Faces for radio!

 

Yes the photo may look like a party political broadcast for the raving loony party but these two fine gentleman are Roger Overall and Peter Cox. Believe it or not they are two of the countries finest photographers… seriously…

As someone who is quite visually minded, but whose  idea of photography is taking picture with their phone, I’ve always been insanely jealous of people who can do it properly and you only need to look at the lads websites to see that they’re pretty good at what they do!

I’ve never had the opportunity to meet Peter but having shared the odd cup of joe with Roger, I’m well aware of his passion for the business and how hard he works at it.

You can check out episode one of their new Podcast Circle of Confusion here.

Unmissable.

If you somehow haven’t seen the NIKE Write the Future campaign, just watch this!

 

A brand that knows how to speak to its customers. enough said.

All Over Now (spoiler free)

Well that’s it. Lost is no more. Oceanic Airlines has closed its doors!

Personally as a long time fan, I think the ending rocked and it happily sits up there with this gem as far as series finales go!

 

For those of you up for a giggle, I heartily recommend watching the alternate endings produced by the LOST crew which poke fun at other TV shows!

 

In all seriousness though, taking dramatic plot and production aside, LOST is a show that had such a profound affect on the US television business. As someone with a strong insight into the complicated world of US networks, cable stations and production houses, I can tell you that LOST and it’s production company (Bad Robot) should be applauded as saviours of the television business and for showing that big budget primetime TV can make money.

Never afraid to try big drama, or make fundamental dramatic changes such as killing off characters or even changing the nature of the flow of the show, LOST was a true original.

First show to not have opening credits… did you realise that?

It’s Tweet o’Clock! Think people!!

As someone who’s lucky enough to require less sleep that most, I’m lucky enough to be able to use the late hours to catch up on the non-urgent stuff online. It’s a great time to return non-work emails, queries etc. Also a great time to reply directly to people who have tweeted you during the day.

What it’s not a good time for is hard selling. In the past hour while perusing tweets using the fabulous (and just updated) Tweetdeck, I’ve seen at least two dozen messages from companies, all based in Ireland, all trying to push their product/venue on me.

I don’t mind being sold to but think about it;  how many of their twitter followers are actually online right now? By morning these messages will have vanished into the hundreds of other messages in the users tweet stream! Surely these sort of messages are those better sent during “normal” office hours? 

Like everything in life, timing is vital. Send this sort of message when they’ll be most effective. Proper planning is the cornerstone of any successful social media strategy!

Twitter for Business

Continuing on the topic of conversation, I often feel that businesses don’t take full advantage of what Twitter really has to offer them. After years and years of one-way communication, I guess businesses have gotten out of the frame of mind of hearing from the other side. This is where social media and Twitter in particular shine.

A great example of this has to be the hotel industry! As someone who works a lot in this area, I probably follow a couple of dozens hotels on Twitter. And with one or two noticeable exceptions the tweets  are all the same! The easiest way of explaining it is to take the points of view of the individuals in the hotels responsible for posting on Twitter, lets call them A and B, the two most common culprits.

Tweeter A likes to post whatever offers the hotel currently has for the general public under the guise of “Special Offers for Twitter”. The same offers are on Facebook and in fact available to the general public as a whole so really its just flyering without the paper but there’s something slightly devious about it!

Tweeter B likes to play the “me me me” game and instead of using twitter as a sales tool, delights in telling us how their day is going and when they had for lunch, what the weather is like etc etc. 

No wonder social media has a bad reputation in hotels if its being used as an excuse for staff to surf the internet all day!

Then there’s companies like Omni Hotels in the USA who just know how to do it right and can see the big picture of how Twitter lets them talk to their customers. This video explains all

 

Omni Hotels recognise the truth behind Twitter, that it creates conversations about your business, any business and that you can choose to be part of them or ignore them. Being part of them has an incredible upside. Ignoring them, well that’s just plain dumb.

Rise to the challenge! Use Twitter to create conversations about your business! Ask for peoples opinions! Ask for ideas! Ask for their support! Be the business that they feel a personal connection with! 

Conversation is back.. Twitter style.

Image courtesy of the fantastic Tony Gigov at Twitter Nonsense.

In my last post here, I told the story of a client who changed his opinion completely on Social Media and its place in his business. I want to share with you some of the conversation that took place with his management team that brought this about. The first topic of discussion was Twitter. The main problem with Social Media is its image; it’s somehow got the reputation of being frivolous and attention seeking.

The clear example here is Twitter – every had that conversation trying to explain what Twitter is to someone who doesn’t tweet? I have and lets face it you have got choose your words carefully! The mainstream media have portrayed it as a medium for celebrities and others to talk about themselves and have largely ignored the reality of the situation , Twitter is about sharing; sharing information, sharing experiences, sharing images, sharing knowledge.

Twitter is not the massive ego trip that many have suggested it is. Sure for some it is, just like in every medium. But for most its a way of communicating with others, often like minded in a format that is easy to opt in and out of. More than that what fascinates me the most is the love that’s often shown in the Twitter community to complete strangers. Got a problem or need some info, tweet your request and its very rare that you wont have a solution within minutes and often from a complete stranger.

I strongly believe that Twitter has done something great for small business, large business and society in general… it’s brought back the art of conversation! Suddenly talking to strangers (especially online) doesn’t seem strange any more and the fact that I have a whole new collection of friends and associates who I couldn’t pick out of a police line up is invigorating!

Next up : Twitter for business.

Everything Changes

I’ve just had a superb conversation with a client that I wanted to share. I’ve been working with this business on and off for two years on a variety of transformation projects in the areas of product development, logistics improvements and company culture.

The business is fantastic but they have been very resistant to address the obvious benefits for his business going online. A few months ago the owner passed a comment that he didn’t want to  get involved with Twitter or Facebook because he felt that things change so fast that in a few months time, those platforms might have been surpassed and therefore his investment of time and resources might be wasted.  As someone who’s spent a lot of money over the years on traditional media advertising, his hesitancy was understandable if a little frustrating as I saw the many opportunities pass the company by.

I got a call the other day asking to book an appointment for this morning to meet him and his management team. No topic, no agenda, just bring myself I was told. I arrived at the meeting intrigued. We all sat down in  the boardroom and he turned to me and simply said “Convince us.” I looked at him confused for a second and then the penny dropped that this was going to be a conversation all about social media.

To keep it short, I’ll share my pitch to them over the next couple of posts. The main point I want to make is that after the meeting, while the coffee was being consumed I turned to the boss and asked him plainly why he had changed his mind and what had happened to convince him that he needed to take this whole area seriously. “Everything changes”, he said. “I might not fully understand it all now, but I know that this is going to be important for the business. I had to learn to deal with email and we’ll work this stuff out as well.”

I could have hugged him! The switch had clicked. He understood. He finally got was I try to tell all my clients who don’t believe that social media is a bigger change to business models than the introduction of the mobile phone… 

Everything changes.

Simple Innovation

When you think about it really, innovation isn’t all that difficult. Once you work out what the hell it is!

It must be one of the most overused buzzwords on the face of planet earth. My unofficial trendonmeter, the good old Google search gives us more that 96 million individual pages for the term ‘innovation’ and I’ve got to say having visited most of them its quite disheartening to  see how the term innovation has been hijacked by big business, government and the media.

Innovation is simple. Its just progress. Positive progress. Its not complicated, it doesn’t need huge teams, innovation managers, budgets, reports, consultants. It doesn’t mean turning your business on its head, it doesn’t mean losing control, it doesn’t mean involving your business in things your don’t understand.

Real innovation is very simple – it’s all about looking at the big picture. Its about having a vision for your business and keeping it pointed in the right direction.  Its about taking a little time out of your busy business life to check on your progress towards that vision. And most importantly it’s about feeling confident enough in your vision and the direction you’re heading to know when to make course corrections where necessary to make the journey easier.

That’s innovation. Being smart enough to see the little corrections and changes that new thinking and new technologies can make in your business to get you where you want to go faster and more efficiently.

Simple really.