Lingolook - The Changing Face of a(n SEO) Copywriter

Conversation Search Optimization

2007-03-06T17:01:00.000+01:00

What a fascinating post over on Backbone Media.

I had never really given much though to SEO on blogs - or should that read "how to stay on the front page of Technorati".

It seems obvious, to those in the game, that there is a clear difference between relevancy search engines and RSS-based conversation search engines.

Yet this difference is perhaps just as invisible to the normal client as the reason why Search Engine Optimization is so important to any online presence.

In John's post, he points out that in order to stay on the front page in your particular field, all you have to do is post more often than the time the last article on the page was listed.

In his example, the last post under "Business blogging" was posted 2 days ago, meaning that to maintain a ranking on the first page a blogger would have to write at least every 2 days. For subjects way, way down the long tail, like "synthetic transparency", that frequency diminished considerably, allowing bloggers to stay on the top page writing just one article per year.

In the IT world, this becomes a little more difficult as the frequency for internationally-known brand is much higher. In Acer's case, at time of writing, the last article on the first page was published under an hour ago making it almost impossible to stay on the first page for conversations alone. Dell has a much harder time with posts required every 16 minutes...

I am, like many others, still climbing the steep learning curve of blog effectiveness but conversation search optimization is certainly a concept I'll be keeping an eye on.

Alexa turns up the geek-value of its charts

2007-02-20T14:03:00.000+01:00

Am I the only one to be a little confused over Alexa’s recent changes in the way they present their site view results?

At face value there’s no real difference.

Old

New

What has changed is the y axis.

No longer does is say “Daily Page Views (per million)" but "Daily Page Views (percent)".

This confused the hell out of me at first but I think I understand why they did it. Isn’t it easy to assume, looking at the first, that this graph shows an average of 12 million page views per day?

You certainly couldn’t make that mistake with the new parameter. The problem is, this number, while extremely accurate, makes any kind of presentation particularly taxing on client attention.

"Michael, Just what is this number a percent of and why...?"

Looking at them now you can’t go wrong (and I know I have in the past). It’s just that when showing a client relative values, it helps to have a competitor (or five) to compare them against.

Otherwise you might as well save yourself the trouble.

Bring on the changes

2007-02-20T14:00:00.000+01:00

There are moments when you look up, notice the time and make some quick realizations.

I’m not talking about life-changing inspirational realizations but that sudden computation that triggers your brain into realizing that you haven’t eaten lunch and it’s nearly dinner time.

I guess that’s what happens when you’re out of the groove. Or at least it certainly appears to be that way for those of us trying to get out of theirs.

Free time becomes time spent planning, creating, writing, re-writing and, occasionally, eating.

I have listened to Rich Schefren tell me that I have to get out of my own way but unfortunately, when you’re at the beginning of whatever enterprise you’re trying to build, the plain and simple truth is that you are very much in charge of everything.

That doesn’t mean you should give up, but excuses are easy to find as you’ve got a million things to do and quite literally an excuse for each of them.

I just knuckled down and got on with it. I planned, I wrote and re-wrote and after six months (yes that long) had no fewer than 3 presentations ready to propose yesterday.

Like most “creatives” the fun lies in pondering over the details and the really, dirty, grubby part comes when you have to “sell” your phantasmagorical idea to someone with less than 1% of your super-human “vision”.

That moment for me came yesterday and was, effectively, the first day of the rest of my career. Dirty, exhausting and most definitely uphill but well worth the effort.

Blog diplomacy masters

2007-02-01T23:20:00.000+01:00

Mr. Rollins leaves and ~~my opposite number~~ my friend from Dell gets into serious "tough love" spats.

If you want to see how diplomacy sometimes treads a very, very fine line, check out the restraint expressed here.

Easier done than said

2007-02-01T23:16:00.000+01:00

Now that I've managed to reinstall everything after McAfee took down my registry, it's all systems go with the page rank remapping project.

It's a pretty complex issue mapping out page rank over hundreds of links and regional sites but it's certainly worth the challenge. The problem I think is more to do with the PowerPoint presentation I'm trying to prepare to explain all this. What's the rule? Maximum 5 slides..? Yeah right.

Page rank madness

2007-01-31T17:44:00.000+01:00

We got page rank.

No not me, my client. They got a PR8 home page, and PR0 product pages.

Thank God people like Leslie Rohde exist, that make this all insanely easy to figure out. And no, that's not an affiliate link.

We got problems with session IDs. I'm a bit thin on programming knowledge but have enough to figure out that if you're a $11+bn company, you need page rank on your product page.

So it's back to the drawing board for a really massive overhaul. Two weeks to get a presentation ready..

A busy month

2007-01-27T20:38:00.000+01:00

This has been an eventful month.

First Edelman woke everyone up with a carefully/badly planned media campaign for Vista and shortly afterwards word got out that my client's operating systems were compromised by a badly-coded ActiveX application.

It was fascinating to watch. A single post was quickly picked up by The Inquirer and from there the story literally exploded. By the end of the day it was on the front page of Slashdot and The Washington Post.

I lined all the cases up over on Alexa, and the sum totals of average daily page views of these sites exceeded one billion (TWP accountd for more than half).

At that point it hit mainstream media and country managers started asking for official responses.

It was a tough test of our PR skills as my client has no official blog and therefore very little way of reacting. It was also 11pm.

However, we got a press release up (fortunately they had a patch ready) the following day and got it noticed on the sites doing the most chatting and let nature take its course.

And the problem died.

It reminded me of an event in Scoble and Israel's Naked Conversations when a bug surfaced on the blogosphere (if I'm not mistaken) during the development stage of XP. Scoble picked it up, they repaired it and silenced it within 9 hours.

We weren't that fast but then, like I said, my client doesn't have a blog. Yet.

The weight of my words has changed

2007-01-05T16:43:00.000+01:00

So it’s 2007 and this copywriter’s back with an identity crisis.

The title of this blog is quite apt at the moment as I appear to be transforming into a strategist. Words are no longer the end of a means but a means to an end.

I see them as part of a bigger strategy now, combining the dynamism and appeal of past media with a strategic function within the new.

Let me clarify this thought. In a recent post, Shel describes the opening chapter of his new book under the premise “…that human nature stays the same even as technology makes worlds bigger”.

I guess that’s progress. When you’re on the receiving end, your core opinions remain the same, yet those in charge of producing content that arrives to your door/inbox whatever have an underlying responsibility to their clients/employers to adapt to the needs and expectations of new media.

Recently over on Eric Klintz’s Marketing Excellence blog, he fired a warning shot over his online competitors’ bows to see what would happen. Under the title of The Corporate Blogging War Has Officially Started, Eric said that this was “the first time that all three of us – Dell, IBM and HP – have engaged in a competitive dialogue through blogs. Corporate blogging is clearly taking on a new dimension in 07. Companies are watching what their competitors are doing and commenting on blogs”.

Personally – and I need no disclaimer here – I think Eric pulled a fast one. I think he had a jab at Dell as Dell’s blog is on a roll and Klintz wanted a piece of it. Robert Scoble-Wan Kenobi thinks Dell are corporate superstars at the moment and when you’re at the top, you’re easy to knock.

There is unsurprisingly very little “conversation” going on in any of the leading IT companies’ blogs. Apart from replies, constructive criticism and so on, the content is never “startling”.

But just how on earth could this be otherwise?

Blogs by definition deliver fresh web content.

That’s why the search engines love them and why blog flames shine like a strip of burning magnesium. They’re hot! hot! hot!

What’s hot about a corporation going about its 9-5?

OK Dell had their fair share of heat over the battery disaster but short of that, there’s precious little worth fighting over, let alone full scale blogging warfare.

What they’re doing right, is adapting the conversation, identifying it with their chosen Blogmaster (Lionel rules!) and making it relevant and personal.

By its very nature a corporation talking to independent bloggers is going to be a little unnatural, but Dell’s careful use of their own blog as a way of drip-feeding the world with their thoughts, progress and, why not, apologies, is truly remarkable.

I have read many a PR company harp on about how corporate blogs should be free and independent but I think this is a major misjudgment on their part. A corporate blog needs to be a place where conversations relay the underlying values of the company at its heart. They need to be dependable, constant and coherent year in year out.

Blogging superstars, influencers and sneezers will always exist and it’s these guys and girls who shoulder the responsibility of continuing the debate, not the corporations.

Time flies but then a LOT happens...

2006-12-22T12:47:00.000+01:00

You ever get the idea that time flies straight past you?

That more or less has been the outcome of these last few weeks. Christmas is right there and I almost didn't see it coming.

Before I go any further, I'd like to publicly thank the tech guys at Dell. My Workstation was well and truly KO. No safe-mode Windows trickery or system restore could pull it out of its frozen-screen hole.

After poking around for a few days, desperately trying to back up what I could (everything as it turns out), I made the call.

Actuall I made three. Each one took me to the next stagewith a level of professionalism and calmness that really struck me. Not because it was Dell, because it was so beyond what I'm used to from anyone it really stuck out.

So what do you think my opinion of Dell the company, it products and support services is after that? Hats off to them I say.

Right, with that off my chest it's all-systems-go for some first hand SEO stuff this Christmas. First off TheAcerGuy is getting its own site. As much from the need for more space than a blog as to expeiment some SEO theories.

Then, my client's own site. I had to force SEO on her as she knows someone high up in Google who assured her that the only way to stay at the top was to pay, heavily.

Sorry but that really irked me. I understand the need for Google to support its profitable business model but did they really have to go so far as to just plain lie??

So the challenge is on. First to prove to myself that it isn't true (I already know that), and secondly to prove to my "boss" that her leg had been pulled so hard it should have hurt.

The other thing I have to do is set up an outline for an important corporate blog. It's happening at last. First things forst, Wordpress or Moveable Type?

Windows Woes and SEM

2006-12-18T11:17:00.000+01:00

Well the idea was to keep things moving, develop content progressively over time and add my own observations on the SEO world.

But as we all know the best-laid plans of mice and men...

I'm writing on my trusty Acer notebook. NOT on my Dell workstation. Why? Because Windows automatically installed an update that causes the PC to freeze after about 5 minutes. I have been patiently securing all my data and carrying out an obscene number of diagnostic tests since Thursday.

Am I the only person in the world able to jam a dual processor workstation with everyday work applications?

The worst thing is that system restore doesn't work as the PC freezes up while uninstalling the first of six upgrades...

The joy of letdowns.

On a lighter note, I was watching a video by Leslie Rhode from Optilink who mentioned SEM for the first time. Once the definition had been given (Search Engine Marketing), I then hopped over to Wikipedia for an explanation.

I had never given much thought to PPC advertising but it seems to me that a healthy combination of the two could work wonders. Sure enough, that seems to be what the world's top SEO experts also recommend.

I can see the short-term advantages of PPC advertising when trying to sell an offer (i.e. Buy before) but if there's just brand awareness going on, I think the equation would shift away from PPC. I mean what sort of return do you get from it (in terms of brand name bulding) and how can that be measured?

Still, SEM a fascinating addition to this SEO journey.

It's just a jigsaw

2006-12-11T10:33:00.000+01:00

What a week-end.

It's all coming together now. Keyword density, proximity and prominence, Wordtracker, SEO Elite, rotating banners, merchant accounts... this stuff's a nightmare!

But the book's just too exciting to put down.

The thing about SEO is that it's the most complex thing I've ever come across, spanning everything from graphics to site structure.

And like everything I've done before, SEO has its own, specific set of instruments.

Right now I'm sifting through the myriad of programs available online to add what I hope are the right ones to my arsenal.

Next up is to draw an operational to-do list that works for each and every project I do from day 1.

Once I've done that, I might just be able to get started with those 10 projects that brought me here in the first place.

Here's to late nights then...

SEO Course update

2006-12-07T00:07:00.000+01:00

My absence from this blog is painfully embarassing.

My excuse is honourable though - I'm learning.

I'm learning everything about split testing, adsense, content, deep linking and I haven't even got to html yet..

I've listened to Brad Fallon, Andy Jenkins, Nancy Andrews, Dave Taylor, Tim Carter and the late, great Ken Giddens and my brain is beginning to boil.

My (white) hat goes off to these guys. They're all electrifyingly brilliant.

Sailing in Second Life

2006-11-24T09:56:00.000+01:00

Man time is really becoming the new gold.

It's been a busy busy week but there is definitely light in this tunnel. I'm not sure whether it's coming through cracks in the wall or there really is an end but it's definitely light.

I have spent the best part of this week exploring Second Life, and have to admit I'm not sure I'm any wiser now than when I started.

It's a magical place, filled with intelligent, polite avatars alongside some real fruitcakes.

I had a wonderful sandwich at my local "real" bar while my avatar gyrated on a dancefloor for $LIN2 every 15 minutes.

But that aside, I'm beginning to see the potential, and there's certainly plenty of that. Like any unexplored world, the opportunities are limited only by our own imagination.

Yet in the world of corporate missions, Second Life really rocks the boat.

If only there were 48 hours in a day, then my own personal second life would stand a chance.

Swicki's up

2006-11-20T00:41:00.000+01:00

If you look down on the right you'll see a new addition to the toolbar..

It's called a Swiki and the aim, according to its creators, is to fine tune searches within a specific community. SEO copywriters in my case.

Essentially it's a "new kind of search engine that allows anyone to create deep, focused searches on topics you care about. Unlike other search engines, you and your community have total control over the results and it uses the wisdom of crowds to improve search results".

I'm still tweaking it (RTM) but it should be interesting to see how it develops.

Breaking through the fog of SEO

2006-11-15T23:01:00.000+01:00

It's been a while, and I apologize to myself for lacking the discipline (spelt: energy) to keep the thoughts flowing.

There's quite a lot in the air at the moment.

More than anything else, I've discovered there's a back-end to copywriting. And like an iceberg, there's more to what you don't see than what you do.

I'm speaking about search engine optimization, and it's fascinating. I'm learning terms like latent semantic indexing, prominence, proximity and stop words.

I had no idea...

I'm learning a language that goes beyond selling content, it changes the position of sites that speak it in a way that actively brings them closer to the people looking for them.

I apologize if this sounds lame, but like I said I had no idea. The world was flat before this, now it can bent anyway I want it.

Some call it maturity.

2006-11-09T00:16:00.000+01:00

I have been slowly drawn into this argument to the point where I can no longer sit and watch.

It's an age thing. When you're young you live and learn but now it feels live I'm learning and hardly living. At least my wife knows where I am, even if we go to bed a vastly different hours.

Change is definitely not for the weak-hearted. The way it opens your mind while at the same time numbing your senses is really quite unique. I can see why companies are reluctant.

Today I used my abolutely brilliant website builder XSitePro to build my first ever website. Once I had finished the tutorial site, I realized I was missing graphics, layout, backgrounds, even copy! I downloaded this handy header tool, and the journey got a little bit shorter.

This is all very exciting, but with age comes the little alarm bell that sounds when you just ain't gonna make it. I now know how Lance Armstrong felt when he decided to break three hours in the NY Marathon.

So at what point does age transform you into a manager? Ever since I decided to open three blogs in two languages on the same day. When does my brain reach the level of maturity to know when I'm exaggerating? I'll let you know if and when it does.

We've got it all wrong

2006-11-06T14:09:00.000+01:00

I've just had a thought.

It came to me while reading the December 2006 CAR magazine.

In the bulletin section there was a pretty alarming article about the envoronmental impact that undoes just about everything I've ever understood about eco-friendly automobiles.

I can't find the report on the magazine's website but I did find it here.

Normally, we're led to believe that a car is green by looking at it's fuel consumption and emissions. However, Oregon-based CNW Marketing Research took a step back and looked at it globally. What they discovered was in my mind astonishing in its obviousness.

If you look beyond fuel consumption and take into consideration a car's "dust to dust" environmental impact, factoring in fuel consumption, factory manufacturing costs, parts manufacturing costs, plus the energy used in R&D, the energy used by the workers communiting to the factories, the car's recylability and it's durability, the traditional references are turned on their heads.

By way of illustration, the greenest car available in the UK is, according the Greenpeace, the automotive incarnation of Beelzebub, the Jeep Wrangler 4x4.

The previous envoronmental champion, the hybrid Toyota Prius, has a "dust to dust" energy cost five times higher than the second-place Toyota Yaris.

Art Spinella, president of CNW, sums it up quite nicely. "If a consumer is concerned about fuel economy, it is perfectly logical to consider buying high fuel economy vehicles such as hybrids, but if the concern is the broader issues such as environmental impact of energy usage, some vehicles with good economy actually cost society more than conventional or even larger models over their lifetime. Basing purchasing decisions solely on fuel economy does not get to the heart of the energy usage issue".

How painfully obvious is all this?

How much does discovering a truth that exposes our short-sightedness for what it is burn our pride and uproot our intelligence?

Couldn't see the woods for the trees?

Winning the battle but losing the war?

Taking an even bigger step backwards, it made me wonder if this oversight also applies to marketing.

For example, how often consumers fed solutions that resolve the problem but neglect the cause? How many products and ideas (and remedies for that matter) have been introduced that do nothing more than smear away the stains left by the previous mistake?

In my own little world of IT solutions, I can't help thinking if there's a bigger picture we're missing.

The fact that Greenpeace is putting pressure on electronics manufacturers into making their products more environmentally friendly is a case in point.

How much of the efficiency comes from the machine itself?
- If manufacturers busy making computers work faster forget that humans have to live with the consequences.

Does the pursuit of increased efficiency/performance in one area damage another?
- I'm thinking of the Sony battery disaster but I'm sure there are other more distant relationships.

How much human-involvement is missing from the equation?
- Is technology improving yet becoming so complicated in the process that we as humans are being blinded by it? If SatNavs and GPS phones take away our ability to "see" where we're going, and SMS text-messaging is undoing one of civilised man's key qualities (literacy), just how much is technology driving us towards a catatonic state of high-tech dependency?

Breaking down the barriers between people and technology might not be a bad thing, as long as we don't put up others along the way.

Embryo-blog

2006-11-04T17:35:00.000+01:00

You've seen the little widget on the right no?

Very clever thing created by Hugh Macleod over on his Gaping Void site. Sort of like daily guidance for geeks :-D

I'm sort of in need of guidance myself right now. I'm just about ready to call a meeting and bring in the big boys to discuss their corporate blog.

It's been a long journey helped no end by Richard@Dell (you've gotta love that surname!). I have already thanked him in an earlier post but as one of the (public) driving forces behind our single biggest "competitor", his generosity and openness puts him (and Dell for that matter) at the very top of the social tree. Maximum respect.

I've got 2 brochures and a whitepaper to deliver by Monday (fat chance), and then it's full speed ahead with the blog preparations. Now or never..

Role model

2006-10-31T17:14:00.000+01:00

There's something that's been bothering me for a while and I've only just understood what it is.

Has anyone noticed that when IT companies start blogging, they start promoting themselves on various levels? Product, Business, Channel, Service and even Market Position...

This is all very well and I don't want to criticise proven practices, but I think IT companies should make a very clear division between the interests of its customers and those of its shareholders when talking to the public at large.

When you write body copy for brochures, flyers or any other "collateral" used to promote a company's product, your audience is the buying public. Whether they buy it from the manufacturer/vendor directly or from their favourite tech store is largely irrelevant. If the product fits, they'll buy it.

When you write a corporate brochure, press release or conference presentation your audience is entirely different, and the tone of language used changes accordingly.

Lately I've been monitoring IT blogs from as many component manufacturers and big brand vendors as possible and I've noticed that "the message" is often blurred by other issues such as market share or the direct/indirect model argument.

This is great if you're an investor, but gives a confused message to the buying public. At what point is the difference between direct and indirect business models relevant to them?

There are moments when best practice, channel strategy and product development are necessarily aggregated but surely this shouldn't become a "standard", unless of course you are prepared to get on the blogosphere at a corporate level, but leave the customer behind.

Margin of error

2006-10-31T15:16:00.000+01:00

I've learnt a lesson today: Respect the margin of error.

When UPS says they will deliver anytime between 9 am and 12pm, do not, under any circumstances, leave your house till 12.30pm at least.

Margin of error. We're all guilty of it. UPS is no different. They found that 10 minute window in which I wasn't around and turned up. All I have to show for my lack of respect is a slip of paper and a 48 hour wait (tomorrow's a bank holiday).

Stifling the Italian Start Up

2006-10-27T16:57:00.000+02:00

I had a look round SecondLife this week - it's extremely disorientating for a complete beginner so I'm holding judgement 'till I've had my guided tour.

I have just posted a similar article to this over on my Italian blog. The reason being that I am wondering just how far a newcomer can or even must travel down the long tail before his or her e-commerce site becomes financially sustainable.

I doubt very much that newcomers could take on short tail champions like Amazon or iTunes, but having said that, too far down the tail would see so little activity that any ROI would be neglibible at best.

I am fascinated by Internet Marketing at the moment. I honestly cannot see the point of having an Internet site for the sake of having one. In every situation, given a little thought, there is a whole lot more to be gained from Web 2.0

I see that blogs are taking over the role of static websites - once static information zones that do nothing more than identify who the person or company is. Blogs are changing all this. Through a blog you can get to know someone's thoughts, their personality and also their reputation. A static website gives you a fraction of that.

Yet a working website can offer just so much more. Ever since Google Adsense arrived, there has been a definite switch towards optimizing websites in order to rank higher in the search engines. But why would you waste your time chasing a front-page result if your website offered no more than your phone number?

Working websites can advertise, promote and, even better, sell. They provide the perfect opportunity to capture new clients and keep them informed about the latest developments. The goal of the website is to turn as many of those customers into clients and it's very easy to measure how effective they are at this.

Newsletters, blog posts and even video logs give such a strong message of customer commitment, it's hard to imagine why anyone would consider doing it any differently.

Streamlining this process for maximum CTR is what fascinates me and here's the rub. When you study, research and apply these SEO techniques, you do so in an ideal envoronment: America.

Here in Italy, there are no fulfillment agencies, back-end offices for rent and cheap web hosting businesses. What's worse, when you decide to sell something physical over the web, you have to get special permission from the Chamber of Commerce before you print out your first receipt.

It's a sign of just how sorry the Italian market is when the government has to stifle free market growth by filtering out all the irreputable sites that would otherwise spring up like mushrooms.

It's also sad that before you can even think about entering the still-lucrative web business market, you have to go 5 rounds with the government.

It would also be nice if we competing businesses had similar taxation requirements but there again, all things are anything but equal.

The answer lies in meticulous research, shrewed determination and blind faith.

Extreme socializing tours

2006-10-23T10:13:00.000+02:00

While we're all discovering how to navigate in the land of the social, some clever people have come up with a site designed to show newbies around the increasingly popular virtual worlds, like World of Warcraft and Second Life.

"Synthravels is the first organization to offer a complete guide service to all the people who want to make a tour in virtual worlds without knowing these new realities, even if they have never put their feet in these strange, synthetic grounds." says their site.

I don't mind admitting that these virtual communities scare the bejesus out of me. It's bad enopugh convincing clients to embrace social media. Virtual communities is pushing it waaay beyond credible.

Second Life recently got a credibility boost after Reuters opened an agency and IBM started holding corporate meetings there.

Having said that, it is a fascinating transformation in the way we represent ourselves. I'm not sure I've fully grasped the point of the original names requirement. I mean getting major personalities like, I don't know, Carlos Ghosn - CEO of Renault Nissan, to go online under the name of Bungo Kaloterakis seems to me the wrong side of lunacy, although having said that Renault does build some looney cars...

Sorry, can't stop now, I've got a virtual tour bus to catch.

Can you copyright Web 2.0?

2006-10-22T11:16:00.000+02:00

This is a good one.

There was a lot of speculation over copyright infringement at YouTube before Google took over the reins. Now it's gaining momentum and all the copyright lawyers have started dusting their suits off.

As it turns out, YouTube doesn't carry a direct responsibility for the content that appears on its site. They even say so on their guidlines page. I read a post by Mark Cuban over at CNet.

Basically, while it was starting up, no-body cared. Now it's a suit-wearing mega-site with the keys to millions of amateur/pro videos, it's washing its hands of all and any responsibility to the people that made it what it is.

Napster took us there a few years back and they were shut down with aggression. I don't see how YouTube can "host" copyright material and not be hung, drawn and quartered as Shawn Fanning was.

The safe alternative is Revver. But until I read Mark's mail this morning, I will admit this site had passed beneath the radar, which gives you some idea to its viral limitations over YouTube's.

I am wondering if the same applies to blog content. If you host a site which uses and/or refers to material written by others, and you give credits, links and all the rest, are you promoting them, or ripping them off?

In social networks, we are all footholds for each other. If I'm not allowed to use yours, do we both slip?

Marketing Secrets

2006-10-21T20:50:00.000+02:00

I saw an absolutely brilliant post by Seth Godin today. These top ten marketing tips account for nine of the obstacles I'm dealing with right now. The tenth - budget - fortunately isn't my problem on this one, although I am going to be looking out for those bright coloured alarm bells.

I'm trying to decide whether the image of a company, its history, its values and ambition are best represented by a mission statement or by a human being.

It's easier to follow a guideline as they are not the moving targets CEOs invariably are, but I can't help feeling it's much more human to follow a leader.

Also what happens when the PR agency comes up with the mission statement? Who gets the identity-kudos then? I might be wrong here, but my gut feeling is that a physical point of reference is easier to focus on than a slick slogan.

Now all that's left to do is convince "them"......

Last night a filter saved my life...

2006-10-20T17:24:00.000+02:00

I'm having trouble with Gator news.

Learning to navigate through a new program or service is bad enough, cramming all that information into a single day is asking too much of myself.

My eyes are bigger than my mind.

Is St. Francis online??

2006-10-19T22:53:00.000+02:00

I'm still in awe over my Umbria trip. There's always going to be a natural affinity between a Brit and that region of Italy. Hey, I'm no different the the next guy!

This week has been a sort of awakening. Seth repeats Nike's Mantra and he's right. When you do start something, the rest just can't stop itself from falling on you.

On the one hand I'm still finding my way around the blogosphere, carefully tiptoeing from blog to blog in a vain attempt to see life from the outside. On the other I have learnt that sometimes, people you are taught to fear are often your greatest allies.

High profile social media is like the main event at a Las Vegas a boxing event. Yet for every testosterone-filled thug bulldozing his (so far not her) way through other people's reputations, there are just as many willing to stick their own necks out for you.

Umbria was magical, but the blogosphere is even more surprising.

Umbria and the long tail of tourism

2006-10-16T15:26:00.001+02:00

Assisi 10,
originally uploaded by lingolook.

Shel gets his baggage sent to Azerbaijan, we get to bask in the fabulous Italian Indian Summer in Umbria.

Umbria is just south of Tuscany, and shares quite a bit with its famous neighbour.

Yet as it isn't Tuscany, there are far, far fewer tourists (although we did have to wade through thousands of American and German faithful in Assisi).

Which got us thinking. OR me at any rate. If I were looking for somewhere to escape to, somewhere to take my wife when we've had enough, I would choose the long tail of Italian tourism every time. It worked this week-end, why wouldn't it work again?

But as there isn't an aggregator, a collective, personal view of long tail tourism for runaway parents, maybe we just stumbled on an idea...

Anything to get out of Milan really ;-)

Scratching the surface

2006-10-16T00:03:00.000+02:00

I'm impressed. I never imagined blogging could be the new realm of like-minded professionals but this social medium has uprooted and tossed aside my fear of identifying myself and has, once and for all, demonstrated that even someone as far out on the long tail as me can add considerable weight to the debate.

I am a ghost writer. More than simply writing in someone else's shadow, for the majority of my clients, I simply do not exist. I've been hidden away for so long I almost forgot my identity. But then along came a spider, sat down beside her, and scared my fear away.

There is something magical about the moment something clicks. The instant it dawns on you that what you have been doing so far was just scratching the surface, and that if you push a little harder, you can actually overcome obstacles you'd become so used to they have become part of your scenery.

Call it inspiration, call it discovery but from where I stand, that moment is happening right now. What's really strange, is that the biggest encouragement has come from one of my client's single largest competitors.

This form of encouragment is, I believe, a clear demonstration of just how important mutual professional respect is for healthier comptetition and, ultimately, a better relationship with the market as a whole.

So many thanks to Richard for his unexpected yet thoroughly appreciated comments both on and off the beaten track.

Starting from scratch

2006-10-12T22:04:00.000+02:00

The ongoing discussion over at Shel Israel's blog is keeping me up at night.

Not only because it's the single most interesting thing I have participated in professionally for years, there is also a serious time lag between my input and everybody else.

I don't know where Shel is at the moment but I assume Richard Binhammer is in Texas, meaning he's on the ball when I'm tucked up in bed...

Still, it's a fascinating development, and one I am going to stay up for every step of the way.

When the dust settled...

2006-10-11T13:46:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I was part of the single most interesting event since I started blogging. That wasn't too long ago either so I guess *events* lurk around every corner.

Masked Blogger claims he's trying to reach Apple from the inside. He publishes an intriguing post and the world jumps. Apple has blogged!!

Within 12 hours there's even an *official* response from Dell's senior communications man and the thing looks like it's about to snowball.

But it didn't and in the time it took for most of the non-listening world to notice, the storm was over. Yet in just 48 hours MB had managed to raise enough dust to cover the entire Gobi desert.

The conversation has since moved on and MB is drawing his own conclusions. The one thing I truly felt is that some companies heard. No matter how far up or down the food chain, they noticed, gave opinions and shared their thoughts on the subject.

OK, I *defended* Acer and took a harmless pot shot at the press-release response from Dell but rivalries aside, an exchange of views took place and they weren't at watercooler level either.

Some of the points on MB's post today show that companies are both listing and willing to participate but also illustrate just how important it is for companies who come onboard the bloggeride to set the record straight.

Changing from the inside? More like an opportunity to battle it out.

2006-10-10T16:52:00.000+02:00

I knew this was going to happen.

Anyone who's read Naked Conversations will have noted the authors' persistent message: Apple doesn't blog. Google doesn't either. Be warned...

Yet someone has spoken up. The masked blogger has come along and reached out to Shel Israel in public (or perhaps in private is a better way of putting it). I share the masked blogger's predicament and fully sympathize with his frustration.

Millions of bloggers *get* this social medium thing. Yet just as many companies do not. While it can't be denied that the international business community has been slow to pick up on the arrival of blogs, I think it's a little unfair to criticize the slow-moving conglomerates for not having a blogging voice.

Some companies are slicker than others, faster to adapt to the winds of change. Granted this gives them an advantage, and the case studies of Kryptonite and even Scobles' close call with IE7's toolbar issues prove the validity of an alert presence, but you just can't escape the inertia and the firm grip of traditional, tried and tested media.

Having said that, I don't think this post was the most suitable place for corporate messaging, and Dell's Richard Binhammer made a brave move to post what is a shiney, carefully-written press release.

While having the Senior Manager for Dell's Corporate Communications underlying his company's commitment to hearing its customers can by no means be dismissed as a bad thing, you can't get away from the fact that it was a well-worded attempt to, how does Scoble put it? "..improve their image", at the expense of everyone else.

Now that someone has entered the argument *officially*, the best that could possibly happen here is that the major competitors slug it out. Thing is, as there's no-one else out there right now, I doubt that's going to happen in a hurry.

1-0 to Dell, but it should have been disallowed.

50:1

2006-10-09T12:58:00.000+02:00

This is well worth a read. Seth Godin spells it out again...

Common Sense - Everything Never Changes

2006-10-08T11:46:00.000+02:00

In 1776, just months before the signing of The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense, a strong defence of American Independence from England.

Being English, anti-monarchist writings like this weren't exactly on my school literature's top 10 list, meaning that I have only just discovered it's existence (thanks Nicholas Cage ;-)) .

I find manifestoes , essays or writings like this truly fascinating. In a world sullied by tales of Anthony Hilder's list of the "Brotherhood of Death", the thoughts and feelings of historical intellectuals, journalists and religious thinkers is downright purifying.

Right on the second page of the introduction, the raison d'être of governments is laid out clearly and succinctly, confirming the point I made in my last post:

SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others. (source: ushistory.org)

This pre-dates the Declaration of Independence... I find the contrast between the goals of man to better his own standing and the controls imposed by necessity simply astounding, even more so as these same contrasts exist today.

Modern-day conspiracy theories aside, I still think that blogs are the voice of a new population, the one that has been promised yet never realized ever since the arrival of the Internet.

It is a new ground, populated by pioneers and formed through an overwhelming desire to speak out, declare our individal worth and be heard by others.

Paine continues:

In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest; they will then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world. In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought. A thousand motives will excite them thereto; the strength of one man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in his turn requires the same. Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness, but one man might labour out the common period of life without accomplishing any thing; when he had felled his timber he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in the mean time would urge him to quit his work, and every different want would call him a different way. Disease, nay even misfortune, would be death; for, though neither might be mortal, yet either would disable him from living, and reduce him to a state in which he might rather be said to perish than to die.
Thus necessity, like a gravitating power, would soon form our newly arrived emigrants into society, the reciprocal blessings of which would supercede, and render the obligations of law and government unnecessary while they remained perfectly just to each other; but as nothing but Heaven is impregnable to vice, it will unavoidably happen that in proportion as they surmount the first difficulties of emigration, which bound them together in a common cause, they will begin to relax in their duty and attachment to each other: and this remissness will point out the necessity of establishing some form of government to supply the defect of moral virtue. (source: ushistory.org)

In Naked Conversations, Shel Israel tells of how he shared drinks with John Naisbitt who hit him with the declaration "Everything Never Changes". As I'm inclined to agree with this concept, it seems to me only a matter of time before the blogosphere evolves to such a degree that colonies will form controlled by regulating bodies.

Some convenient tree will afford them a State House, under the branches of which the whole Colony may assemble to deliberate on public matters. It is more than probable that their first laws will have the title only of Regulations and be enforced by no other penalty than public disesteem. In this first parliament every man by natural right will have a seat.
But as the Colony encreases, the public concerns will encrease likewise, and the distance at which the members may be separated, will render it too inconvenient for all of them to meet on every occasion as at first, when their number was small, their habitations near, and the public concerns few and trifling. This will point out the convenience of their consenting to leave the legislative part to be managed by a select number chosen from the whole body, who are supposed to have the same concerns at stake which those have who appointed them, and who will act in the same manner as the whole body would act were they present. If the colony continue encreasing, it will become necessary to augment the number of representatives, and that the interest of every part of the colony may be attended to, it will be found best to divide the whole into convenient parts, each part sending its proper number: and that the ELECTED might never form to themselves an interest separate from the ELECTORS, prudence will point out the propriety of having elections often: because as the ELECTED might by that means return and mix again with the general body of the ELECTORS in a few months, their fidelity to the public will be secured by the prudent reflection of not making a rod for themselves. And as this frequent interchange will establish a common interest with every part of the community, they will mutually and naturally support each other, and on this, (not on the unmeaning name of king,) depends the STRENGTH OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE HAPPINESS OF THE GOVERNED. (source: ushistory.org)

Witness b5media. Is this the future of blogging already in the making? Large communities of bloggers all regulated under one "colonized" roof? I can't wait to see how b5media develops and whether it spearheads a "controlled revolution" of a "revolutionary media".

If nothing else I can't wait to see what's left for us outsiders once the new powers have signed their own constitution.

Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. Freedom and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and reason will say, 'tis right. (source: ushistory.org)

Perhaps, though, when the dust settles, there will indeed be a long tail left over for the rest of us. After all if powerful colonoies of self-regulated organizations form, they will more than likely be listed enterprises with a responsability to their shareholders and financial backers to produce profit. That alone must surely limit their scope.

Everything never changes, you say? That won't stop some people from trying.

Legislation after the long tail

2006-10-06T06:50:00.000+02:00

I knew this was going to happen. 2 chapters in and I'm already hooked.

Finding out how our web-driven society is changing is like watching the DaVinci Code unfold in slow motion.

So the world of hits has become a world of niches. I like the sound of that.

Yet I do see a fly in the ointment. Normally technology and/or society changes, then governments legislate. In Italy for example, emails weren't recognized as legally-binding documents untill about two years ago.

They do catch up but often there is a worrying gap between the moment the change appears on the radar and the introduction of some new control, law or tax.

This gap is of course a land of opportunity for early adapters but when the opportunity for some turns into a benefit for the many and we reach the tipping point for whatever change has arrived, government legislation can and often does get in the way.

So what happens when all the bits and pieces I need to satisfy my chosen niche happen to come from outside my national legislation? Will the old guard obstruct even more opportunities? Come to think of it, how will national governments cope with infinite choice? Does web-based TV content signal the end for national television licences?

I for one sincerely hope so. If the supply-industry as a whole has to adapt in order to compete in a world of ininite choice, I don't see why governments should have it any easier.

Never underestimate what a blue fish can do for you...

2006-10-02T16:43:00.000+02:00

OK. Finished Naked Conversations and am really starting to see where it all fits together.

Thing is, this consumer-empowering standpoint really is so far from where I am right now and what I do that it's gonna take a pretty big yank at the wheel to turn this ship around...

I expect the Long Tail to be just as ground-shaking and equally difficult to get across to my "interruption" clients. I just wish I could get to some seminars on the subject. Lucky yanks ;-)

For now, I'll take Dori's advice: just keep swimming... just keep swimming...

PS I want to try and hook this blog up with some of my favourites, but I'm so wet behind the ears in blogsville that I wouldn't recommend anyone holding their breath. Can anyone out there help?

Silence is not golden

2006-09-29T11:41:00.000+02:00

Have any you read Shel Israel's post on the exploding batteries saga and Sony's reluctance to talk?

A number of years ago I was involved in a crisis management team set up to "protect" the dodgy management practices of a bank that was imploding. I was young and naive and it was one of my first insights into the corridors of power of senior bank management so I leapt at the chance.

At first no-one "saw" what was happening except for a single, stubborn online American journalist who just wouldn't let it drop but because he was alone, the PR spinners (my bosses) decided to keep silent. He went public and in a few days the story was global and the end of the road was in sight, as at that point, the snowball had grown out of all proportion.

To bare too soon?

2006-09-29T10:29:00.000+02:00

I have just finished chapter 9 of "Naked conversations" and it's made me realize what a steep hill I've given myself to climb.

The 10 reasons why companies shouldn't blog and the FUD concept (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) that "..reflects corporate inertia to changing existing systems" rang more than a few familiar bells.

There's a lot more to jumping on the bandwagon than a good leap. I agree that it takes focus and a solid foothold if you're going to avoid bloody noses.

So how is the 1D PR world I live in going to change and adapt to 2D dialogues? I'm not in the position to answer that question yet but it's one I've started asking myself.

2006-09-28T18:37:00.000+02:00

It was a busy one today. "Same old same old" springs to mind but lessons are there to be learned if we open our eyes and minds.

Today I learnt an important lesson and that was to find out about myself by going public with my thoughts.

It's not easy being innovative in one of the world's most creative nations accursed by age-old PR principles but it sure is fun trying to put new ideas and concepts into practice!

There are very few English/American copywriters in Italy (or at least I think there are) so in a way it's a lonely path but I have always felt that this country, it's creations and history needs a broader platform to shout about its true beauty so I'm looking forward to seeing and sharing just what can be done.

2006-09-28T13:00:00.000+02:00

Another day another change. At least that's what's happening in my life right now. It's all moving so fast sometimes it's hard to focus..

Re-track a little: up until January 2006 I was just a copywriter working, among others, for Acer Emea. Still am, but things are beginning to move. Fast. Acer's company's entire communication strategy is evolving and I'm right in the thick of it. How did it happen? Well it all started with a simple comment I made during a coffee break about the potential of web-based strategies. You know, interactivity, blogs, that sort of stuff.

Now I'm no communication guru, but I do "live" in PR and am quite fluent in the language. And that's where the problems started. I mean, even though the content of their traditional marketing material has shifted from technology to benefits (finally!), I can't shake that feeling that this form of communication is very much rooted in the past. There's nothing really wrong with it (I do put a lot of effort into trying to get the right message across), but it just seems a little, emm, flat.

Besides, there's just soooooo much more to Acer than mobility, performance and value for money. Does anyone out there actually know what Empowering Technology (I didn't create the name, honest!) actually is? what it does and, perhaps more importantly, why it got onto almost everything Acer builds in the first place??

But I digress

While on holiday this summer, I started looking into SEO techniques to spruce up the content and stumble across a treasure chest of combined knowledge I never knew existed. Web marketers like Michel Fortin introduced me to others like John Reese and my current favourite Ewen Chia and that was just the start. When I discovered Seth Godin it felt like my flat world had just been bent into a perfect circle, hurling me towards the awkward path of rediscovering who I was and re-learning everything I know.

Now I'm no slouch when it comes to picking up stuff online but obviously the path I've been treading (Italy? Acer?) was simply light years behind all this. And if anyone's wondering why I'm ranting, the answer's in the book "Naked Conversations" by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel.
Let's put this into perspective. I love Acer, it's products and its serious crack at changing things. OK it has a pretty lame mission statement but it does remain true to it's own promise. Perhaps it's finally waking up to itself.

Trust me, if Acer gets it's act together, we're all in for a treat.