It's strange that for someone so immersed in the digital world, I have become so distant from my blog. There are myriad reasons for this, mainly due to disruption in my life. Having said that, I am now turning a corner, and hope to update this more regularly - as if it could be less irregular, well I suppose it could but I digress - as the year turns into 2010.
Life is meandering on, my startup that I was so excited about fell temporary victim to the recession, but I'm confident it will work out okay. Whether it recovers before we all go bust is another matter.
Over the last - what, ten? - months I've become more interested in how your life is reflected in your subliminal experiences. For example, over the last six months - since my little world was turned upside down - I have had recurring nightmares. Or rather one. Not to go into detail, I've now had it analysed and realised that it indicates my life is changing and the 'control freak' part is nervous but there's a part of me that's not. It may not be just career-oriented, I think I might be entering a phase in my life where my beliefs are challenged. Not my religious ones - which are non-existent - but my idealised views on where my life was going. I may now be thinking of settling down and laying some roots. Who knows.
Monday 30 November 2009
Thursday 26 March 2009
Twitter, the social media microblogging site, celebrates its third birthday this week and it seems passion for the site knows no bounds.
Although its growth is exponentionally faster than Facebook, the latter still dwarfs it in user numbers. More interestingly, has been the attention Twitter has been getting from unlikely areas. Stephen Fry has been on the site since its launch, but now 'celebs' like John Mayer and Ashton Kutcher are leaping on the bandwagon.
The impact on brands will be immense. ComCast has for quite some time used the tool as a way of talking to customers, and now it looks like the media is using it too. The Guardian updates followers regularly and now Chicago Tribune has takent the unprecedented step of flagging its contributors in its flannel panel as Twitterers. Will other newspapers follow suit?
Although its growth is exponentionally faster than Facebook, the latter still dwarfs it in user numbers. More interestingly, has been the attention Twitter has been getting from unlikely areas. Stephen Fry has been on the site since its launch, but now 'celebs' like John Mayer and Ashton Kutcher are leaping on the bandwagon.
The impact on brands will be immense. ComCast has for quite some time used the tool as a way of talking to customers, and now it looks like the media is using it too. The Guardian updates followers regularly and now Chicago Tribune has takent the unprecedented step of flagging its contributors in its flannel panel as Twitterers. Will other newspapers follow suit?
Wednesday 4 March 2009
February
February has been a strange month. The new project's going very well, but our Beta launch is taking longer than normal. I've developed a strange hatred for Easyjet. As I've been flying back and forth to Glasgow, I've had the misfortune of flying with them several times this month. While the service itself is fine [take off and landing on time, landing even early!] its obsession with baggage is infuriating. I'm charged £15 if I want to put a bag in the hold, and I'm only allowed one piece of hand luggage. This may sound enough, but when I'm carrying a laptop, I have to cram all my usual stuff from my handbag into my laptop. Compare this service to British Airways. I checked both a couple of weeks ago for a flight on the same day. Not only were BA cheaper to begin with, once you added in the saving of free baggage in the hold, TWO pieces of hand luggage [a laptop and another bag] and the complimentary breakfast, they beat Squeakyjet by about forty quid and it was a much nicer environment, rather than putting up with the mad rush for seats.
Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary's comments about charging people to use the airline's toilets, came as no surprise. This is a crap airline. According to the Civil Aviation Authority, it's completely legal as airplanes have no rules governing toilets. I suspect O'Leary made the comment in a flippant manner, but I'm pretty sure he now is wondering if all the negative publicity is worth it. I know I'd rather pay twice as much to fly with BA than give his company my money. I pretty much feel the same way about Easyjet.
Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary's comments about charging people to use the airline's toilets, came as no surprise. This is a crap airline. According to the Civil Aviation Authority, it's completely legal as airplanes have no rules governing toilets. I suspect O'Leary made the comment in a flippant manner, but I'm pretty sure he now is wondering if all the negative publicity is worth it. I know I'd rather pay twice as much to fly with BA than give his company my money. I pretty much feel the same way about Easyjet.
Tuesday 27 January 2009
Twitter - embrace or not - just be careful
I've been following the story about 'PR guru' James Andrews in the States who rather naively posted a comment about a city on Twitter, incurring the wrath of one of his companies top clients. For those of you that haven't seen it, Andrews was on his way to a meeting at Fed Ex's corporate headquarters in Memphis, when he Tweeted his hatred for the city. One alert Fed Ex employee stumbled on it and retorted with a rather sniffy response, cc'ing in a number of senior Fed Ex employees.
Andrews claims to be a social media expert, but I have to admit that he can't be that savvy if he didn't realise that - out of the near 1000 followers he has on Twitter - one of them might be from Fed Ex.
Yet another example of how companies and individuals need to watch what they say online.
Follow the rule - if you wouldn't say it to their face don't say it online.
Andrews claims to be a social media expert, but I have to admit that he can't be that savvy if he didn't realise that - out of the near 1000 followers he has on Twitter - one of them might be from Fed Ex.
Yet another example of how companies and individuals need to watch what they say online.
Follow the rule - if you wouldn't say it to their face don't say it online.
Thursday 15 January 2009
Xmas purchases
Yet again, a while since I posted.
As you can expect Christmas purchases were a big news story, with online sales soaring. That Amazon was accepting orders till just a few days before Christmas, shows that the days of online deliveries not arriving are pretty much over.
However, not all online deals are good buys. A friend of mine was telling me about her great experience with www.buymobilephones.net and her combined purchase of a new phone and Sony Playstation.
In these critical economic times, she wisely saw an opportunity to buy a necessity [a new mobile phone package] and get a Sony Playstation thrown in. As her son’s birthday was a couple of months away, it made sense to do the deal, and keep the gift till said date.
Alas, buymobilephones.net didn’t not agree. When my friend’s son’s birthday came, the much-wanted gift was refusing to work. After a phone call to the company, she was told that they were only liable for 28 days and she should take it up with Sony.
The call – according to my friend – was in the tone of “sorry, you may still be paying for this, but not our problem, bye”.
I’m pleased to say Sony, which I have had many dealings with, showed their customary exemplary customer service. Expressing their disappointment that the gift was faulty and arranging a replacement immediately. My advice? Watch for the small print on the deals and remember www.buymobilephones.net when you’re next looking for a deal.
On a more positive note, I continue to be impressed with Argos. A good friend of mine wanted a Nike heart rate watch, and had seen the very one he wanted in the catalogue. A quick surf on the website and I was able to reserve one in my local store, turn up and have the transaction completed in around five minutes. Perfect. Only hitch was that the watch - come Christmas - wasn't performing all the techy wonders it was supposed to. Argos replaced it with no questions. Now that's customer service.
As you can expect Christmas purchases were a big news story, with online sales soaring. That Amazon was accepting orders till just a few days before Christmas, shows that the days of online deliveries not arriving are pretty much over.
However, not all online deals are good buys. A friend of mine was telling me about her great experience with www.buymobilephones.net and her combined purchase of a new phone and Sony Playstation.
In these critical economic times, she wisely saw an opportunity to buy a necessity [a new mobile phone package] and get a Sony Playstation thrown in. As her son’s birthday was a couple of months away, it made sense to do the deal, and keep the gift till said date.
Alas, buymobilephones.net didn’t not agree. When my friend’s son’s birthday came, the much-wanted gift was refusing to work. After a phone call to the company, she was told that they were only liable for 28 days and she should take it up with Sony.
The call – according to my friend – was in the tone of “sorry, you may still be paying for this, but not our problem, bye”.
I’m pleased to say Sony, which I have had many dealings with, showed their customary exemplary customer service. Expressing their disappointment that the gift was faulty and arranging a replacement immediately. My advice? Watch for the small print on the deals and remember www.buymobilephones.net when you’re next looking for a deal.
On a more positive note, I continue to be impressed with Argos. A good friend of mine wanted a Nike heart rate watch, and had seen the very one he wanted in the catalogue. A quick surf on the website and I was able to reserve one in my local store, turn up and have the transaction completed in around five minutes. Perfect. Only hitch was that the watch - come Christmas - wasn't performing all the techy wonders it was supposed to. Argos replaced it with no questions. Now that's customer service.
Tales of travel in terrible taverns
It’s been quite a while since I updated this and that’s due to the time I’ve been spending travelling. Virtually all of it in Scotland. When I was writing this, Celtic were just about to play Hibs. After Rangers’ amazing battering of Hamilton Academicals the previous day, there’s no danger of them making their ways past the mighty Hoops, but nevertheless, the Celtic match is an important match.
So – seeing as Glasgow is a city when football is in the blood of just about everyone here – you’d expect that the airport’s pubs/cafes would make this game available to customers rather than the English-centric Sky Sports. Alas, no. Wetherspoons – that often maligned cheap pub – chooses to pay Sky for dated Sky Sports news, rather than have the more local Setanta channel. Seeing as I counted around ten people asking at the bar whether the football was on, you’d think they’d take the hint. Unfortunately not.
Those Hoop fans that read this will be glad to know I intend to write to Wetherspoons’ esteemed CEO Tim Martin to ask that this be remedied, or at least explained.
My travelling has come about because I’m involved in a fairly exciting new venture. A digital startup, it’s got a feelgood factor and it’s nice to be doing something that’s not mercenary. When I can, I'll reveal more. Let's just say it'll be the biggest media startup in the UK for 2009.
One of the biggest news stories I’ve found while I’ve been back in my homeland is The Herald & Times Group’s astonishing decision to make all its 240 staff redundant.
While I understand the reasoning behind it, morally it’s wrong. D
onald Martin, the new editor-in-chief who’s got the job of doing this redundancy exercise, is a friend of mine and despite the negative press reports of him, he’s in charge of cutting costs and that’s not a pleasant task.
Scottish media needs to change. Not just Scottish media, but media in general. If you’re reading this, then you’re digitally savvy as most people are. While there’s a place for offline media, when the majority of your audience is getting its information offline, you need to adjust or die. Unfortunately – as The Herald said succinctly in its statement – there are a lot of people (journalists and sales staff alike) at The Herald who have yet to adjust to the digital times. I don’t think the mass redundancy route is the right one, but it enables Gannet – which owns the papers – to break the contracts of the senior staff, many of which will have been drafted in more reasonable times with more reasonable benefits.
Will those benefits be reinstated when the applicant is accepted for a new job? I doubt it.
So – seeing as Glasgow is a city when football is in the blood of just about everyone here – you’d expect that the airport’s pubs/cafes would make this game available to customers rather than the English-centric Sky Sports. Alas, no. Wetherspoons – that often maligned cheap pub – chooses to pay Sky for dated Sky Sports news, rather than have the more local Setanta channel. Seeing as I counted around ten people asking at the bar whether the football was on, you’d think they’d take the hint. Unfortunately not.
Those Hoop fans that read this will be glad to know I intend to write to Wetherspoons’ esteemed CEO Tim Martin to ask that this be remedied, or at least explained.
My travelling has come about because I’m involved in a fairly exciting new venture. A digital startup, it’s got a feelgood factor and it’s nice to be doing something that’s not mercenary. When I can, I'll reveal more. Let's just say it'll be the biggest media startup in the UK for 2009.
One of the biggest news stories I’ve found while I’ve been back in my homeland is The Herald & Times Group’s astonishing decision to make all its 240 staff redundant.
While I understand the reasoning behind it, morally it’s wrong. D
onald Martin, the new editor-in-chief who’s got the job of doing this redundancy exercise, is a friend of mine and despite the negative press reports of him, he’s in charge of cutting costs and that’s not a pleasant task.
Scottish media needs to change. Not just Scottish media, but media in general. If you’re reading this, then you’re digitally savvy as most people are. While there’s a place for offline media, when the majority of your audience is getting its information offline, you need to adjust or die. Unfortunately – as The Herald said succinctly in its statement – there are a lot of people (journalists and sales staff alike) at The Herald who have yet to adjust to the digital times. I don’t think the mass redundancy route is the right one, but it enables Gannet – which owns the papers – to break the contracts of the senior staff, many of which will have been drafted in more reasonable times with more reasonable benefits.
Will those benefits be reinstated when the applicant is accepted for a new job? I doubt it.
Thursday 4 December 2008
Finally
Okay, things have been fairly manic over the last two months, but I'm determined to get more regular with my postings.
I've started working with a startup specialising in sport, and it's proving very interesting. More recently I've been spending a lot of time on Habbo, trying to understand how the kids talk.
I've started working with a startup specialising in sport, and it's proving very interesting. More recently I've been spending a lot of time on Habbo, trying to understand how the kids talk.
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