Archive for May, 2009

Fluffy Links – Wednesday May 20th 2009

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Decisions for Heroes has launched. Well done Robin and all involved. D4H is a way for rescue workers to get better at what they do and share this knowledge.

“We all know all most politicians are muppets. At least he’s being up front about it.” Who is this Catty Killian that does the Irish Times Campaign blog? Bitchy remark after bitchy remark and getting a lot of material from other bloggers. Attribution is good yeah?

Magnet have a customer interaction forum on Boards.ie now. First telco to do so. Good call. Boards.is where the broadband lovers are.

Interesting blog: The State of the Nation.

New blog from Alasdar Browne.

Worksafe bonerific.

I’ve got nothing against your god

Via Bookslut: Ranking poets by beard weight.

25 usability cheat sheets.

Via Cool Hunting. The Designer of Obama’s New Media campaign. Someone NOT wanting to consult to an Irish political party.

Death Cab For Cutie “Soul Meets Body”

Event: The Changing World in Sales – “Buyers Are Not Buying” – Dublin, June 3rd

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Burlington Hotel. At 7am. Thank god it’s only around the corner from where my bags stay in Dublin.

Big blurb:

This is a meet event organised by the Sales Leadership Ireland Linked In Group. This is a not-for-profit initiative.

SECTION 1: Interactive sessions with Speakers (45 minutes)

1) Introduction to Sales Leadership Ireland
– Niall Devitt, B2B Training

2) “Removing the New Bottlenecks in today’s Sales Processes” – 10 minutes
Niall Devitt of B2BTraining will lead a discussion on how sales challenges are always changing with changing markets, how to identify these changes and how to respond.

3) “Partnering into New Markets” – 10 minutes
Donagh Kiernan of Maidsfield Associates will present a case study of how corporate partnering is an effective method of entering new sectoral or regional markets.

4) “Engaging with Customers through New Media” – 20 minutes
Damien Mulley of Mulley Communications will discuss how new media can be used to communicate with your market and gain new business.

SECTION 2: Key Challenges Roundtables (1 hour)

Maximum attendees 30 – 3 round tables of 10

A number of identified Key Challenges in the industry today will be discussed and debated to share insights on how challenges can and are be met by members. The key challenges will be collected from the Sales Leadership Ireland – Linked-In Discussion Group.

For more details go to news and discussions sections @ http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1860441/

Brainwashing the old guard in the cult of social media

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

There are many who see commercial companies and their PR reconnaissance staff as a bad thing for the web. Coming online and whoring various crappy products and services. Influencing bloggers by buying them a few drinks. Silencing critics by giving them a few freebies. I don’t agree. I see commercial companies joining the online space as a good thing but maybe not for them if they want to keep their comfortable status quo. The more the web is about everyone, the better. We need a realistic cross-section online like we have offline.

Blogs, Facebook, Twitter are a cult and we have the opportunity to brainwash so many companies into becoming truly open sourced in terms of IP and of attitude. Social media is infectious. Get close to it enough times and you’re a convert. A company will start blogging and Twittering and infecting itself despite all their internal rules. This social media cancer will come in and bit by bit will replace the rules based and rules drive old school attitudes with the idea that sharing is fun. All of a sudden the CEO is blogging and having conversations with other CEOs and all done in public. Customer support is done in public, metrics are shared in public. Look at the Conservatives’ website where they now share expense claims live on the web.You can even subscribe to them!

Kool-aid lunch box
Photo owned by chrisdlugosz (cc)

Look at how the best cults work. They are open to new members, they welcome them and nurture them while introducing their beliefs and livestyles and all of a sudden you have a convert. Then you get the convert to convert people.

So if you’re a company with bad customer service and you expect that to continue, that does not want to hear what people are saying about you and wants to dictate to the public, not have the public help run your organisation, then stay away from the web, it’ll kill you. Block Facebook, block blogs and especially block Twitter. All it takes is one person in your org to get converted and the illusionary walls you created for your fortress company will come tumbling down. Koolaid anyone?

Fluffy Links – Monday 18th of May 2009

Monday, May 18th, 2009

MeasurementCamp Dublin is on May 27th in the Odeon. This event is vital for those in PR and Marketing. My thoughts on it here.

Buymydress.ie – a sale of over 1,000 dresses donated by (mostly) Irish women for the Downs Syndrome Centre. Donate yours. I did.

Libertas using Irish Coat of Arms in their posters. Tut tut.

Joe on Wolfram Alpha.

The NI Policing Board is holding a meeting on Tuesday as Gaelige.

Intro books on a whole raft of subjects. A nice compilation of the best primers to various disciplines.

Free newspapers going horribly wrong and hurting everyone…

Twitter search engines.

So want to get a good domain name? Not as easy as it seems.

Via Creative Review: Rega – Heaven can wait

Doves – The Man Who Told Everything

Fuck The Recession – Word of mouth beats all

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

This blog of late has not been firing out the usual daily Fluffy Links and other semi-regualr afternoon posts. I’ve just been mad busy. So much for a downturn. Life for me and Mulley Communications is good. On a daily basis I’m getting people ringing me asking me to do training or consulting. Sometimes I’ll send them to someone else, I just don’t have the time. 2009 is when companies are thinking differently and some are taking skills back inhouse. They’re doing their own PR and Marketing or they are embracing the online medium for the first time.

This post isn’t bragging but to point out a very interesting fact: I have never sought work from anyone. No coldcalling, no emailing offering services. All the work is coming to me from people recommending my services. People, some of whom I don’t know, I have never met but they were a talk of mine or read this blog. Thank you!

angel of happiness
Photo owned by a little tune (cc)

The other interesting fact is that Google brings me nothing. Despite ranking well on this blog and on the Mulley Communications for various terms, people don’t contact me after finding me via Google. This is fascinating isn’t it? Twitter brings me work, people who read this blog, people who have seen me talk at events. All places where I am more human and where I have hundreds of interactions with hundreds of other people. Despite the huge effort put into SEO, it’s word of mouth that gets me business.

I did a post a while back about working with the media to get coverage. Is all about people and knowing them and it’s also for me about people knowing me. Just like the advice to never turn down a press interview, if asked to talk at an event, never decline if you are free and can make it. If there are 300 people, 30 or even 3 at the event, go there and one person at a time if needs be, show your ability and authority to them. Volume doesn’t matter in a world where everyone is one step or two away from millions of people. If one person recommends me to one other after an event then I’m sorted.

I also suggest to people that are doing press to act as a router for the media. If someone from RTE rings you up and it is’t your area, don’t leave it at that. Find someone that does cover that area and give those details to the media. Help them to do their work. The same goes when people ringing me ask me to build them a site or do traditional PR or do tech support. I’ll find people for them.

Express Your Feeling!
Photo owned by ? Sleeping Sun ? (cc)

Always add value to a connection

Connections to me are:

    Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Phone
  • Conferences
  • Talks

If you get an email from someone, give them something of value back. Same with phone. Twitter. You get the idea. Go to Barcamps and contribute. Do this either by adding to a discussion or sitting on a panel or giving a talk. Give talks at colleges or companies if asked. Paid and unpaid. If you can send people home with new knowledge then they’ll associate it with you. It’s amazing the way people have sent me business over the past 12 months soley because they saw me talk at an event. One thing to note though is this is the long game, not the short game. Momentum to get word of mouth recommendations takes time to build but so far in my experience it hasn’t slowed down. Fuck the recession, give out value to get it back.

Weezer do MGMT and Lady GaGa

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

Via Weezer sing Kids and Pokerface.

View from Gaiety School

Saturday, May 16th, 2009

I really like this photo. Not bad from the crappy iPhone camera:

IMG_0968

Cork and Politics

Saturday, May 16th, 2009

For those of the Corkonian persuasion, there’s a new site in town if you want to know more about your politicians in Cork. The site is called Cork Politics and is a handy resource for the upcoming local and European elections and will probably be a vital source for the upcoming general election too. With this site and the Kildare Street site, politics is becoming more transparent and reporting of it is no longer up to salaried individuals.

IMG_6526-2
Photo owned by eriatarka66 (cc)

Patricia McKenna gives voice to voiceless

Friday, May 15th, 2009

Patricia McKenna wants to give a voice to the voiceless. These are her people now?

Michael Jackson mime
Photo owned by alex_ford (cc)

Le Mime
Photo owned by jan lewandowski (cc)

Fluffy Links – Friday May 15th 2009

Friday, May 15th, 2009

Competition from WeddingDates.ie. Something about Colin Farrell and a bed

All Ages venue coming to Dublin? Rocking.

BT have a competition. Seems like a broadband Truman show.

Open Cofee Drogheda, come on down.

A bit of reality: Social Media Expert dot .ie

Another New Blog: Fiscal Student.

New service: Be Thrifty. Affiliate Marketing but you get a percentage back if you buy through them.

Amazon is one more step to killing off publishers/printing presses.

KMFDM – A Drug Against War