Media to read the book.

What's exciting is that it is now all about the individual - not so much the company. We all have the opportunity to 'build our own brand' - become known and loved for what we do and how well we do it. The 'why' we do it should be more about 'because I can really help and make a difference' than 'I want more for me' - because if you do the former the latter will come in spades.

About three or four years after my lonely initiation into the pre-social world of the Internet I found myself doing a degree in Visual Communication at Middlesex University. Adobe and photoshop were a key ingredient for this and I just happened upon a neat little world that was just kicking off called 'Adobe Atmosphere'. For the following couple of years I became an Avatar and lived there! It was awesome. We were an eclectic group of designers and coders and artists (musicians and singers as well) who literally 'hung out' in a 3D virtual world. Some of the guys in there were just the most talented coders and built new worlds in their sleep (not that they ever slept it seemed). We used to go trotting off together to look at the latest creation... comment, laugh, share information and generally have a happy time. Happy times they really were.

So, after graduating I did nothing whatsoever to do with design or graphics (however it is a damn useful skill) but started an overseas property company www.propertiesabroad.com (that's a longer story for another time) and spent the first three months writing a brief for the website - I couldn't understand how anyone would be able to build my business online for me if I didn't spell out exactly what I wanted (the admin section & CRM in the backend is seriously comprehensive!). I was then able to call upon my lovely Adobe Atmosphere friends to help me build the website. 8 years later I have moved on but the website is still pretty good and works better than most 8 year old websites!

I was only able to get what I wanted because I planned it all very carefully to the letter - it was my business and I knew what I wanted and never for a minute expected a designer or coder to understand this unless I told them in detail.

The success of the website was possible because of the expert community and network of 'buddies' I had engaged with in Atmosphere and because I, as 'me in my business', wrote the brief understanding what I wanted.

So I urge everyone to do two things - engage on the Internet by whatever is the most approriate way for you and comes naturally and if you are planning a website - learn your options and PLAN it properly... BEFORE you go to a designer.

Oh, and have a happy time!

Planning a website properly JUST MAKES SENSE!

2010-06-04T12:25:00.001+01:00

Its is astonishing the number of people who I can physically see becoming 'enlightened' when I explain to them the concept of planning their websites properly and the danger of not planning it at all.

If you had a plot of land, on which you wanted to build you ideal dream home you wouldn't just go to someone who could potentially build a house and ask them to build this house for you without telling them exactly what you wanted? It is the same with your website - you have to be involved and you have to tell the builder exactly what you want and describe in as much detail as you can about your business, your customers and the form and function the website should take. You want the house to work well for you. For it to 'flow' - that when your friends and family come to visit they feel comfortable and 'at home' there. You want them to have a good experience.

Now, it is far easier for us to 'brief' our ideal home because we have all lived in a house/property, of some description, all of our lives. It is a lot harder when it comes to briefing the perfect business website because we are not so familiar with the internet and websites in general... and, more importantly, we have no idea at all what our potential customers think of websites and how they use them. It is a bit of a catch 22.

So, communication is the key. As a business owner you must know, and communicate certain criteria to the web designer. And as a web designer you must communicate effectively to the business owner that you have understood exactly what is needed and how you are going to produce a site to match the business needs and create more customers - because at the end of the day, that is what we are in business for - servicing existing and creating more satisfied customers / clients - and having a happy time doing it!

http://www.rgmdigital.com/action-2011 Check out the business side of things where we can really help :)

Social Media... scary? Na - it's all just people to people via a route! Learn the best route for you and get stuck in!

2010-06-02T21:59:00.002+01:00

Marketing - online, offline, digital media, advertising, social media and all that stuff... Whatever methods you use, however you like to wrap it up

It’s all about communicating and connecting by

Knowing who your target markets are and
Getting them to find you and listen to you

A bit of a history lesson “Hear ye o come ‘ere ye” – from shouting to touting (no pouting!)

Ancient times: The first form of advertisement was vocal

• Shouting of announcements – entertainment

• Papyrus for sales and lost & found – also political announcements

15^th and 16^th century: Printing developed and advertisements first appeared on handbills

17^th and 18^th to late 19^th century: 1620 newspapers began in England and first advertisement was said to be that of a stolen horse! There was not much industry or mass production of goods with branding so less advertising opportunities so newspapers didn’t place much emphasis on advertising.

Late 19^th century... ALL CHANGE!

You must have “Emotional Appeal”... its about making other people WANT to listen. “flattery will get you everywhere!” if someone lands on your website and they feel ‘heard’ then they will stay and listen to what you have to say to them. And this has been happening since ANCIENT TIMES. From the Town Crier or a video clip in your website...

This is not about speaking TO people but speaking WITH them. When you say something with emotional appeal you succeed in making others want to listen. This is THE CORE!

As the routes to market get easier, competition gets fiercer and you have to work harder at being heard

So get in there... tweet, chat, stumble, dig, blog whatever it is – find the route you are comfortable with, plan what you are going to do and how you are going to engage and ‘Just Do It’.

Carol
carol@smartwp.co.uk

http://www.smartwp.co.uk

The Green X Code for the Internet

2010-05-28T09:50:00.002+01:00

STOP | LOOK |LISTEN...

Many individuals who design and build websites are good and decent, know what they are doing and are ethical - i.e. won't rip you off (but many will). However - and it is a big HOWEVER
- they are expert designers and web site builders; they are very internet savvy and possibly understand all that they need to about design and coding. But... the majority are usually sole traders, working in isolated circumstances, they are not business people and they have little or no knowledge about business in general, let alone particular business sectors. This is not a criticism aimed at all designers and website builders but a well-known fact and the ‘nature of the beast’ as it were!

So, in a nut shell, what needs to happen? As a business person it is your responsibility to write a comprehensive brief and communicate as much of your business Internet needs, customer profiles and target market as possible to the website designer. Likewise website designers must be open to interpret a brief, care about the business and the build and communicate as much of the potential of the web and a website as possible and what is appropriate for their clients, the business person.

Your Ideal Home
If you had a plot of land, on which you wanted to build you ideal dream home you wouldn’t just go to someone who could potentially build a house and ask them to build this house for you without telling them exactly what you wanted? It is the same with your website – you have to be involved and you have to tell the builder exactly what you want and describe in as much detail as you can about your business, your customers and the form and function the website should take. You want the house to work well for you. For it to ‘flow’ – that when your friends and family come to visit they feel comfortable and ‘at home’ there. You want them to have a good experience. You can imagine the upheaval if, half way through the build, you suddenly realised the kitchen was on the third floor and you wanted it downstairs... in fact, you don't even want a third floor!

Now, it is far easier for us to ‘brief’ our ideal home because we have all lived in a house/property, of some description, all of our lives. It is a lot harder when it comes to briefing the perfect business website because we are not so familiar with the internet and websites in general... and, more importantly, we have no idea at all what our potential customers think of websites and how they use them. It is a bit of a catch 22.

So, communication is the key. As a business owner you must know, and communicate certain criteria to the web designer. And as a web designer you must communicate effectively to the business owner that you have understood exactly what is needed and how you are going to produce a site to match the business needs and create more customers – because at the end of the day, that is what we are in business for – servicing existing and creating more clients.

There is much to consider when planning a website however the first thing you MUST get to grips with, as a responsible business person, is that you MUST consider it. Set objectives, know your target audience.

Why do you want a website?
Who is it for?
What do you want them to do when you get there!

If you have a well-planned website brief you can actually go to tender. Send the brief to four or five web agencies / designers and GET QUOTES. You can then be in control of the time and cost of your website. Ask the right questions and understand the answers! Good designers will love this... it means they can get on with their job and 'passion' which is building websites that their clients really want and need.

More information is up for grabs on www.hallmann.co.uk - look forward to seeing you there.

Web design psychology

2010-05-24T21:59:00.001+01:00

Designers often don’t take the time they should to learn about how basic psychological principles can effect the experience their visitors have on the sites they build.

Psychological principles are either looked upon as unnecessary, or too complicated. But the truth is that they’re neither.

There aren’t that many concepts associated with basic design psychology, and most are relatively straight-forward and easy to learn.

They’re also mainly easy to implement, though some take a bit more care and planning than others. http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/05/the-psychology-of-web-design/

Read on to learn more and please leave your feedback and comments at the end of this post

HootSuite vs Tweetdeck

2010-05-21T23:22:00.000+01:00

HootSuite vs Tweetdeck

A Digital Mindset - Ecademy

2010-05-20T14:26:00.000+01:00

A Digital Mindset - Ecademy The debate continues animatedly!

Social Media Influence 2010 Conference

2010-05-19T01:03:00.000+01:00

Social Media Influence 2010 Conference

Forget “Twitter Strategy”, what do you know about your customers?

2010-05-18T22:28:00.000+01:00

Forget “Twitter Strategy”, what do you know about your customers?

30 Useful Web-Based Applications for Designers | Most Inspired: Design Inspiration Blog

2010-05-18T14:57:00.000+01:00

30 Useful Web-Based Applications for Designers | Most Inspired: Design Inspiration Blog

Business Networking Events & Meetings

2010-05-17T10:13:00.000+01:00

Business Networking Events & Meetings

Carol Mann BlackStar Profile

2010-05-16T20:26:00.000+01:00

Carol Mann BlackStar Profile

Carol Mann "Website Planning, Internet business planning, anything to do with websites, web site design, web development, website development, graphic design, internet consulting, emarketing, e-marketing e marketing, business consultancy, marketing, digital marketing" - Business Networking on Ecademy

2010-05-16T20:09:00.000+01:00

Carol Mann "Website Planning, Internet business planning, anything to do with websites, web site design, web development, website development, graphic design, internet consulting, emarketing, e-marketing e marketing, business consultancy, marketing, digital marketing" - Business Networking on Ecademy

Newsletter Confirmation

2010-05-11T13:01:00.000+01:00

Newsletter Confirmation

About Shannon Paul

2010-05-04T22:38:00.000+01:00

One to watch... About Shannon Paul

The Power of Emotional Appeal

2010-04-08T13:28:00.000+01:00

Created in 1960 (and most good things were!) Roy Garn's book still holds true today and even more so as we evolve into this Social Media 'appeal to your target audience' type of world! With this book - and via my blog here as I reveal snippets from it - you can discover things like:

How to make others want to listen.
Gain a greater control of words, actions and reactions.
How to become a more tactful person and benefit in business from this.
Make people remember, respect and like you.

And so on...
And how this can all feed into your business website and make it all the more appealing!

Facebook page update

2010-04-05T21:23:00.000+01:00

Here is this week's summary for the Facebook Page: SMART|WP - Smart Website Planning

+11 fans this week (57 Total fans)
2 Wall posts, comments and likes this week (0 last week)
127 Visits to your Page this week (38 Visits last week

http://facebook.com/smartwp

Networkers extraordinaire...

2010-04-01T13:50:00.000+01:00

Thanks yet again to Mark Lennox and Simon Lewis of UKmarketingNetwork for laying on a spendid networking event. Lovely spacious venue - good group of people and great hot dogs and chips!!!!! GRACIAS :)

Adobe - Online events : Event Details

2010-04-01T10:20:00.000+01:00

Adobe - Online events : Event Details: "Should Technical Communicators become Information Facilitators, providing the right information at the right time to the right person?"

I'll say!!!!!!!!!! Definitely going to join this debate...

Just moved our blog to here...

2010-03-29T14:41:00.001+01:00

Setting up our new blog... welcome!