Webbys Deadline Extended
December 24, 2006 at 5:19 pm
The deadline for entering the Webby Awards has been extended. That’s right - if you havent entered yet you’ve still got time. New closing date is now 26 January 2007. More info on the Webbys is here.
Back at the start of December I was interviewed by Krishna De for her wonderful Women in Business show. You can listen to the podcast here. Skip to 6 mins to get to me!!
No Christmas Cards - here’s why
December 15, 2006 at 7:16 pm
Because all the money we would have spent on sending you a card (design, print, postage (ker-ching!), writing, signing) and buying you a present has gone to the following 2 charities:
- Womens Aid - very worthy charity that looks after women and children who suffer abuse in their homes. When it all gets too much, finally, and they leave their home, it’s these guys who provide a semblance of normality. . . and a safe place to live. Read more…
- Concern Congo Appeal - because Tom Arnold’s postcards really do pluck at the heart strings. This latest appeal is great because it’s got such a positive vibe to it: it’s about rebuilding communities for people who are returning. You can read more about it here.
There probably won’t be a lot of posts up here between now and the new year, but I’d like to wish you a very happy Christmas and the best of luck, love, and joy for 07.
BMI’s Online Service
December 9, 2006 at 9:19 pm
We all love a cheap flight. And I’m signed up to receive email updates from pretty much all of the airlines that fly out of Dublin! There is one, however, that has been niggling me all year, and has just compounded that irritation by sending me an email about how they’ve improved their service.
I signed up to receive cheap flight info from this airline, yet this year I reckon about 50% of the emails in my inbox have been trying to sell me car hire, hotel accommodation, and insurance. This is not what I want, but unfortunately, there’s no way for me to filter the content I receive from them.
This airline is guilty of the cardinal sin of email marketing: it is abusing the permission I have granted to be marketed to by sending me info on stuff I don’t want. I’m sure the online marketing manager is delighted to be achieving on his or her marketing objectives - “increase enquiries about ancillary services by 30%”. Unfortunately, he or she is just about to be faced with a major increase in unsubscriber numbers.
My advice to BMI is to offer people a choice in the information they receive. And if they choose not to receive info on ancillary services, respect that and leave it out. When you look at the latest email, you’ll see what I mean - it’s an airline, yet all I’m seeing at a glance is hotels and car hire….view BMI Christmas 2006 Email Marketing campaign.
Heated Debate : My Reply
December 8, 2006 at 8:56 am
The day after the IIA awards I posted a comment about feeling violated at the Awards due to the pesky podcasters who were positioned at my table. You can read the post here.
This post has generated a lot of comment from all sorts of people who have strong feelings about digital rights, privacy, and other lofty ideas. A certain poster called Damien Mulley has voiced particularly strong opinion regarding Digital Rights Ireland. His tagline on his blog is ‘invisible people have invisible rights’ so let’s assume he’s got an axe to grind here…
I published his initial comments, but when another couple came in yesterday (his and someone else’s) - I took a stand - and decided against it. While I’m delighted that this has generated something to talk about, I would point out that the Brightspark blog is about running an internet business in Ireland. It’s not about the advocacy of freedom of information, publishing law, etc. I am passionate about encouraging others to blog. Especially when they have something to say, and a good way with words. So I really don’t think it’s a good thing to have a legal argument taking place here - it’s inappropriate, it’s off brief, and it could scare new bloggers away!
Damien noted that I didn’t publish his post and very kindly took the whole debate over to his blog. He titled it “Blogging Lesson for Brightspark”. I don’t like the title, it smacks of someone who’s been blogging a very long time and thinks they know it all. I would point out that I’ve been blogging 1 month longer than Damo, so I don’t need lessons in how to manage my blog. You can read on here.
Gerry McGovern Exclusive!
December 6, 2006 at 10:04 am
If you’ve ever wondered how they go about teaching web stuff in colleges these days, then get your eyes round Gerry McGovern’s new book, Killer Web Content. Last night I attended a world exclusive launch - the man himself was in town, and he gave a very entertaining presentation indeed on what he knows best - web content.
As a globally recognised “Web Content Guru”, Gerry speaks around the world, to the world’s leading organisations. He gets to work with cool companies like the BBC on reinventing their intranet, or Apple on what headlines work best to sell iTunes….God I’d love his job…
My criticism of last night was that he failed in the most basic of presentation rules - know your audience. He was speaking to a group of Irish web people and his only Irish examples from the web were Aer Lingus and Ryanair. He kept going back to them and I found it a bit tedious. There are other websites out there that could provide great fodder for his examples - if he only took the time to find them.
That said though, he had some good points to make, I’ve summarised his main soundbites below:
- Most intranets are ‘crap in a portal’! 90% of the content was deleted from Ericsson’s new intranet.
- Amusing point about how much web language is also the language of drugs! Hits, Users, and Dealers… He advised a client to change the language on its home page from ‘find a dealer’ to ‘where to buy’. This resulted in a 100% increase in traffic in the space of 8 days. The point is that all sites must use customer language, not the language of the organisation. [There's a wealth of Irish examples of sites that use organisation language!]
- Rich people are rich because they are cheap! Yes, it’s true. And we all know it. And on the web, we can be our true genuine selves, which is why ‘cheap flights’ has such high traffic and ‘low fares’ does not.
- Search words are the ones that people use to reach your site, but when they get there, they often want to read messages that give a different meaning! Like for example, MBA students will search for “executive MBA” but when they reach a site, they want to read about the potential for advancement of their careers. Challenging indeed, and that’s why search engine optimisation combined with web copywriting is so important. Not many companies out there offer both - we do. View our SEO and copywriting services for more info.
Of particular interest to me were the questions that followed. Largely concerned with hot trends, he was asked about Youtube and whether broadcasting is dead? Nope, was his answer, but now the population decides on what’s the next big thing - not some TV Executive or Advertising Person. He didn’t say it, but he implied that just because there’s a lot of stuff out there, it doesn’t mean that it’s better.
The other question was about the move away from reading online to viewing. This is something that’s particularly close to my heart. We at Brightspark have declared 2007 to be the year of the Flash Video. Gerry agreed that with broadband access improving, it’s definitely one to consider - but only where viewing will improve the user experience. For example, wouldn’t you love to get a cd showing you how to assemble a piece of Ikea furniture, instead of the paper instructions?
If words are more powerful, then stick to crafted written material.
If video or audio will deliver your message more accurately, then use podcasts or video.
If you would like to know more about how to convey your message online through video, do get in contact with us. We have some very interesting packages for anyone wishing to add something similar to the great presentations they do on salesforce.com to your site. And we’ll be showing off some of our work on this site in the new year.
