Twitter 101 – Smart Twips and Top Links

As a fan of Twitter and self taught user (via trial and error) I have collated dozen's of sources to write a 2 page guide called "Twitter 101 - Smart Twips and Top Links". It's ideal for beginners and intermediate users. Find it at the following link.

Hope it helps and please leave comments on the blog.

Mraketing – how to make Sreach work for you….

So now I got your attention didn’t I ! Think about it - how often do you miss-spell a word in an email – 50% of the time ? How about miss-spelling a word in a search ? I would guess its MOST of the time.

So If marketing is about gaining attention, and search marketing is about defining and choosing the optimum words for your 'bsusines' or 'barnd'…then you may be missing a trick by not actively buying miss-spelled words.

Simply, get someone to type your top 5 search words out 20 times, and keep the mistakes for some of your key words!

I credit this highly original thought to the great guys at the Marketing over Coffee site and podcast ….listen to the show dated 16th Sept (at 06:25) to learn more….

Rebranding London - 3 tips for success

As a former resident I’m a big fan of London. However, it does need to step up its game to keep up with wonderful cities such as Barcelona, Stockholm and Melbourne. So Im watching the rebranding London campaign brief and pitch process with interest. Moving Brands have breathed some great energy into the process by leveraging crowdsourcing - with some amazing ideas sent in : check them out here .

My three tips for success

1. Bring the Outside In
The opportunity to re-brand london should be championed outside of the country – after all visitors and tourists will be the key customers of any new identity.

2. Engage the Masses
Internally, It could be a great opportunity to reach out to the wider community of ‘brands’ that actively touch London – eg airlines, sports teams, retailers that also have a vested stake in the success of the output, tapping into their creative minds and ample resources – encouraging them to submit.

3.Inspire the Kids
This could be a great school project – to get kids engaged in the discussion – reaching out to school bodies to encourage submissions. Good Luck London.

Passion for your brand is infectious

Dining last night at Busaba Eathi - a Thai restaurant chain in London's Soho last night was a real pleasure. The food, atmosphere (and weather !) were all great last night, but that's not what made the difference.

The difference was the waitress, who had a genuine love and excitement about the food. She was just so keen to recommend her favourites, and delighted to offer sides of the delicious peanut sauce that they have (at no extra charge !). She was fast, efficient and just fantastic at her job, and did it all with passion !

This was not the usual friendly and forced smile, this was not the usual coached and trained service - no this felt genuine, authentic and honest. The positive energy and excitement rubbed off on me, and that makes all the difference to the consumer.

Is Bing faster than Usain Bolt ?

Ok, so you have to read a bit further to decipher my metaphor (suffice to say that Bing clearly isn’t Bolt)…..‘Google’ - formerly a proper noun, has effectively morphed into a verb. Yes it was slow, but is now widely accepted and understood, entering the lexicon as the verb referring ‘to execute a web search’ (ie they are the Bolt of web search).

Lets Bing it

I first heard the expression ‘let’s Bing it’ – in a sponsored section of the Rachel Zoe Project tv show earlier this week. Having taken a couple of days to ponder my reaction, I still feel that the expression frankly sounds forced and quite odd.

Although Bing has to differentiate itself from Google, (with eg their TV creative poking fun at the shortcomings of other search engines) they now go head on to challenge Googles’ ubiquity. But can you think of anyone who would get what you meant if you said “I binged that ”?.. I don’t think so !...not yet anyway.

Going for Gold

Bing works really well, looks good, and provides different results to Google, and I love any brand that offers me a better solution. So, yes I applaud Microsoft for having the tenacity to set their benchmark as at least a dead heat – and to metaphorically race their Usain Bolt.

Imagine being the Bing CMO who could also change the language – and claim to have turned Bing into a verb from a noun, let’s watch and see.