Spreading birthday cheer

Yesterday was my birthday. Among the birthday messages I received was an email from Stick Sports. This is an online game that I hadn’t thought about for a while, let alone played. Yet they used the information I provided in my sign-up, to send me a message. This in turn has reminded me of the [...]

Twitter, unlike Facebook, is socially mobile

The reciprocity of relationships is, in my opinion, the most fundamental difference between Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook, both sides need to agree before the connection is made. On Twitter, people can follow whoever they like. Does this make Twitter more “social”? I think it might. I’m writing in broad terms, since different people use [...]

Return on conversation

EDIT: As has been pointed out, I made a rather embarrassing miscalculation in the original post, which made me seriously underestimate the CTR. I evidently need to evaluate my quantitative credentials My previous post on conversation monitoring was tweeted and retweeted by several individuals. Firstly, I’m grateful that people both read this blog and are [...]

Crowdsourced consumption and product development

We are all consumers. We choose what to consume. But we also choose how we consume it. This may be completely different to how the inventor anticipated, or expected, usage. It is the law of unintended consequences. Contrary actions may prevent a product or service succeeding. But equally, an innovative use that builds on the [...]

Links – 8th February 2009

I know it’s overkill, but the snow excitement is yet to abate. I didn’t create this snowman, but he is so exceptional that he deserves all the publicity going. Picture by me Anyway, things I would recommend reading include: Live | Work have an absolutely brilliant post on Service Thinking – a must-read Umair Haque’s [...]

Links – 9th January 2009

Enjoy your Friday Products Jon Canter rants against the rise of personalised copy on product packaging. “We’re the couple who love to make crisps.” It sounds like a personal ad in Snackmakers Weekly: a couple seeks another couple who also love to make crisps, in the hope of meeting up in a car park in [...]

Links – 22nd December 2008

This post is part 1 of 2, and they will effectively be my only link updates for December. A shame considering I kept the updates fairly consistent beforehand, but December isn’t the easiest month to keep on top of things – particularly with ATP and illness. Anyway… Social media I’ve been using Twitter a lot [...]

Slideshare links – 14th December 2008

Winter sickness creates lethargy. Thankfully I’m not this sick – I think it is more a case of being a self-inflicted result of this and this. Anyway, as it is easier than trawling through a few weeks of delicious links, here are 5 Slideshare presentations on marketing that I have recently read and enjoyed. All [...]

Matter box’s physical failings

Matter is a joint venture between the Royal Mail and Artomatic. In an increasingly digital world, it is designed to promote the physical through sending people packages of “brands you can hold”. It is a great example of both permission marketing (click through to a page where you can get the first 4 chapters of [...]

Changes to the blog

This blog is now 9 months old. It has lasted a good 8 months longer than I expected it to, and I am keen to continue. I don’t think I have found my “voice” yet but I have truly benefited from posting – both in terms of the process that goes into formalising my thoughts, [...]