This site is maintained by The Proactive Accountant Dot Com - link to this article directly by using the short URL http://bit.ly/2B1q5f
Technology Thursday
A few days ago Twitter told me that I now had access to “lists” as one of a band of a few exclusively chosen account holders. I fear that is not exactly true as many of my contacts also seem to have that privilege!
I have had a bit of fun looking around at the lists that others have introduced, and I have just added @robday to my list called Young Entrepreneurs. However, having seen what people are doing with their lists I have decided to keep mine private.
“Lists I love being on: hackers, programmers, linked-data, semweb, brits,
rubyists, hackers. Lists I loathe being on: social-media-types.”
Tom is on my BCL Team list and I do not have a social-media-types list, but to be on the safe side, nobody knows exactly what I’m doing with my lists. After all, the tweets are for you and the lists are for me!
This site is maintained by The Proactive Accountant Dot Com - link to this article directly by using the short URL http://bit.ly/5xTSE
Technology Thursday
With the advent of Twitter and their use of bit.ly . . . followed prompt.ly by Hootsuite’s use of ow.ly . . . it’s clear that LY domain names have become a feature of the web.
And it has taken the international community some time to notice how useful.ly this TLD (top level domain) can be transformed. Have a look around the web trying out things like creative.ly and sil.ly and see what you find. There are lots of domains still readi.ly available and I have just bagged proactive.ly and will be using it eager.ly at a later date.
LY domains were not a TLD by design. It’s primari.ly the suffix for web sites in Libya. It just lends itself easi.ly to the English language. To see what’s around, what’s readi.ly available, and to get the best current prices visit Libyan Spider.
This site is maintained by The Proactive Accountant Dot Com - link to this article directly by using the short URL http://bit.ly/6FL1X
World Affairs on Sunday
Had Sarah Palin remembered that there is more to the world than just the United States, she may have been a little more circumspect in her comments this week about the UK’s National Health Service. I’m well aware that this blog can be read by anybody and so I have some editorial rules about what I can and cannot say.
Of course, I can say anything I like within the framework of UK and global legislation, but it’s in my own interests to do more than that, to strike a balance, and to be aware of other people’s sensitivities. For that reason, one of the primary rules that I try to follow is “don’t complain about anything”!
And, that’s a tough one! There are the odd comments here and there in this blog about politicians and about banks, and in the current climate they are getting some well deserved advice! And that’s the way to do it. You can write an adverse comment about a politician, but frame it as advice and not a complaint! So here goes . . .
Sarah! I like Twitter . . . and it’s American! And, when you unfollow somebody it gives you a recommendation - unfollowing is permanent - and then Twitter gives you the option “Nah, we’re cool” and you can cancel the unfollow instruction. Would you agree that Barack Obama is less prone to verbal gaffes than you? Now try this . . .
Generally speaking, on a scale of 1 to 10 where would Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, Proactive Paul and you fit into the “Nah, we’re cool” scorecard?
This site is maintained by The Proactive Accountant Dot Com - link to this article directly by using the short URL http://bit.ly/tFIB5
Technology Thursday
Two things that I really enjoy are public speaking and messing around with computers. I am both an extrovert and a geek. So I am very pleased that PresentationCamp London is on the horizon and (amongst other things) will attempt to answer the modern question “how do you manage an effective presentation in this era of high tech”?
That’s especially relevant if you’ve ever had the experience that I’ve had, where half your audience is busy tapping something into their mobile devices whilst you’re talking. I’m accustomed to lots of hard stares and expectant faces, but now when the audience’s heads are down, I am sometimes faced with a sea of bald patches!
The thing is . . . in some circles tweeting in the middle of a seminar is the norm . . . especially in Barcamp circles! How can we turn this to our advantage, and how can we get enough eye contact to keep the momentum in any presentation? Look for the hash tag #pcl1 and you’ll find more news as the plans for the event develop. And if you want to get involved as an organiser, the first #pcl1 planning meeting takes place in London on 18 Aug 2009.
It’s getting on for one year since I signed up to Twitter and it’s only in the last few days that they have begun to carry adverts. The “free” service clearly would not have been sustainable. The ads are in the side bar and are called “sponsored definitions”.
It will be interesting to see how many ads and links they will be prepared to carry. There is also speculation that Twitter will be able to introduce custom made tweets so that their preferred messages are interspersed with the tweets of the people you follow.
Users of aggregation services like Tweetdeck may find that the aggregators find a way to filter out the marketing messages. Of course, that could be a good thing for the aggregators who can then charge a fee for giving you streamlined vision!
Small businesses in the UK tend to make 3 attempts to sell to a particular customer and if they don’t bite, they give up.
Customers in the UK tend to wait until the 7th approach before they are inclined to buy. I have always said that you need to have a policy of 8 touches, whether that’s an e-mail, a phone call, an advert or whatever. If you only try 3 times then you are on a hiding to nothing.
Marketing expert Rod Sloane now tells me that one in three of my communications may be ignored and that it takes 9 touches to get the message across, not including the 18 that get discarded. So, now we have to think of making 27 touches before giving up on a prospect.
And you’ve heard the expression “50% of our marketing works but we don’t know which 50%”. Apparently, that’s now 33% and 66%. Perhaps that is why bigger companies spend so much of their money on apparently superfluous marketing. If you want to hear Rod give his talk on “How to Barack Obama your business” find him here.
Last night I went to my regular Toastmasters meeting in Victoria and I listened intently to one particular speaker. Alex Blyth was talking about the art of clear business writing. As with everything else in business, it seems that the answer is to keep it simple.
Time is money in business, and so it follows that if you are into saving money, you also need to be in the habit of saving time. Be a miser with money and be a miser with time! That’s why I like Twitter. You have just 140 characters to get your written message across. I agree with Alex when he says short words and short sentences work!
As part of our Feedback Friday activties at work, we look at how we can simplify our communication. We generate a number of standard emails and recently we have begun to modify them. Whilst we would like all emails to be no more than 140 characters, we cannot do that intelligently. What we have done is write emails which start with a short informative message, and then (after the signature block) have an “appendix” which contains all of the necessary dialogue is as short and succinct a fashion as we can manage. Added to that, the subject lines now tend to include the expression “FYI” or “Please Action” so that the recipient can immediately judge the nature of the message.
The art of journalism is changing! When I went past my bank yesterday morning (near Spitalfields Market) I noticed a security guard standing outside and I realised that the #g20 crowd were in town. So, inbetween doing regular work at my desk, I kept an eye on Twitter to see what was happening in the City; and I was fortunate enough to find a tweet with a link to scribblelive.
The Guardian has launched a new service (well new to me anyway) where breaking news is fed directly to the Scribble Live web site, from any mobile device, and from Twitter feeds. The tweets about events outside the Bank of England were enough to ensure that I went home at lunchtime (which is just two streets away from my office) to watch the news on TV. Simultaneously, I kept tabs on Twitter and Scribble Live. What amazed me is that both the BBC and ITN were out of touch. The web has replaced TV as the best source of breaking news.
One of the April Fool stories doing the rounds yesterday was that The Guardian had abandoned paper and had gone entirely web based. Ridiculous as that may seem, we are going through a culture change along those lines. If traditional newspapers are to survive, then they need to reinvent themselves. I no longer buy The Times or any newspaper. For months I have been using Google News to home in on the specific stories that interest me, and Jack Schofield of The Guardian has stood out with some scintillating reports. I’ve never been much of a Guardian reader, but just lately they have been striking all the right chords!
As this report on young politician Daniel Hannan says . . . the nature of news is changing. It no longer matters who you are, what pedigree you have, or how senior a position you hold. In the age of the internet, if you have something worthy to say you can be just as important as anybody else, and more so.
Kings Cross is going up in the world and I was privileged, recently, to have a look around The Guardian’s new head office at Kings Place. Their move from the old Farringdon Road HQ is practically complete.
To celebrate their newly acquired jewel, they have kindly agreed to support Barcamp London 6 which is taking place over the weekend of 28/29 March 2009. Now . . . what is a Barcamp I hear you ask? Well, it’s just what it sounds like . . . you go and camp in a bar! What could be more fun than that? And there’s more!
There’s a whole Barcamp community of geeks and pseudo-geeks who attend these events or unconferences. Barcamp London 6 is a weekend of seminars, speeches and workshops on a range of topical IT issues, and there’s also some space for a few visitors to stay at the venue overnight. What’s the agenda? Well, until the morning of the first day, there isn’t one! The schedules are decided on the day, by the people who turn up, and everybody must be willing to make some sort of presentation if asked. If you’re on Twitter, look for #BCL6.
One thing that is certain, is that Proactive is sponsoring the breakfast on the first day. Turn up early enough and you can get yourself a Proactive breakfast!
It will be interesting to see how many ads and links they will be prepared to carry. There is also speculation that Twitter will be able to introduce custom made tweets so that their preferred messages are interspersed with the tweets of the people you follow.
