Posts in Technology
iPhone update: keyboard works, video fail, power okay, GPS review and some more apps
Want to make new friends? Get an iPhone. As Loewy CEO Iain Johnson says it’s a conversation starter. How do you find the battery, can you use the keyboard and what’s your favourite app are just three of the conversations that take place when iPhone users meet.
I’ve got use to the keyboard. I’m not sure what happened but after a month or so of usage I must have conditioned my stubby thumbs to dance across the digits as Apple intended. Iain found the same, albeit a bit quicker.
I discovered last week that the camera won’t record video. Except it can if you unlock the feature, buts its fairly complicated.
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Teaching young dogs old tricks
Last week we worked with RoadTour to launch a new satellite navigation guide that advises parents on locations throughout the UK that are child-friendly. What was interesting about the launch was that an online launch the previous week using targeted distribution to blogs and online gadget and shopping sites hadn’t worked. We were called in to apply a bit of traditional media magic, and here’s what we did:
We recrafted the story, starting with devising a media-friendly name for the product: “Tot-Nav.”
Next, we assembled a list of 10 tourist sites that scored poorly with children. For this, we asked our kids to quiz their social networks – MySpace, Windows Live, Bebo, Facebook and text – for ideas for the list, along with their reasons why. This was extremely effective. Some of the kids have a network of more than 500 friends on MySpace alone and when you consider the vira More...
Mike Butcher, Techcrunch UK: “Only a handful of PR firms are any good”
Why is it there is always a great blog post that you only catch up on a while after it is has been published?
For some reason I missed Mike Butcher’s “top 15 ways to get on with TechCrunch UK, and maybe other media” post when it first came out in August. No matter. It has some good, non time sensitive advice - all worth sharing.
However, I do have a difference of opinion with Mike on some of the following:
More...“Here’s the thing about PR firms. Only a small number are really any good. What happens is that there are individuals inside big PR firms who know their trade, understand how to interface with the media, read blogs, etc etc.
The Flackenhacks 2008: only 5 days away! Be there or…..
The Flackenhacks 2008 - without question, the most important event in the tech/PR/social media calendar, bar none - is nearly upon us.
If you haven’t already done so, get your ticket now - or live with the regret for the rest of your life.
The Village Underground, 54 Holywell Lane, Shoreditch, London EC2A 3PQ
All the latest is on The Flackenhacks blog: http://flackenhacks.blogspot.com/
Tickets on sale here: http://flackenhacks.eventbrite.com/
Hacks up for auction on eBay here: http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/flackenhacks
You know what you have to do. More...
EMC Corporation and social media marketing
Every week I encounter people working for large organizations with huge marketing and PR budgets who are resistant to the ideas of The New Rules of Marketing & PR.
They're used to the things that worked in an exclusively offline world (TV ads, tradeshows and events, media and analyst relations, Yellow Page ads, direct mail, and the like) and they don't want to experiment. Or there might be an individual who wants to jump into new marketing, but the bosses are resistant. Or the PR department is scared of "losing control of the message."
EMC is a big company (revenues in the USD$10 Billion plus range) and is jumping into social media marketing. More...
Ebay spends cash mountain
eBay spent a socking $1.3billion on two recent acquisitions.
BillMeLater is an instant credit company to fit alongside Market leading PayPal and cost $945m
Denmark’s leading classified site DNA.dk and related sites cost $390m.
Skype is now diplomatically being sidelined from core strategy.
But job cuts suggest that eBay has a challenge and may have gone, as the analysts say, ex-growth. Hence job cuts of 10% of staff announced with quarterly numbers.
I love a jumble sale and can only think the Credit Crunch will be good for eBay. More...
Even eBay sheds staff - but that's a good lesson to business
What eBay is doing is what most businesses ought to be doing, but don't. The auction house is focusing on core business. In recent years it has expanded into other areas - Skype for instance - and as ever, that's not good for a business. One of the reasons many banks are in trouble is because they have expanded into non-core areas. The new boss at eBay is changing the course the company has been steering for the past few years - and they are not alone. More...
Google to change inbound link policy
For example, TerrysTips.com. When someone wants to place a link on their website or blog or forum to Terry's Tips, Google will look at that link and attribute credit to Terry's Tips for the link. How much value is much debated. http://www.terrystips.com/ is one way to link. A better way for Terry's Tips is to link stock options trading strategies at Terry's Tips. More...
How much are tech firms spending on social media?
Based on the latest IDC report on tech marketing spend, not a lot. In fact, social media doesn’t seem to even register as a discrete item on the tech marketing agenda. It is possible that social media is lumped in as part of “other” digital marketing (which constitutes less than 1pc of total marketing spend). Which seems to bear out that in spite of all the talk and promise surrounding social media, it hasn’t yet made a significant impact on tech vendor marketing spend. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next 12 months in terms of social media’s share of marketing wallet. More...
SEO top-ranked “online importer” seeks sales proposition
Since I wrote the blog posting two weeks ago on online importing as a way of saving cash and buying tech kit before it was available in the UK this blog has been catapulted to the top of search rankings for the phrase ”online importer” (currently no 1 on google.co.uk and no 2 on google.com).
Google Analytics reports that wannabe "online importer"-web searchers are finding the posting by the bucket load. It almost seems unfair that countless advertisers have pitched for the search term yet none appears in the top three search terms in Google’s index. More...