Business networking in Tavistock

March 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Tavistock Chamber of Commerce kicks off with its 1st business networking event

Today (Tue March 17th) sees the first Chamber networking event in Tavistock.

Location is the Ordulph Arms in Tavistock and there are more than 20 local businesses attending.  This is set to be a regular monthly get-together.  Chamber members £10, guests £12 to cover cost of the buffet.

The event features a short presentation, 4 business sponsors and plenty of time to network with other local businessess.  Everyone welcome – and if you’re interested in the next one, watch this space or speak to Chamber Chairman Nigel Eadie on 07802885117.

Visit the Tavistock Chamber of Commerce here.

Filed Under: networking Tagged With: , ,

Big Marketing Mistake No.2: do lots of things badly

March 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Being a jack of all trades can be a big marketing mistake

It’s tempting when you’re starting out in business and struggling to find clients to try to do too many things.  It’s a natural reaction but it’s not going to do you any good.

For a start, ‘diversifying’ in panic is a sure-fire recipe for burnout because you become less effective every time you leap in a new direction.  You end up trying to work harder with each new idea but in reality, you just get progressively less productive – and further from whatever it was you thought you were good at when you created the business in the first place.

There’s also nothing to be gained from being seen as the ‘Jack of All Trades’ in your business community either.  In fact, the opposite is true because people will read your chameleon-like ability to re-invent yourself not as a strength but as a lack of focus, credibility or staying power. After all, why would you keep changing if you knew what you were doing and were any good at it?

From a marketing perspective, this is a big mistake.  Far from impress prospects, your tireless activity will just confuse the hell out of ‘em and erode their confidence in you.

If you’ve not long started your business and you find yourself in that scary place of being short of clients, you may feel a rising pressure to invent new products and services and take any work that comes your way whether it suits your business profile or not.

My advice?  Don’t. Better to put your business on hold and take a job so that when you next work on your business you’re not coming at it from a place of desperation.  You and your future clients will benefit in the long run.

Filed Under: Big Marketing Mistakes Tagged With: , , ,

Facebook profiting from scam ads? You decide *yawn*

March 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Yes, we’ll help you decide if Facebook is profiting from obvious scams through their sponsored advertising.

Here’s a question: is there a moral and/or legal problem with profiteering from scammy advertisers?

It only takes me a few seconds to establish when a particular Facebook advertiser is considered a scam by the wider internet community.

Ok, you might say, ‘buyer beware’. But at what point does (or should) Facebook be accountable for displaying these ads – and, of course, profiting from each click through?

Are we saying that Facebook isn’t accountable?

Are we saying it shouldn’t be accountable?

Well, I think it should be accountable if it profits from selling space to scammy advertisers.

So long as those ads keep appearing, I’ll keep having fun and offering a bit of balance with my cheeky profile picture (left). ;-)

And you don’t have to dig too hard to find out that all isn’t well with Facebook advertising generally.  94 pretty pissed off comments and no reply from Facebook.

Filed Under: feedback, GRRRR!!!, what do you think? Tagged With: , , ,

The Credit Crunch – explained brilliantly in pictures

March 10, 2009 By 1 Comment

Jonathan Jarvis makes sense of the credit crunch – awesome.  This should be compulsory viewing


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

This animation is one of the best things I’ve seen online.  Brilliant.  A spellbinding way to show the greedy, self-destructive madness of selling risk onwards for bigger an bigger profit.

There are parts of this animation that I think might be slightly inaccurate but I don’t think it detracts from the power of the piece. I’m not a financier, but when he talks about leverage, I think he misses the point that leverage isn’t just about getting the same level of profit from more volume but using volume to achieve a better buying price – and hence making more profit.

Details aside, the animation still hits the issue right between the eyes.  Watch it and tell me you didn’t go “Yesss!!!” at some point. :-)

Filed Under: business insight, smile, WOW! Tagged With: , , ,

Bad Feelings at Ecademy – 657 views and counting

March 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

It’s official: we’re addicted to feeling bad

I popped into Ecademy this afternoon briefly and took a quick scan of the blogs.

Interestingly, most had 20, 30 or 40 views.  All except the one titled ‘Bad Feelings At Ecademy‘ which had 657 views.  Naturally, I dived in to see what the fuss was all about.

The fuss (as usual) was all about an Ecademist falling out with the management and getting booted off.  “Fight! Fight! Fight!” I can almost hear ringing in my ears.

Sadly, nothing seems to attract us more than conflict – and I’m as programmed as anyone to being drawn towards the dark side. Is it because we love suffering?  Is it because in argument there’s something more honest than the superficiality we normally cloak ourselves in?

There’s no doubt though.  Nastiness gets traffic.  Blood, guts, misery, depravation, disaster and sleaze is what people want.  In a low-key but inarguable way, those figures on Ecademy prove it.  Again and again.

Filed Under: business insight, online networking Tagged With: , , , ,

Spy sunglasses – surveillance video recorder

March 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Thinking of making a ‘day in my life’ video podcast?  These spy sunglasses just made your job a million times easier!

If you’ve ever wanted a ‘brain-off’ head-mounted video camera to make a ‘point of view’ video podcast, this is the gadget you want. Thanks to Jorge Salgago-Reyes of Allied Detectives for posting this on Facebook.

There are many neat gizmos you come across but not many you can see working in action.  This is a great example from someone I trust.  As a result, I’m 100% closer to buying because of that combination of demonstration and recommendation.

Marketers, take note of the power of that combination.  Forget spammy affiliate schemes – real recommendations from people you trust is where it’s at.

BTW – if you need a P.I. take my recommendation and visit Jorge at Allied Detectives. Tell him Sam sent ya.

Filed Under: marketing, WOW! Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Spotify Invites: down to my last 26 (as at 3.4.09)

March 4, 2009 By

I’ve helped over 380 people get Spotify accounts and I’m almost out of invites

But it’s been fun.

It’s taken maybe 10 minutes or so every day to copy and paste people’s email addresses from my blog post comments to the Spotify invite page but the payoff has been to get the occasional email from someone saying how pleased they are with Spotify.

It’s also fun seeing how friends and family I’ve introduced to Spotify are using it.  It’s become part of their language; it’s on in the background when I call or when we Skype (look, there’s another free thing that’s become part of the language).

For me, Spotify is great for finding whatever I want at any moment – expecially if I want something I haven’t heard before.  It’s also a great karaoke-machine for that party you’re planning.  Just pick out your playlist in advance and wait for the guests to arrive.

And it turns out that it’s also the perfect ‘play-along’ guitarists’ accessory.  I just pick up my accoustic, find some tracks and play along.  Or, if I’m feeling particularly Burt Weedon, the karaoke versions of just about every classic track of the last 50 years are perfect for picking the melodies.

Long may it last.

Filed Under: Endless spotify praise Tagged With: , ,

Facebook ads: rip-off? You decide *yawn*

March 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Oh, look.  The very next Facebook ad I clicked on seems dodgy…

You know the ad.  “British companies are looking for people like you to receive FREE samples of their goods…”. I can’t believe people are so uncritical they fall for this.

Actually, I can.

What I can’t believe is that no-one has anything to say about it.  The vulnerable, uncritical teenager doesn’t because he wishes it would come true.  ‘RealFreeSamples.co.uk’ doesn’t because it gets the uncritical teenager’s email address to sell on to someone else.  Facebook doesn’t because it gets the click-through revenue.

Who gives a shit?


Filed Under: critical approach to online media, GRRRR!!! Tagged With: , , , ,

Facebook ads: scammy? You decide *yawn*

March 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

How come Facebook doesn’t give a damn how dodgy its ads are?

Because it’s too busy making money to care, that’s why.

Take a look at these ads.  Yes, you guessed it.  They’re for ‘get-rich-without-doing-much’ Google schemes.

Now before Dustin or Andrew get mad with me, look closer.  They seem to have, ah, accidentally borrowed each other’s testimonials.  Doh.

Dustin’s:

“Jordan S says:

February 6, 2009 at 1:17 am

I want to add my testimonial on this blog. Here you go Dustin. I was wary about working from home, because I’d heard horror stories about the Internet. But I’d heard that there were rounds of layoffs coming at my company, so I figured I should do something to try and have a backup should the worst happen. I was amazed when I got your kit. It started working right away. By the time the layoffs happened, I was already making more money from Google than I was in my job. Now I use Google full time and have a great income.”

Andrew’s:

Comment by Danny J

January 25, 2009 @ 9:36 am I want to add my testimonial on this blog. Here you go Andrew. “I was wary about working at home, because I’d heard horror stories about the Internet. But I’ heard that there were rounds of layoffs coming at my company, so I figured I should do something to try and have a backup should the worst happen. I was amazed when I got your kit. It started working right away. By the time the layoffs happened, I was already making more money from Google than I was in my job. Now I use Google full time and have a great income.”

Etc, etc, etc.  Links to ‘Dustin’s’ site here and ‘Andrew’s’ site here.  And guys, don’t get p*ssed off with me – I am promoting you for free after all :-)

Since I’m such an eagle-eyed old skeptic, I regularly click through to see just what kind of junky ads Facebook is happily targetting susceptible members with.

My unscientific research shows me that so far, a majority of those I’ve clicked are for what I’d consider pretty dodgy schemes.  Yeah, yeah, they’re probably legal – but ask yourself who is hiding behind ‘Dustin’ and ‘Andrew’?  And why does he have to make up testimonials?

I’d like to think that the fact that it doesn’t occur to him that someone like me would compare his testimonials means he’s stupid.  Unfortunately, all it really means is that he knows how desperate – and uncritical – his intended recruits are.

All this on the day that I read the Government’s report on Digital Britain – a document that insists that ‘being digital must be within everyone’s grasp’ without any mention of what’s going on beneath the happy family broadband facade.

What’s infuriating is that Facebook knows damn well what it’s doing as this piece in the Sydney Morning Herald shows.

Filed Under: GRRRR!!!, scam warning Tagged With: , , ,

City Car Club: first impressions from their website

March 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

If City Car Club can keep my attention for 10 minutes….

…they’re most of the way towards making me into a customer.

I just spent 10 minutes looking around City Car Club‘s website – following a tip-off text from Clare. Keeping a prospect interested for 10 minutes is quite some achievement online, so how do they do it?

Well, first of all, there’s a curiosity factor.  ‘Car Club’.  Wow.  What, exactly is that?  Despite a sneaky suspicion that it’s just another techno-car-share system, I was curious.  Why?  Because it combines many of the things that interest me: the problems of car ownership, the environment and good use of technology to solve a problem.

First impressions of City Car Club are that it’s a bright and cheerful place that knows what it’s doing.  The design and colours are bold and confident.  So is the tone of address which is light, informal and reassuring.

It’s not too slick or too corporate.  It feels like there’s real people behind it all (plenty of little anecdotal snippets and mentions of people and their little foibles) and it feels like something you might want to try.

Drive a new-ish car by the hour?  That’s not a bad idea, when you think about it… Book online and be able to go straight from you house to your car and open it with an electronic key?  That’s a really good idea!  Park in permanently-available spaces in major UK cities?  This starts to sound really interesting.

When you stop and look at it, City Car Club is a good example of the right idea at the right time pitched at the right people – typically, people like you reading this.

Clearly suited to cities, City Car Club lists all the locations their cars live – letting you ‘meet’ each car in it’s parking bay in a city near you (if you’re lucky).

What’s great about City Car Club is that – despite having not bought anything from them yet – I leave their website feeling good about what they’re offering and good about the system they’ve developed to offer it. I suspect it’s just because, in the words of the legendary Hannibal Hayes, we “love it when a plan comes together”.

Filed Under: business insight, feedback Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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