Feeling like a rat... again

I'm feeling like a rat racer today albeit working from home. I have work, family commitments and digital addiction to fit into my day - no wonder I wake up at 5am most mornings!  

I blame Twitter. From an occasional user I have developed a habit now. The number of my followers is growing and it's kind of exciting, but I need to keep it under check or soon I will be tweeting trivial stuff, which I don't want to do as it's a "business" account.

I want to live in the real world! I suppose since it's raining and it's cold outside, no harm done today. Hopefully I will be back in the garden working on my cabin makeover soon. I do find manual work kind of "relaxing" for my wired mind.

Not much progress on the kitchen decluttering front, but my  #TweetsforSEO series is coming along nicely.

SEO success!

My business website is ranking on the first page of Google for my new chosen keywords, hurray! As I explained in a previous post about making money online, I learnt all I know from free sources available on the internet then applied some common sense. There is no magic formula nor dark art involved. 


I have touched on SEO in a feature I wrote on Suite 101 last year on how to create a website for around £40 and this is what I wrote about website promotion: "Once the website is up and running, a website owner needs to ensure it ranks well on search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. A website owner should try to improve search engine ranking by using SEO techniques. There is good SEO and bad SEO and some search engines have developed formulas for penalizing sites that use bad SEO. It’s best not to stuff a site full of keywords without backing them up with articles and sound information. At all times when a website owner is working on content, they should bear in mind that easy-to-read text is more search-friendly than word games or puns. It’s also a good idea to caption photos as they will turn up on image searches. SEO can be learned from free online guides and from online conferences or workshops." 

This feature is just over one year old but a lot of it still stands. If I may update that section a bit, I'd say, just worry about Google, then the rest will come. Of course more social media tools have become popular, such as Pinterest and BrandYourself. Twitter has become massive with its millions of users and LinkedIn rules the professional world (Facebook for business? Not really unless you sell consumer goods).

So how does an ex web dummy like me and ex young bright thing get to know about social media trends? Well, there is  LinkedIn  and its professional groups, Britmums for blogging and a very handy newsletter from the Social Media Examiner. Yes, it's a lot of reading, but I'm getting results and keeping up to date with what is going on in the digital world.

Watch this space, an ebook for social media virgins beckons....

Social media and relationship marketing for dummies

 Here is a brief, off-the-top-of my-head reflection on social media and relationship marketing, which I found among my drafts. I welcome comments.

A selection of social media tools

From wikipedia (click this para to read the full definition): "Relationship Marketing was first defined as a form of marketing developed from direct response marketing campaigns which emphasizes customer retention and satisfaction, rather than a dominant focus on sales transactions".

This concept has been carried over to the online arena, where relationships with potential customers are even more sophisticated and go beyond old demographic approaches. Take a hit TV show, whatever the target audience was in terms of age, gender, education or income, the reality is that the show is successful because it has broad appeal - which proves that interests and hobbies do trascend class, age and gender.

Brands are now keen for bloggers to feature their products and services. They are busy launching websites where they offer information, support and tools to build virtual communities that will generate sales and new customers. Welcome to relationship marketing!

Brands are also invading Facebook and Twitter to create a buzz around their products. There is no virtual space where a brand fears to tread - although, apparently, LinkedIn doesn't generate sales, despite the large amount of fake discussions.

So whether you have a degree or basic education, you are sophisticated or down to earth, you are working class or middle class, you are a Sun or Guardian reader, you are bound to find a website through which you can interact with like-minded individuals while being targeted as a consumer.

The market for consumer goods is mind-boggingly complex... take crisps: you get the down to earth crisp, the fun crisp, the sophisticated hand cooked crisp, the oriental or unusual flavoured crisp, the retro crisp (salt and shake).

TedxGranta conference part 2

Have you ever experienced discussing a job with an eager, potential client, only for them to backpedal when they realise you want to work from home? I have and it’s so frustrating. My partner thinks there is an issue of trust or possibly they would love to hire somebody for the job but they can’t, so the inhouse freelancer is the best their budget can allow! 

But back to the Cambridge TEDxGranta conference, where freethinking and bold ideas were not frowned upon! To recap, we had Session one with some amazing speakers and videos, a short conversation break (a bit too short as I was having fun talking to other attendees) then we went back to tiered seats to hear more inspiring, if not revolutionary ideas. I followed the advice given and sat near somebody different, so there was a mini-conversation before it all started again. The theme of the session was Let go and the contributions included:

• world-breaking ocean rower S. Outen  talked about her experience of rowing across the Indian Ocean in 124 days, including the highs and lows. She didn't gloss over the two Fs (failure and fear) and was quite modest about her achievements, which was endearing and made me hope I could do it one day (my sarcastic side gleefully whispered: "Dream on, you are not in your 20s and the closest you will ever come to rowing is hiring a punt"). Still, I wrote down her ABC: A for attitude, B for belief and C for courage. Which was very fitting because I need courage, something I discussed with the woman I was sitting close to when I requested a picture of the Lion from The Wizard of Oz. If you wonder how fairytales come into play, click here. 
• a video of J. Blakeley  on how social media can dispel gender myths. Research shows that women dominate social media, which is surprising to hear, but thinking about it, I can see it’s not. Women tend to communicate more than men and the internet is a great tool for those who feel isolated or want to chat to like-minded individuals – I can think of groups like Mummy Bloggers, a website like Mumsnet and professional organisations and networks like Women in Publishing, Women in journalism and Women in Technology, which sponsored two free places at TED (thanks!). Social media is also proving that the use of demographic data for marketing and advertising campaigns is old hat. On the aptly named World Wide Web, age, sex and even nationality are irrelevant - what joins people are interests. Blakeley mentioned the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which boasts fans of all ages and walks of life. Yet, if you do a market research survey, you are still classed by age, income, which newspapers or magazine you read... So getting to know what people love and dig is the key to digital marketing, not stale aggregates!
•  a talk by Anne Miller, a successful female inventor, whose message was: Give creativity a chance when you need change. It is historically true that in times of economic troubles, the totalitarian approach surfaces in politics - history can tell us that and what is happening today too. Creativity can be a valid alternative but not it’s just about thinking outside the box (that trite business-speak expression), as it requires: a clarity of purpose, structures for partnership and freedom, and democratised creativity. In three words, the aim is to be purposeful, involving and fun! What really resonated with me is the bit where Anne mentioned the importance of balancing individuality and conformity, which is something I have grappled with all my life. People have labelled me as mad, weird and eccentric.
• Halla Thomadottir talked about her experience of founding a financial company in financially-challenged Iceland with a colleague to inject feminine values in finance. She acknowledged that the reason her company is doing well is because it’s based on Risk Awareness, Straight Talking, Emotional Capital and Profit with Principles. She argued that women are not better than men or viceversa, they are different and we should celebrate this diversity and use it in a business context, which could do with more balance!
• a talk by Ian Price, a business psychologist who argues against the cult of busyness. In corporate culture, employees at all levels (but especially executives) are expected to work all the time, even at weekends. It all boils down to: you look busy, you look important. Another factor is the availability of addictive remote technology that doesn’t allow you to switch off and have time for reflection and relaxation. It seems our brain rewards activity with a release of dopamine, which makes me a dopamine fiend, as I cannot switch off. If you are interested in the medical aspect of this, click here.  So that’s why drugs never attracted me as a teenager, I had my own stash! I do love keeping busy but my motives are not those advocated by Ian Price, for me being busy is feeling useful and alive, so it could be work, crafting, volunteering or reading a book. I have depressive tendencies and I have finally located the source of them, it’s not being busy! Which explains a lot about my teenage unhappiness - in hindsight it was due to living in a small place where my ideas and ambitions were stifled. And that’s why I was buried in books, it was the only way to escape! So now I know I need to keep busy. Volunteering must be one of the best ways as there is no better reward than supporting people and being involved in your community. So overall, I understand the message here, but it’s not for me! Being busy is necessary for a homeworker like me – if I were working in an office I wouldn’t like having to work overtime - in my modest experience it’s either because the workload is not well organised or the company is understaffed, which are both really frustrating. Homeworking enables me to see my daughter, volunteer for good causes, work, follow my hobbies and be happy! Of course there might be a time when I have to go back working inhouse, but I will surely stay freelance! Only a truly flexible working pattern can tempt me again to join the corporate ranks.
• a video on the culture of availability by R. Gleeson, who talked about antisocial phone tricks.  I hate mobile phones so I didn't learn to text at speed. I touch-type so the keyboard is my friend, not itsy-bitty phone buttons. I have a basic mobile phone with no internet. I don’t know why I hate phones so much, I inherited this from my dad, I just dislike phones, which is ironic since I started my career in market research (of the phone variety) and then went into journalism. I am OK on the phone, I just don’t like it and would rather type an email any day! But then I tell myself I’m a writer, if I were a compulsive chatter, I’d be a salesperson. So down with phones and up with the net!

• Rowan Harvey brought woman suffrage into the 21^st century with her talk about women and politics, supported by intriguing facts and figures. Amazingly, Rwanda has more female MPs than the UK! Rowan believes that women are more motivated by single issues while men want to make a contribution to society in general, so they are more attracted to politics where you deal with multiple issues. This rings true, I know of many women who volunteer to improve services in their area and who are always up for fighting cutbacks in family services or education. On March 8 it’s the 100th anniversary of Women’s Day and I agree with Rowan, we need to make more of this day in this country! Click here to see my blog post about last year’s women’s day in Cambridge. 

• a video of P. Jagessar Chaffer on her movie Toxic Baby, which is about the pesticides and other poisons we pass on to the next generations. What made it really poignant is that Penelope was pregnant and I was sitting next to a pregnant lady, who was shifting uneasily in her seat. My daughter is four so my pregnancy is not too far away - I shared her unease. All these poisons that contaminate our food and water cause anomalies, birth defects and increase risks of scary conditions such as autism, asthma, leukemia and even affect male fertility. When we saw pictures of male frogs acquiring female attributes because of water contamination, the men in the audience were shifting uneasily in their seat too.
• a talk by Anne Dobrée on seed funds - how a small initial investment grew into 700 millions of follow-up funding. I’m no financial whizz, but it was quite interesting to follow. I’m not equipped to comment further but it was truly inspirational. Yet investment in companies and organisations has been down at rock bottom, which makes me wonder: How are we going to get out of this economy crisis? Cutbacks and tightening our belt are safe measures but don't necessarily foster enterprise.
• a video by J. Williams on redefining the concept of Peace. She won the Nobel Peace Prize for her battle to eradicate landmines and empowers women to fight violence, injustice and inequality. The talk ended with the rousing message of “Get off your butt and volunteer”. Indeed, hear, hear! And if you want to volunteer for a local parenting charity, get in touch with me...
• a talk by J. Rubin from RAND about crime and how we can deal with it using creative thinking and techniques from other disciplines. I really enjoyed witnessing how the techniques for monitoring red and grey squirrels can help find traces of illicit markets, such as drug trafficking.
• a video on the meaning of procrastination by J. Kelly. I am not a procrastinator per se as a reaction to procrastinating parents, but I did find a procrastinating streak in me. I love watering plants, I jump from idea to idea, I interrupt work to check emails and I overcomplicate things. So procrastination is not only about watching daytime TV, playing computer Solitaire, burying your head in the sand and hoping your problems will go away or daydreaming...

The second session over, we trooped towards the toilets and then upstairs. As expected there was no queue for the men’s toilet. This is not only because women were in the majority. My partner, who has been to the venue many times, says the Moller conference centre is more geared for male attendee - the men’s toilet has urinals, so it's a quick business if you are male. As there were only two cubicles in the women’s toilet on each level, I can see why there were queues on the day. 

Eventually I made it upstairs and had interesting chats over delicious and diverse food offerings. I cannot fault the Moller for catering, there was a rather yummy king prawn curry and tasty bean salad, not to forget the chocolate cake. There was a comedy moment when somebody briefly mistook me for a member of the catering staff while I was picking up a tea mug... my fault I suppose for wearing a white shirt and a black waistcoat! The other 'funny' (and very English) thing was that at coffee breaks everybody initially queued to use the same urns and coffee jugs by the door, which was silly as there were more urns across the table standing unused until people realised it was OK to jump the queue. 

I know these are minor points but not having a quick access to toilet and refreshments cut into the time I wanted to use for conversation and networking. I met a few women I had spoken to earlier on but made an effort to talk to other attendees (men and women) and sound them on homeworking or simply asking them what they did. Some occupations were less conventional than others. Due to my journo background (I worked for consumer publications, trade journals, you name it), I tend to be interested in anything so it was an eye opener to see so many different professions represented at the conference. Stay tuned for my last blog about the third session!

Social media for dummies (including my old self)

Simone Castello on Facebook

Simone Castello on Twitter

Simone Castello on LinkedIn

Social media is the buzzword doing the rounds in several media forums, alongside the likes of SEO copywriting. But what does the term social media actually stand for? Wikipedia defines it as “media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses web-based technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogues.”

This is a good way of putting it, but why are media pros mesmerised by it? Again Wikipedia’s entry is spot on: “One of the key components in successful social media marketing implementation is building ‘social authority’. Social authority is developed when an individual or organization establishes themselves as an ‘expert’ in their given field or area, thereby becoming an ‘influencer’ in that field or area.”

This explains why PR and marketing professionals are getting hot under the collar about it. But what are the tools and channels for building social authority? Wikipedia offers several examples – they are so widespread that even a technophobe with a dial-up internet access might, at some point, have been involved with at least one of them. Among the communication tools, we have blogging, microblogging (ie Twitter), social networking (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc), event groups (Meetup.com) and online fundraising (justgiving comes to my mind for the UK). Moving on, there are collaboration projects and authority building sites such as Wikis - Wikileaks is topical right now in the political arena. Then there is social bookmarking and social news, which include StumbleUpon, delicious, digg... And more categories involving photography, art, video, broadcasting, music and even product and business reviews. And let’s not forget the brand monitoring brigade with their Statsit... The more I read about social media, the more I realise that it’s like quicksand gobbling us all up. 

I have certainly come a long way from my virtual girl blog posted in March. Since then I have been thrown into the deep end of social media through SEO copywriting, my involvement with PR and marketing forums (where social media marketing strategies are discussed on a daily basis) and through my blogs, which carry affiliate marketing links. And let's not forget my personal interests and passions, all lavishly catered for by a plethora of websites. It's really sink or swim, so excuse me while I grab my virtual board and learn to surf this big tidal wave called social media...