DigitalAgency

I've moved to Google+

The world's moved on and so I have I.

I'm sure my seo pals might have something to say about me moving home to Google+

 But here's where you'll find my longer form writing. (And shorter form too of course.)

Why Google+ is keeping me up late, and getting me up early:

A weird thing has happened over the last few weeks, I've become obsessed, nay besotted with Google+

Exploring how I can use it, how my clients can benefit, my Missus, my dogs, (really), the possibilites are epic.

To be honest when I first started using G+ I had a hard time getting my head around it. Circles, Who sees what, Hangouts, Ripples, Sparks, Huddle..enough already! etc, etc

And then the penny, or several of them started dropping like Billy-O.

And I had some revelations.

1. In exploring ways to use G+, via Circles hangouts, photo sharing, search etc I was looking in the wrong place. There's a killer-app feature staring us all in the face, but very few folks are using it.

2. Author rank (in my humble, what-the-F-do-I-know way), is going to blow the doors of search. (And as I by-product, I wonder aloud, also kill-off Klout, Kred etc.? I was never a fan truth be told.)

3. It is still a bit, (oh okay a lot) of a ghost town, but that's to miss it's essential attraction. It's not the numbers 'inside' on G+ that matter right now, but the numbers 'outside' on Google Search. And with sign up numbers everyday,(for obvious reasons) going high and to the right, it won't be a ghost town for much longer.

4. It's Google. IT. IS. GOOGLE. Enough said.

5. I think the Google Wave and Google Buzz fiasco are reasons why + will succeed, not indicators of history repeating itself. Did someone just say, (rightly) your last chance is your best chance?

6. I don't know if you're old enough to remember and have been a user of Friendfeed, before it got bought over sadly by FB. It was before it's time/ahead of the game and awesome. Most of my friends who actually used it, got as hooked as me. I think G+is somewhat similar. The more you use it the more you get into it.

But one thing I have noticed when you hover over the profiles of many who've signed up, you get the Google equivalent of the tell-take Twitter 'Egg' profile/avatar. i.e Not yet fully converted/convinced default banner/cover/masthead.

Looking at how anyone uses G+ is a bit like looking at a Linkedin user profile.

When you know what to look for you can look inside a person or a brands 'social soul' and see whether they do indeed 'get' it or not, in about 37 seconds. 

7. Chrome Extensions like 'Extended Share' mean you can reverse plumb your social work from G+ to Linkedin, Twitter, your blog etc a really effective way not just to 'Manage the Message' but also 'Manage the Messenger'.

Expressed way better than me here by +Mike Elgan :http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218283/Elgan_How_Google_ends_social_networking_fatigue

Anyway, I know this has all ben a bit rambly and fan-boy'y, so I ask your indulgence and will wrap up here.

I'll maybe get a bit more specific further down the G+ track, along my learning curve to mix if not mangle my metaphors.

But thanks to G+ my 80 hour weeks have ramped up to 100 hour weeks. Not complaining, not bragging. Just time well spent.

An old, but still favourite, portrait of @ carolcoulter :

Cards on the Table:

A while back I noticed that some people where kind enough to go on Twitter, to tweet nice things about me, after I gave social business workshops within companies, and one-on-one social media mentoring sessions to senior executives.

So.

1. I did screen grabs of my favourite Tweets from those people bigging me up on Twitter.
2. I imported them to Flickr.
3. I pointed Moo.com the online business card service, that prints different images on the back of individual business cards, at my Flickr set. 
4. I got a great set of 50 business cards back in 4 days, all with different recommendations from clients on them, all for under a tenner.

Find me on Google+

Social Media Week @MotherLondon.

I just dug this out from 2010 when I was lucky enough to be invited by @MotherLondon to host a series of daily events during Social Media Week, cumulating in an awesome social media quiz of the year, compared by James Brown of @SabotageTimes. I set the questions, took the shots, didn't get the t-shirt.

Fireflies Ride 2005:

Riding with the Fireflies was a wonderful experience.

Even if I was last every day, and nearly got smoked by lightning atop of Europe's highest paved road, amid a horrendous thunderstorm:

Mobile Apps in the Enterprise Are the Future - Zendesk

Your laptop isn’t irrelevant yet, but it might be soon. Sales of web-enabled smartphones, tablets, and e-readers have surpassed web-enabled laptops, notebooks, and desktop computers.

By 2016, the number of mobile apps downloads are estimated to reach 44 billion and the worldwide online app market is expected to grow from approximately $6.8 billion in 2010 to $25 billion by 2015.

via zendesk.com

Posted via email from skip

BBC News - England

Family death man 'on medication'

New

A man suspected of killing his wife and two daughters may have been taking anti-smoking medication with possible anger side effects, an inquest hears.

• Funeral for mother and daughters
• Silence for Fordingbridge family

via bbc.co.uk

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Posted via email from skip

A day in the life of social media:

 

Nails some current social media stats very nicely indeed.

Reminds me a bit of Erik Qualman's important and damned useful short films promoting his great book Socialnomics earlier this year.

(These films in point fact):

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Breakfast with Mother:

I spent all of last week having Breakfast with Mother, every day from 8am-10am.

And what a delightful, enlightening and entertaining start to the day it was.

Designed to coincide, indeed compliment, Internet Week Europe, (#iweu), Mother created something a little bit special, and a whole lot different every day.

On Monday, the @motherlondon week was launched in a blaze of black and white by way of a specially designed tabloid commissioned from the Newspaper Club. (Mike shoot and show.) An irreverent look at the internet as a whole and providing a useful guide to many of the events throughout Internet Week Europe.

As good few score of Shoreditch start-ups, Miami Ad School, designers, geeks, students, clients, Mother staffers, #iweu overseas visitors and London based Digerati came along to get the show on the road.

On Tuesday it was 'Face Behind the Feed' and saw breakfasters hungry for an opportunity to mingle and meet with guest Twitter celebs: @dianainheaven, @chilean_miner, @whatkatiewore

Profile Portrait Wednesday brought in scores of visitors queuing to have their new online profile portrait taken by world class smudger Alan Clarke, (it also saw hundreds of folk from the Biscuit Building evacuated when the fire alarm kicked in halfway through my second Flat White.)

Thursday, and we were well and truly mobbed as we held The Social Media Quiz of the Year. Featuring teams from digital and traditional ageny backgrounds, spunky, young upstarts from the Young Creative Council, (aw! did I just say spunky? giggle), even a distinguished and very digitally savvy team from the House of Commons Digital Economy Bill All Party Parliamentary Group. (deappg),

Guest Quiz master James Brown, founder of Loaded mag and now the driving force behind the truly wonderful Sabotage Times interrogated 15 teams on their Social Knowledge chops.

In a close run contest, We Are Social (@wearesocial, @qwghlm, @pomfrida, @_vio_)  and the team 'Fried', (made up of Simon Andrews MD of @addictivemobile, aka @simonbigpicture, shrewdly partnering, or should that be leading from the front, a bunch of super-smart students) were neck and neck at the end with the same super scores.

So it went to extra-time with Fried emerging victorious, just pipping a plucky and impressively well informed We Are Social in a tense tie-breaker to carry off the Winners trophy.

Speaking of trophies, Friday's final day came all too soon, and with another massive turnout few people left empty-handed that day.

Why?

Because Mother was giving away dozens of their old ones in 'Pick up an Award from Mother' Friday.

And a fitting end to the week it was.

(I had my eye on the 1993 Bronze Gong From the Ad Club of Bratislava. Sadly I wasn't quick enough. Or smart enough to nab it. Recipients being eligible by doing some cool, creative, funny or both on Twitter in real time.)

And with that, last drop of AllPress Coffee (specially blended for Mother) was gone. The final bacon roll wolfed. The last croissant crumbled.

We think everyone left the building happy.

We hope most of the weeks attendees left a little bit smarter than when they came in, perhaps having met someone interesting, maybe learned something new in the social space, shared some digital insights, enjoyed the creative company of some www peers and pals.

Mother's modest ambition was to simply facilitate that.

To provide a place and a space to make something happen for a bunch off extraordinary people with a shared love and passion for all things digital.

A community of interest and vocation looking to change the world.

Hope they do it again next year. Loved it.

Disclaimer: I don't work for Mother, but like most people of course wish I did. Rather I'm a long-time friend of Mother's and have been ever since Day One. (I've even got the T-Shirt to prove it.) I do occasional digital projects for them and with them.

Having hosted over 150 Coffee Morning's (#EdCM), for Edinburgh's social media community over the last 3 years Mother thought my experience would be useful in helping 'Breakfast with Mother' happen.

I've also made professional capital, and passed myself off totally fictitiously as @founding partner Mark Waites uncle for well over 20 years. Something he has endured with great grace, good humour, and without having to resort to restraining order.

Posted via email from Mike's Blog:

T-Mobile meet SCNF.

When I saw this T-Mobile ad, that it was absolutely wonderful.

However when I read the comments, and saw a reference to: it rather took the shine of things

Not sure which came first but looking at the YouTube views I think the French have the nod. It's also wonderfully bonkers in a Harry & Paul Citroen ad spoofy way.

Posted via email from Mike's Blog: