simply-blogging

Still getting to grips with the basics ...

There’s a lot we take for granted as an employee, not just the basics of a chair, a desk and a functional piece of IT equipment - after all they’re as easily bought as the weekly groceries -but the basic business essentials of a business card, a comp slip or a piece of letterhead. After the excitement, and surprising technical ease, of putting together a website these low tech requirements now come to the fore. I’ve had an excuse while the website domain and email address have been migrating but now it’s only a matter of hours before my business email address is up and running. So here we go.

 

Years ago, in a small regional PR agency, I worked with a local client on the creation of a new corporate identity for his manufacturing business. It came back to me as I was thinking of how to visually represent my business and, of course, without spending the equivalent of the GDP of a small African country doing so. It’ll sound pretty cheap then when I say that I’m pleasantly surprised at what my limited technical design skills can do with a scanner and Microsoft Word 2007, but nevertheless I think they’ll afford me the professional basics to do some new business development, so where shall I start?

 

I’ve been watching some of the regional consultancies in the past year or so because I assumed that’s where I’d pitch a business of my own, and it’s amazing to see what business they’re picking up. They have great pages on Facebook too and of course they’re all doing Twitter. And so am I, as of yesterday - and I have to say I’m not yet convinced. Have I missed a trick?

 

Lisa

Who do you believe?

Dan commented to me yesterday about how quiet the streets are at the moment.

Here in Soho, most afternoons we have got used to a moment when everyone in London comes into Poland Street and honks their horns because someone has double-parked.  It normally happens just as I'm trying to concentrate really hard on something really really important... and Dan always says "...That's not at all annoying..."

But Dan is right, there is just less activity.

I noticed it today cutting down Chancery Lane - hardly any traffic at all.  I even took a phone call and the guy at the other end could hear me.

Only a fool would pretend that the world hasn't slowed down.  Although there is an unwritten rule that when you meet another consultant you are always always "..surprisingly busy actually..." or "...in fact we're busier than this time last year" - about as credible as a politician's expense claims!

However, reading the paper today there are mean to be green shoots - the UK housing market didn't fall last month and nor did consumer confidence.  According to the last Warwick Podcast I listened to, things are not as bad as everyone is claiming.

No doubt this weeks London Conference will result in public statements of success.  And I am desperate to believe that things are not as gloomy as I felt last week.  

So if anyone else has some credible reasons to be cheerful - I'm in the mood to buy any mumbo jumbo right now...

Liam 

Jobs may be lost but baseball diamonds are forever

Here's one way to cope with the struggling economy. Check out how some unemployed New Yorkers will be spending their afternoon on Tuesday:

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/03/28/2009-03-28_break_for_the_unemployed_the_unemploymen.html

-Kelly

Prof Garelli - economic sage

Popped over to Lausanne yesterday to interview the irrepressible Professor Stephane Garelli of Lausanne University (courtesy of Tetra Pak).  He's the man who does the annual competitiveness league tables of the world's leading economies.
Brain like a planet, but in a Tobelerone shaped packet that is both modest, charming and very entertaining.
The good news:  the recession will end this year in those economies that are buying things for the first time (ie, Brazil, India, China - maybe Russia) whereas Western Europe will just put off replacing our mobiles/Mercedes/houses for a bit longer.
The bad news?  The UK has slipped in the competitiveness rankings.  Now there's a surprise.
We'll run the full video interview on simply in our forthcoming edition - Providing More for Less.
Watch this space.

Marc

How swede it is

Here's a clever way to cut back on paper and ease the electronic overload:

http://www.tarelugnt.se/

Perhaps we at simply should think about publishing our next edition that way?

What do you think, team?

-Kelly

Web roundup

A new feature that we've been running on simply-communicate.com recently has been a roundup of the best bits of the web which (mostly) have a communications angle. In case you missed the last one, its copied below.

Ryanair told an Irish blogger who thought he'd discovered a flaw in the airline's website what they thought of him in no uncertain terms, calling him an "idiot" and a "lunatic" and summarising his life as ''pathetic”.  http://tr.im/gVgs

Ablog storm whipped up at the NUJ (the UK's National Union of Journalists) resulting in hurt feelings all round with the chair of NUJ professional training committee kicking off the battle by saying 'bloggers rejoice in lower standards'.  http://tr.im/gVgu

Here's a story of personal branding in the age of Google (clue - it doesn’t forget). Seth Godin’s friend advertised for someone to help around her house. She got applications from three people and Googled each one of them. See what she discovered.  http://tr.im/gVgw 

Google certainly won’t forget this person from Ketchum who was on his way to deliver a presentation on social media at FedEx’s HQ in Memphis and decided to Tweet his true feelings about the city.  Not a wise move.  http://tr.im/gVgy 

The Skittles site got an extreme social makeover. Click here to see what all the fuss is about.  http://tr.im/gVgN 

The next web roundup will be coming soon. In the meantime, send me your tips if you see anything that we should include.

Daniel

History of IC

Saw this interesting site which contains quite an interesting analysis of how and why IC has evolved in the last few decades.  It leans heavily on the concept of disruptive technologies - the idea that some technologies or innovations have the capacity to completely redefine a sector or craft....

http://communicationinsider.com/internal-communication/tired-of-trying-justify-social-media-with-execs/#more-893

The powerpoint show takes about 3 minutes to view and is quite thought-provoking.

And for a good friday smile take a look at this presentation about the real dangers that lurk in communications....

Liam

Web wise?

Today, I’m building my website for Spire Communications.

 

Some of my colleagues who’ve set up on their own haven’t seen the need for a website. I’d like to politely disagree with them. I don’t expect it to generate copious amounts of new business but I feel not to have one looks a little unprofessional. I post rationalise by saying that mostly I need it for the associated email address because I don’t think I should be out there touting for business with a yahoo or hotmail email address, it’s just not right.

 

When I set up my company the price included a web package and registration of a domain name. I couldn’t have exactly what I wanted but I got me a ‘.com’ domain and it sounded rather international. Last week I contacted the company to discuss my options as it all needs to be very simple - I don’t want to spend ages fiddling with it or end up having to spend a large sum of money having it artistically designed, and more than anything it needs an email address. My simple package comes with five web pages which is great, but I’m a luddite who’s never uploaded to a website before – at least not until I posted my first blog on this very site!

 

I’m delighted that I’ve just heard it’ll be ready to roll in a few days, so I’m here pondering what to publish. How on earth do I describe 20 years of experience in the PR industry? I think I have the basics sorted out, and with just a few pages it’s not too challenging. I’m currently thinking it should be, rather obviously, a home page with details of what I can do for clients, a contact page that will direct enquiries to my new email address and that’s the easy bit done.

 

It’s a bit difficult when you’re just starting out, after all there are no interesting case studies or awesome clients to profile, so can anyone offer some wisdom?

 

Lisa

 

We do EVERYTHING on our intranet

So says Richard Dennison of BT in this interview with the Crescenzos - (could be Steve/could be Cindy it's hard to tell.)
Worth a look at what 's happening among BT  - the UK's earliest adopters among telcos.

Marc

Facebook gets a facelift

After a few days back in the States tackling jet lag and multiple work projects, I decided to spend part of my Saturday catching up on some of my favorite social media sites. (How geeky I have become - to think I used to spend my weekends getting manicures!).

So there I was logging onto facebook, and lo and behold I discovered the site has a brand new look. My initial reaction was "why they couldn't leave well enough alone is beyond me." The status updates are much more "in your face" and even the question has changed to "What's on your mind?"

Well, I'll tell you what's on my mind. In spite of my first disliking the new lay-out (and several of my facebook friends feeling the same way), I have to say that the site does seem to be more user-friendly. If I no longer wish to view a person's status updates, a simple click on the "X" is all that is required thereby living up to facebook's promise of "having more control over what you see."

Videos and photos are now even easier to upload and share and can easily be added to the stream. According to facebook, these posts show up in both your profile and on the home pages of your friends.

With the new facebook redesign, I can't help but wonder if it is because of the growing popularity of Twitter? Apparently, I am not alone in my speculation:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25170484-5014239,00.html.

While on the subject of Twitter, be sure to check out simply's new Twitter page:

http://twitter.com/simplygroup

Got a topic you'd like us to cover on the site? Just drop us a tweet and we'll be sure to reply!

-Kelly