Why Implement Digital Technologies?

This January I have spent a great deal of time networking and meeting new and familiar faces within my digital and marketing community whilst I work to raise their awareness of who I am and what my expertise are. As a result of these conversations I have come to realise that there is a real divide surrounding the question, ‘Why are businesses implementing digital technologies and marketing strategies?’ In one camp I find that many businesses simply feel that they must have a digital campaign in order to keep up, they feel that they simply have to blog and/or tweet because everyone else does! In the other camp, where I reside are those who realise that like all good marketing campaigns success is measured in deliverables, ‘Can I see a real benefit to my business that has been created as a direct result of this activity?’

It seems obvious to me that if a business is going to invest money, or even just time planning, implementing and delivering a digital campaign it should be clear at the outset why they are embarking on the activity and what they hope to achieve from it. Real returns on investment can be created if the aims of your campaign are closely linked to the overall objectives of your business. However it is important to consider the kind of business you have and tailor your ambitions accordingly. For example large household brands such as Dell may use digital technologies such as Twitter to foster relationships with large communities of potential customers, bolstering brand awareness and increasing sales, but how can we translate this kind of success to a smaller business?

I heard a great anecdote at Manchester Social Media Surgery (http://socialmediamanchester.net/group/socialmediasurgery) a couple of weeks ago, where the panel/audience discussion turned to the use of social media in political campaigns. It seems that on the face of things Social Media was deemed essential to the party political campaigns that were in full swing during the run up to the general election, but how did these activities really affect the results of the vote? From the discussion held during the Manchester Surgery I gleaned that whilst on the surface it appeared that these political digital campaigns didn’t really appear to have any tangible impact, i.e. Twitter doesn’t appear to have persuaded anyone to change their voting allegiance! However, success can be measured where the campaigns were more focused in their objectives. As I understand it political parties have a wealth of information available at their fingertips and this enables them to assess the likely political preference of any voting constituency based on their demographics, i.e. average household income, what car they drive, number of kids etc, etc. However not all of these potential voters will take the time to visit their poling station on Election Day. The digital campaigns that were aimed at getting those voters out of the house and into the polling station really did appear to work. Using social media to foster relationships with the voting community and engaging with them prior to the election placed the campaigner in a position of trust and authority with their constituents, which could then be leveraged to persuade those individuals to make the effort to place their vote on the day.

In conclusion the key to any digital technology implemented is that it deliver tangible returns on investment. When working with businesses I find that it is imperative to understand their overall business objectives and then agree with them the specific aims for the current project. One of the most important parts of this client discovery process is to work with them to agree how the success of the project will be measured against the aims set and what results would be deemed a sucess. It is important to set realistic targets and then, if at all possible exceed these expectations! This approach to implementing digital campaigns with your clients should help you to build ongoing, effective and fruitful relationships with plenty of return business. :-)


I would be interested to hear your thoughts and how you implement digital campaigns, please feel free to post your comments here, or alternatively you can ask me in person - I will be on the panel at next months Social Media Surgery in Manchester on the 8th Feb, see you there!?

Self Promotion

As some of you may have noticed, my activity here on the blog has been a little sporadic lately… The reason for this is that my attention has been elsewhere, hence the focus of this post, but first for a bit of background information.

As most of you will know our startup PhoneFromHere.com is bootstrapped with funds and resource provided by the parent company, a digital/software agency. As you will also be aware one of our main business objectives has been raising investment to enable our early stage business to grow faster than would otherwise be possible. We had some initial success, securing some angel investment from an established publishing house in Manchester and also got close to raising investment from one of the government funds in Liverpool, just before the economic crash when the fund was closed. Towards the end of last year we made one last push to try and raise investment, this time we looked abroad, but unfortunately the current financial climate meant that there was very little funding available and in the end the competition was just too fierce. This, combined with the fact that the parent company was also struggling to secure development contracts of any significant size, pushed the MD of both companies to make some difficult decisions. It was clear that the current setup was no longer financially viable, therefore although PhoneFromHere.com will continue as before with six unpaid directors, there will no longer be any paid-for resource available. In addition the staff of the parent company, including myself are sadly being made redundant.

And so, moving on to the focus of this post, taking a new year, new start approach I have been reassessing my personal and private objectives. My main priority is to find a new job and therefore I spent sometime looking carefully at my skills and experience to determine what sort of position I would like. What kind of role would make the best use of my skills and what areas would I like to develop moving forward. In conclusion I am looking for an Account/Project Management role in the Digital sector, with an opportunity to grown my stratigic thinking/planning, but how to go about achieving that goal...

1. I started by writing a CV, which I tailored specifically towards the type of role I would like and sent that out to a number of the recruitment agencies. I tried to meet with as many of the recruiters as possible, building relationships with these guys is key, if they know you and like you then they are much more likely to do a great job selling you and your skills to their clients.
   
   
2. I also created http://flavors.me/gjtbrown gathering all of my digital activity together in a single place, somewhere I can point people and they can instantly get a quick overview of me and my online activity.
   
   
3. I updated my Linkedin profile and increased my activity within my groups, trying to answer questions and contribute to discussions. Engaging with members of the community in this way will help to establish me as an expert in my field and raise awareness of my skills and abilities within the minds of my peers.
   
   
4. I have made my Twitter community aware of my situation and received a number of helpful hints, tips and offers of advice from my followers. Use Twitter to engage your community and foster real relationships, in the same way as you would to promote your company or product. Tweet regularly and add value to you community everyday:
   
   • Try to answer a question, respond or do something nice
   • Publish a link that is of interest to you and your followers
   • Talk about an event you have attended or will attend
   ONLY if your community values you, will they respond well when:
   
   • You ask questions or look for help/support
   • Sell yourself, your products or services
     
     
5. Finally I been attending a number January networking events (as my twitter readers will have noticed!), the purpose of this is to get myself out there, be seen by people in the industry and let them know I am in the market for a new role. As with business promotion it is important to combine online and offline promotion, getting in front of people will keep you at the forefront of their mind. Make sure to give them a business card and follow up with any contacts you make, if there are potential synergies meet up later for a one-to-one to find out more information. Like all self promotion it is important to establish yourself as a member of the community, don’t just sell, listen, introduce people to relevant contacts and then people will do the same for you. This will help to establish you as an expert in your field and in time people will come to you based on your reputation with opportunities tailor-made just for you!!

Wish me luck in my search for a new role :-)

Social Media Marketing in Startups

Working as part of a small team we strive to create and sustain a buzz surrounding our service, leveraging both traditional and new media channels. I have attended, presented and pitched at numerous events, exhibitions and networking groups, whilst simultaneously promoting the company via social media channels and communities in order to raise the profile of PhoneFromHere.com to customers, resellers and investors.

Examples of the activity we have carried out include:

• Using Twitter and blogging before, during and after events and announcements, to help to establish PhoneFromHere.com as industry experts and promote awareness of the service, brand and current activity.

• Engaging customers’ interest in the service by integrating limited free betas of the PhoneFromHere.com service in high profile community spaces such as MySpace, SecondLife FaceBook and LinkedIn.

• Use of YouTube to inform, educate and demo to customers and users alike, helping to foster conversation and enable PhoneFromHere.com to leverage positive reaction and understand/respond to any negative buzz.

• We also created a viral campaign using an iGoogle app to seed PhoneFromHere.com’s early adopter user base, this activity successfully acquired approximately 20,000 unique users racking up 350,000 voice mins.

PhoneFromHere.com’s Marketing Communication strategies have to date successfully delivered partnership opportunities with large international corporations such as Digium and created invaluable dialogue with brand names such as Skype, Yahoo and GoogleWave.

Can anyone do it? Personally I am active on Facebook, LinkedIn, Flicker, Twitter, Instagram etc and I also blog about my own interests and passions. I recently utilised a number of these Social Media tools to excite, inform and engage friends and family prior to our wedding event last July – www.WedStock.co.uk

Utilised successfully, Social Media tools can be leveraged to help achieve set business goals and objectives. Whether the focus of the activity is commercial like Dell or Best Buys, for example, driving web traffic and physical footfall to increase sales conversions or simply enhancing customer service.Alternatively, the benefits can be less tangible, such as building brand awareness, championing concepts, or generally creating discussion and buzz.

BUT REMEMBER… any Social Media activity should always tie in with other forms of online and offline Marcoms and as such this media, just like more traditional methods, relies completely on high quality, relevant and up-to-date content.

So start creating content and utilise the raft of tools out there to promote yourself and your business!

Twitter - What's It All About!!????

I have been meaning to write a blog post about Twitter since the beginning of Feb. I even got as far as making a few notes and doing a bit of reading around, but somehow work and life over took me and I just didn’t get any further…

But having woken up inexplicably early this Saturday morning I find myself with a few rare moments of spare time and thought I would grab the opportunity to write a blog post…

I thought I should write a blog about Twitter, especially since it is very much in the news at the moment and a certain buzz surrounds this latest Web 2.0 phenomenon.

So, Let's Start With The Basics - What is Twitter?

According to Wikipedia Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as Tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter)

I think that I agree with this as a factual definition of the tool, but as with all tools, what makes it interesting is what you do with it and how you use it.


What is Twitter For?

The answer to this question is more subjective, but I thought a good place to start would be to ask my peers on Twitter for their thoughts:

RESEARCH: What is Twitter for? A business tool, self/company promotion, Socializing, making friends, Water Cooler, research, news...????

I received some interesting feedback, but two responses in particular struck a chord with me and are representative of the way in which I use Twitter.

jamesward @GeorgiaBrown Twitter is for all of those, but for me, mostly a network of professional peers, many of whom I wouldn't meet otherwise.

monicatailor @GeorgiaBrown ditto @jamesward 's reply and I find the relationships are stronger because there's more interaction

For me Twitter represents a community of peers with whom I can communicate, share my thoughts and ideas, ask questions and receive help, support or feedback. I tend to follow those with whom I share a common interest, but within the context of the Twitter community this has tended to revolve around technology and therefore I find myself surrounded by a community of professional peers.


So, What Should I Tweet and Why?

To the newcomer I believe the first thought is ‘What the heck (or some other more !*$!?@! type of word) is going on here!!?!??’, followed by ‘Oh, I get it!! This is just like Facebook’s “status” functionality’. In my opinion there is a common misconception that Twitter is all about ‘presence’, i.e. publicising what I am doing now and where am I doing it. These type of updates do play a role in the twitter community, but beware Twitter is PUBLIC, you are not broadcasting to a select (or even not-so-select) number of friends that you have chosen, with Twitter your audience is GLOBAL! So think carefully, do you really want the world and his wife knowing what you are up to on a drunken night out, or even that you are off on holiday and that your house is empty!!?

Twitter’s setup enables you to share whatever content you like with the world at large and receive comment and feedback on that content. If people like what you say they will ‘Follow’ your Twitter feed. However in my opinion the fun really starts when you start to Follow other people who have something to say that you are interested in and so a community with common interests begins to take shape.


So, What Do I Use Twitter For?

I like to use Twitter to share information I find interesting or useful in the hope that others will benefit. For example I recently did a quick bit of research on the best buy pay-as-you-go 3G mobile broadband dongle. I took notes on my Blackberry using Twitterberry and published my findings as I went. I got loads of good hints, tips and feedback from my peers and I was able to refer back to my notes before making my ultimate choice and purchase.

I also like to use Twitter as a micro-blogging tool, in the past when I attended events I used to take copious notes (I guess this is just something that is in my nature), anyway when I started blogging I found that it was useful for me to write these notes up and share them with others who had an interest in the event or the subject matter. However, this can be time consuming and often other work/personal commitments wouldn’t permit me the opportunity to do this in a timely manner. I realise that when reporting on events we are increasing expecting content to be delivered immediately and so it was a logical move for me to use Twitter to report live from events. I have had some excellent feedback on my initial experiments and I continue to refine my methods.

There are many opportunities to use Twitter for marketing and promotion, many feel that it has become one of the most important and effective business tools available. However, I think that there is an increasing and evolving movement on Twitter to discourage shameless and unrelenting self-promotion, I would suggest that whatever you use Twitter for that you are clear about your purpose. If you want to point people at your latest post, ask a question or provoke a reaction, then that is fine, but be upfront about what it is you are saying/promoting/asking. If you want to talk about the progress of your business, products or services, then set up an account for that purpose (we have setup twitter.com/phonefromhere), if people are interested in this content then they will follow you. Clearly marking or flagging content makes it easier for your followers to filter out the parts that don’t interest them and more importantly pick out the bits that do!

If you are using a personal account, think about whom you are presenting, and the image you wish to portray. It may be that an avatar or onscreen identity would suit you better than your real name and photo. I want to use my Twitter account to talk to and converse with a community of my peers, raise awareness of who I am and what I do, but ultimately I am looking to develop a network of professional peers. Therefore it is important to me that my identity translates from online to offline and for this reason I use my own name and picture (twitter.com/georgiabrown).


Where is Twitter Going?

Twitter is becoming increasingly mainstream:

“Twitter has been used as a "social justice tool" to connect groups of people in critical situations. On April 10 2008, James Buck, a graduate journalism student at UC Berkeley, and his translator, Mohammed Maree, were arrested in Egypt for photographing an anti-government protest. On his way to the police station Buck used his mobile phone to send the message “Arrested” to his 48 "followers" on Twitter. Those contacted UC Berkeley, the US Embassy in Cairo, and a number of press organizations on his behalf. Buck was able to send updates about his condition to his "followers" while being detained. He was released the next day from the Mahalla jail after the college hired a lawyer for him.”

“In January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson River after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York City. Janis Krum, a passenger on one of the ferries that rushed to help, took a picture of the downed plane as passengers were still evacuating and tweeted it via TwitPic traditional media arrived at the scene.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter)

There are some great Twitter applications out there and more to come is my guess; some are designed to help you use Twitter more efficiently, including TweetDeck, Twitterrific and Twitterberry. Others are designed to add functionality and enable us to make the most out of the service, including TwitPic and Tweetertags. Finally there are those mashups designed purely to help us enjoy the fruits of our labour such as Twittervision.

You can also follow an increasing number of celebrities, Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross have been dedicated Twitter users for a long time and now you can even follow the PM (twitter.com/downingstreet)!!


Twitter – There Goes The Neighbourhood!!!??

Unfortunately I feel that the Twitter crowd is changing, the influx of celebrities such as Chris Moyles, Radio1 DJ and singer Lilly Allen brings with them a new era of Twitter. The phrase “Life Imitates Art” springs to mind… in our media hungry culture ‘the masses’ hang on to every word of those labelled celebrity, they follow every detail of their lives all widely documented in the press.

Could it be that Twitter is morphing into an online version of Heat or OK magazine… As the celebrities flock to Twitter to publicize their latest show, song or even fund raising campaign, they build upon their public profile, develop their ‘brand’ and popularity and so the masses come to ‘Follow’ their every Tweet!

That is all fine of course, but my question would be what does it contribute to the community? For me it has created a lot of ‘noise’ on Twitter, which has made it harder to pick out the content of real value and worth to me. Is it time to move on?

Tweet Report – Northern Startup 2.0

Last week as many of my Twitter followers and Facebook friends will have noticed that I tried my hand at micro-bloging. Using TwitterBerry to commentate live from the Northern Startup 2.0 event (http://www.nwstartup20.co.uk/Jan09), held in Manchester at the offices of Horwath Clark and Whitehill. To mark my Tweets and ensure they could be found easily they were all marked with event hash tag #NS20.

My efforts to provide coverage of the event received a really positive reaction and I got some great feedback from Twitter users both attending the event and those following the feed from home.

markstrefford: @GeorgiaBrown #ns20 excellent stuff!

oceanician: @GeorgiaBrown updates were really useful.Might do an app that takes twitter updates from a channel, that allows later comment.Hmm ideas...

stevelivingston: @GeorgiaBrown #NS20 Thank you for your coverage of the event. Really disappointed not to make it but this made up for it. Much appreciated

AlexGoldstone: @GeorgiaBrown #NS20 Like I was there in the room... Thanks! Impressed that your thumbs made it to the end.

Afterwards I thought it might be a good idea to try and post the relevant feed to my blog for future reference, I wasn’t sure about the Twitter etiquette for this so I asked my followers:

GeorgiaBrown: Question: I micro-blog #NS20 event, 1st go at this. feedback good! Now should I copy n paste feed into blog post for future record n comment

StardotGarf: @GeorgiaBrown blog it! (i couldn't keep up with you last night.. a handy ref point would be good). sounded like a good event.

markstrefford: @GeorgiaBrown yes, i would. then tweet the url.

Based on this response I attempted to copy and paste the relevant tweets from my Twitter feed and format them ready to post as a blog. This has proven to be more difficult than I anticipated. Posts in Twitter appear in reverse order and after trying to flip the order of the Tweets using several tools I gave up and did it manually, which took quite a bit of time and effort!

Anyway I think it was worth it as the result provides a handy reference point for this event that can easily be referred to and commented on at a later date. But fingers crossed that @oceanician comes up with an app that will simplify this process for another time!

Northern Startup 2.0 - 28 Jan 2009

http://twitpic.com/18b9w - Late for #NS20 !! Hot footing across town... Tweet n go!!
about 24hrs ago from TwitPic

#NS20 phew made it, quick chat with @mbites impressed with the redevelopment of #Manchester. Just settling in for the event. Good turnout.
about 24hrs ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 manoj doing intro - is this a good year to be a startup - audience say yes!! It has to be!!
about 24hrs ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 daresbury innovation campus now sponsoring, some Momentum building with the event.
about 24hrs ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 Now a few (more) words from our sponsors ... First Flight, BBC, eOffice, Horwath Clark Whitehill, Sun Startup Essentials... Edocr!
about 24hrs ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 brand new BBC Dragons Den, only online!! Seeking upto £50K investment/seed. Pilot online by March. Submit 3min pitch, best go on web!
about 24hrs ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 @mbites talking about the changing landscape of investments made in the tech startup industry - peaked - summer of love ended!
about 24hrs ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 @mbites no big exits 3 - 5 years. Best source of funding is your customers! I agree, that is the way @phonefromhere are going too!
about 24hrs ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 BTW loving micro-blogging at the event, appologies to my Facebook viewers for filling their pages with my status updates -auto updates
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry


http://twitpic.com/18c2a - @mbites talking at #NS20 @GeorgiaBrown gets personal mention... Yey!
about 23hrs ago from TwitPic

#NS20 so which business will work? Niche social networks, smart advertising, mobile (really this year might be the year of the mobile!)
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 more business predicted for sucess, online gaming, social shopping
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 @mbites -social media web 1.0 find, web 2.0 friend, web 3.0 follow - twitter is new social media. Other businesses adopt follow model
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 we are part of #Europe take full advantage ... @mbites running out of time
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 zoe lock technology stratergy board up next. £1billion 2 invest over 3 yrs. But will be very strategic. Look 4 growth sectors of tomoz
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 driving innovation, make connections, support connections act as a catalyst. Challenge led innovation will take 50% of the funding
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 aim to understand the challenges of the market and use technology to meet need. Set up uk companies to meet these types of req in gov
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 grants 2 consortia 2 conduct research n development. 100 of projects on go, range of sizes. Can they support us? Check this out!
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 build communities n networks in the UK, support innovative UK businesses www. Innovateuk.org
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 calibre one james brocken (sp?) Looking at the market downturn, pretty bad. Catastrophic loss of value across markets!
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 tech venture in US vs Europe, US much larger scale, but since the peak US now not investing at all still capital in Europe 2 invest
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 great business r built in tough times. Great product combined wiv great investment allow growth n great people. Peeps is most impotant
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 great people, need vision, track record, well networked, pragmatic, stratigic, relevant exp... Look beyond CV recruit the person
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 when looking to recruit think of people in your network, get good people to congregate around your biz - I think this is great advice!
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 when you identify someone you want, share the wealth, be realistic!
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 when attending events b aggressive set yourself target get 10-20 business cards. Get out there n talk 2 people. Its not easy we no!
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 sort out elevator pitch 30 seconds, don't bore them follow up quickly, but it takes time to build relationships. Romance!!! :-)
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 Business Link - grant for business investment, venture and loans from NWDA. You will need a biz plan, they can help you write one.
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 business investment 'gone tits up over the last 3 months!!'
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 can offer help support and training how to set up business. High Growth programme, Knowledge 2 Innovate, NWDA grant for Research n dev
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 Innovation Vouchers next batch issued beginning of Feb, winners picked out of hat!! 3K money to spend with a knowledge provider.
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 it seems to me from that presentation there is a lot of help out there if you know where to look for it!! Good news :-)
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 @edfrench enterprise ventures - 40 early stage companies invested in. So sucess some failiure. There is still investment 2 b had in UK
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 what is in the head of a VC, predict using imperfect knowledge of the biz and the VC. Looking for less risk n large returns.
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 VCs realise may need 2 support existing deals for longer, less money left to invest. Now looking 2 invest less with v high returns
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 @edfrench, showing how climate effecting the chance of investment and chance of ultimate sucess - it doesn't look good!!
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 improve your chances of investment by adding the right people. Avoid non-execs who are too corporate need them to have venture exp
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 Make sure your biz is focused. Not 1% of 1billion market, in real terms look for 20% of a smaller more focused market segment.
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 communicate, make sure people can understand your business straight away!! Speak their language!
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 quick break, now onto the next segment, QnA panel. BTW welcome to all my new followers on Twitter - Hello!!
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 question to @edfrench is non-exec with skin in game more powerful than without-Can b advantage shows endorsment but can lead 2 dispute
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 non-exec n techie in a startup is basically like a marriage!!! - woooh got tweeters thumb ache now!!
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 hire slowly, fire quickly! It seems very difficult for biz in UK to fire people - hire slow slow. Google now carry out 12 interviews!!
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 Zoe building networks in tech industry, currently have 4 tech networks, join for free n attend free events. Big players are linked in
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 use social media, facebook n twitter, useful for getting message out and into the global cloud. Useful 2 prebrief and target prelaunch
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 @mbites gets pitched all the time, fine with that it happens, part of the job!! Pitch quick and make heads turn. Go uk startups Go!
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 BBC rep pitching his own startup!!! Lol he is also filming on behalf of BBC - did they know? They do now! whoops! Oh well got a laugh!
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 @edfrench lots of sucessful biz, eg Twitter aren't clear how they will make money out of there huge user base-VCs now less interested
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 @mbites biz angel investors will be more important in the early stage high growth biz. No point in putting cash in bank!!
about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 angels tend to invest when they see that you have good offering, but they have the expertise to fix the problems you have identified!
about 21 hours ago from TwitterBerry

http://twitpic.com/18dlc - half the crowd at #NS20
about 21hrs ago from TwitPic

#NS20 startups for slaughter! Talent on View represented by Lisa. Hot house this startup in 10 mins!!
about 21 hours ago from TwitterBerry

http://twitpic.com/18dmq - Q&A Panel at #NS20
about 23hrs ago from TwitPic

#NS20 Talent on View - web based video tool for recruitment market. 23000 agencies in the UK alone. Video profiling. Niche social network.
about 21 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 TalentOnView-identify where revenue from? Which opportunities 2 go for? Pick sector n focus! Pick high potential partners n SELL NOW!
about 21 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 TalentOnView - worried about missing one of the opps. What about franchise or licence 2 of the opps?? Reseller network in place.
about 21 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 TalentOnView, should focus on most profitable, n share benefits of the other 2 opps with someone who can free up necessary resource!
about 21 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 wrapping up any min and heading to Revolution for networking - unfortunatly I can't stick around tonight, but great event @Manoj
about 21 hours ago from TwitterBerry

#NS20 hope Tweet Report was useful, feedback please, was it too much? Too little? Not enough opinion? What should I do next time? Pls tell!
about 21 hours ago from TwitterBerry

New Year – New Eee

5 Jan. '09

So, here I am trudging to work on the first day back after the holidays, I seem to have developed a cold overnight, it is freezing, still dark and there is snow on the ground, which is already dirtied by the feet of gloomy commuters just like me.However there is a light, and it comes in the form of Windows XP – now you didn’t see that coming did you!??!!

As many of you may know I got a Linux based eee PC 901 at the end of the summer last year, and whilst I love the size and portability of the hardware I really struggled with the Linux platform. It seemed to me that absolutely nothing I wanted was compatible, the mobile broadband dongle, my cannon ixus camera, channel 4 OD, iTunes, Office, etc, etc.

Anyway, I must have been a good girl this year as Father Christmas brought me a copy of Windows XP professional! My Dad and I then spent several hours working to install the new operating system and optimise the performance of XP on the eee PC. I will confess that Dad put in many more hours (days actually!!!) than I did on this project and for that I am very, very grateful.

I have had the XP operating system installed for about a week now, but this will be the first week I will use the newly configured machine in anger. So far performance wise it feels at least as fast as Linux, if not a little quicker! Plus, I have a great deal more software on the machine making it much more useful for facilitating work on the move. Who would have thought the number 42 bus could become an office so easily!!! :-)

The Linux eee PC 901 was sold with 2 drives, on the smaller fast drive we have installed a cut down version of Windows XP Professional using n-Lite, this weighs in at 2.45 GB. We have split the slower second drive in two and we use one partition for programmes and the other for my files.

I will keep you posted as to how the performance holds up as I begin to push the system over the coming weeks.

I am looking for a machine that will support and facilitate me in my work not a machine that becomes a project in itself!! I believe the Linux platform is not for the non-techie, or the person who just wants to get on with the task in hand. It is for the hands on techie, who likes an ongoing project, has time on their hands and wants to support the concept of open source software.

Obviously I am being a bit controversial here, of course I am aware that there are benefits to Linux otherwise I wouldn’t have bought the machine in the first instance, but I am hoping to prompt some comments which might form a debate…

… Your thoughts !!!??!?

22 Jan. 09

Update: The eeePC is working fantastically; it is so fast and appears to do absolutely everything I want. However, I will confess it was a bit unhappy when I spilt a cup of tea over it last weekend, fortunately it dried out and started working again, phew!

… but I wouldn’t recommend this as a procedure!

Otherwise, the switch to XP has been the best decision. In fact my dad and I were so impressed he has now bought himself a Linux 901 eeePC and converted it to Windows :-)

Customer Services Heaven!

Many of my regular readers may have noticed a serious lack of blog posts recently, no excuses of course, but …

… first it was Christmas with my folks in the Lakes, then my fella’s Birthday, then it was New Year in France with Mum, then I was ill and then my Computer temporarily died!!!

Anyway, I’m better now and so is my machine, blog holiday is over and here are a couple of posts I prepared earlier!! Enjoy :-)

31 Dec. 08

Sitting at Liverpool Airport with a five and a half hour delay on my flight to the little house in France, presents me with an interesting opportunity to catch up on my Blog writing!!

Firstly as a follow up to my previous posts regarding customer service, I feel bound to report an example of customer service excellence I recently experienced.

At the PhoneFromHere.com office we have the ability to take credit card payments from customers using an HSBC card terminal plugged into an analogue phone line. This works very well and allows us to take both large and small payments quickly and securely. However, shortly before the Christmas break I was due to take payment from a number of clients, but the terminal wouldn’t work. After a quick call to HSBC customer support we identified that the problem lay not with the terminal but with the phone line. Our supplier is NTL business, so I gave them a call and reported a fault on the line. The lady took the details and then provided me with a reference number and said that they would be in touch! To be completely honest I was sceptical, to say the very least!!

20 minutes later, much to my surprise I received a phone call from an engineer and to my complete astonishment he was outside the office in the street fixing the connection and asking me to try the line out!! 10 minutes later and the problem was solved and the phone line and credit card terminal all operational, brilliant!!

NTL business (owned by Virgin), provided polite, fast and efficient customer services, brilliant! Just how it should be :-)