Twitter Roundtable: Tips and Best Practice
I was recently invited by the good folk of UKFast to partake in a Roundtable discussion, all about Twitter; the ins, the outs, the dos and don’ts. I was in good company and great brains, who educated, challenged and shared some terrific points. You should follow them on Twitter actually (Laura Wolfe, Paul Sutton, Leanne Forshaw Jones, Chi-chi Ekweozor and Coral Grainger). The event was filmed, distilled and edited down to the most useful points: In spectacularly lazy blogging style, I present to you the very well written summary/press release of that event from UKFast. SMEs are wasting time and money on half-baked social media strategies and are, in many cases, oblivious to the ...
Social Media Meet-Ups and Workshops
There’s an awful lot going on in social media land here in Lancashire. Meet ups, workshops (from Social Subversion, a social media consultancy myself and the inimitable Nathaniel Cassidy of Duchess of Grange PR and Events have created) and gatherings. So here they are – get involved! Along with Blog Preston and Walker Studios, I’ve had a hand in getting The Preston Social off the ground – a free bi-monthly socail meet-up for all. Learn, share, socialise. The first Preston Social landed 15th February at the New Continental, Preston. The next is due in May, and we hope to have it monthly thereafter.
A Twitter Tale: Snow, Trends and Pixie Lott
There’s a lot of talk about Twitter and how we can leverage social media for business but what we often overlook is that these are social tools for social people. I’ve long maintained that Twitter is little more than a glorified chat room; it just so happens that it’s a bloody great big glorified chat room. We meet people, we forge relationships, we chat, we help each other. Last week, a little girl in Sheffield faced a cancelled birthday. Eighteen inches of snow. Party cancelled. Meal cancelled. Cards stuck in the post. Presents stuck in the post. Her dad wanted to do something, so thinking on his feet, he tweeted ...
Movember. When Moustaches Go Bad
Something dramatic happened at the beginning of the month. Never mind intercepted bomb threats – my face had its first brush with fresh air for over 3 years. Beard gone. Face exposed. Okay; it was relatively dramatic. Why? Movember. What? Movember – the annual joining of the Mo (slang for moustache) and the month of November for a charitable cause. As they describe it: “Movember challenges men to change their appearance and the face of men’s health by growing a moustache. The rules are simple, start Movember 1st clean shaven and then grow a moustache for the entire month. The moustache becomes the ribbon for men’s health, the means by ...
The Designer Dress Code
Here’s a familiar situation. You’re networking. You’re a little bit nervous. You look around. Suits. Sharp. Breathe in. Be confident. More suits. Maybe I shouldn’t have worn jeans. You’re a graphic designer. It’s okay. Perhaps a shirt next time. Welcome to my world. A world where identity matters, as much in brand as it does appearance. Looks matter. You know it, I know it. We just don’t like to talk about it much. But what is it about dress code that is so important? It’s unusual that, as a designer I enjoy a prerogative to get away with dressing down. Suits are reserved for formal occasions. Ties are mementoes of ...
The Importance of Being Sociable
Nothing. Zero. Not a penny. That’s the total spend on my marketing budget this year, yet I find myself the busiest I have ever been. No flyers, no PPC and no mailing lists purchased. Not that these are outmoded; instead, my business has been developed through talking with people instead of talking at people. And it is social media, this permeative force and seismic shift in communication that has allowed me to do so. Such superlatives hold justice when you look at the figures. The 106m people signed up to Twitter search over 600m things every day, which is barely a scratch on the billion items shared daily on Facebook ...
How Much Does a Website Cost?
It’s a pertinent and perfectly acceptable question but not one I can ever answer easily. You’re thinking, cop out. I’m thinking, keep reading. Let’s say I told you I could build it for a certain amount. Great. You don’t have any images? Right, so that’ll be a little bit more. You wanted to be able to update content? Okay, that’ll be more. You never mentioned you wanted a form for newsletter sign-ups and data capture. I can do it, but suddenly, that amount we mentioned looks bigger and now I look like a bad, shitty salesman. So how about we rethink the question: what is your website for? Is it a ...
