Great ideas, great marketing and even greats music is usually (not always) simple.
Beautifully magnificently, awesomely simple.
There is a habit, in our lazy use of language, of confusing the idea of simple with the idea of easy.
Making a point in a long rambling discussion is easy. It requires knowledge but because you have an engaged (or captive) audience, it doesn't require hard work to deliver that knowledge. It might be "long" work but it's not hard, it's not difficult. Anyone can do it with enough time.
What if you don't have a captive audience? What if you don't have time? What if you need to grab them as they drive by, digitally or physically.
The message you see or hear is often simple. Trying to make it simple is the hard work.
Don't think it'll be easy, don't do long and don't do complex. Don't be lazy
Do the hard work to make things simple.
Inspired by the guys at the #imuroadshow today :)
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Just shoot the bear
Bee's are a community that work together to produce food in the form of honey for the next generation. Bears don't add value and just take it for themselves
If you're adding value and someone is just taking it then fire (shoot) them.
Don't let them spam your blog, advertise on your facebook, add you on Linkedin or suck up your time.
Bonus Update: The video below considers some other options if you choose not to shoot the bear (and have time on your hands). Enjoy. :)
Bonus Update: The video below considers some other options if you choose not to shoot the bear (and have time on your hands). Enjoy. :)
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Grass Growers and Grass Cutters
A problem that is common in modern business and particularly in marketing is applying old thinking to a new situation, product, technology or problem and not realising that in the information age consumers can get informed and inform each other.
Football pitches through the ages
Once upon a time before pitch technology improved the average amateur teams pitch would get a bit bare. The solution offered to this was always “leave it alone and let the grass grow a bit” and all would be well.
The problem of course was that it never was and we perpetually had poor playing surfaces for our field sports. This is the old thinking.
Since the 90’s though the number of purpose built pitches has increased dramatically. The dissemination of knowledge about pitch care has too. So on our modern pitches we now expect good surfaces. An important thing learned along the way is that it’s not just about the grass it’s about the roots and the soil too. The more roots we have the stronger our pitch surface is, the more blades of grass we have the less likely we are to have pitch wear. So cutting grass shorter more regularly and aerating the soil is the best way to maintain a pitch.
So it bemused me no end recently to hear an older groundsman dictate on how he was leaving the pitch be and letting the grass grow to help restore the pitch. I didn't have much hope of an improvement in the quality of the playing surface. Old thinking, new era, informed customer.
Dangerous thinking
That’s the danger of applying an old way of thinking to a new situation and with this new generation of informed consumers, brand marketers especially need to be wary of the trap.
Remember these 3 things always before assuming that what you learned in a marketing or business degree course is relevant to the current situation.
Football pitches through the ages
Once upon a time before pitch technology improved the average amateur teams pitch would get a bit bare. The solution offered to this was always “leave it alone and let the grass grow a bit” and all would be well.
The problem of course was that it never was and we perpetually had poor playing surfaces for our field sports. This is the old thinking.
Since the 90’s though the number of purpose built pitches has increased dramatically. The dissemination of knowledge about pitch care has too. So on our modern pitches we now expect good surfaces. An important thing learned along the way is that it’s not just about the grass it’s about the roots and the soil too. The more roots we have the stronger our pitch surface is, the more blades of grass we have the less likely we are to have pitch wear. So cutting grass shorter more regularly and aerating the soil is the best way to maintain a pitch.
So it bemused me no end recently to hear an older groundsman dictate on how he was leaving the pitch be and letting the grass grow to help restore the pitch. I didn't have much hope of an improvement in the quality of the playing surface. Old thinking, new era, informed customer.
Dangerous thinking
That’s the danger of applying an old way of thinking to a new situation and with this new generation of informed consumers, brand marketers especially need to be wary of the trap.
Remember these 3 things always before assuming that what you learned in a marketing or business degree course is relevant to the current situation.
- The old wisdom, while accepted, may have been wrong even in the old world but we never had the means to test it.
- It may not produce the effect or results you were hoping for (and perhaps it never did)
- Do you want to run the risk of alienating a customer who is better informed than you about:
- The problem itself
- How easy it is to be informed about it accurately (If I know, why don’t you?)
- How you ought to communicate it
- The value of what you do
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Limerick Local Heroes - Town Hall Success
Last night saw the first main event of the Limerick Local Heroes event - the town hall meeting. It was, by all definitions, a complete success. Many thanks to all of the co-contributors and a big round of applause to Tony Frawley for getting everything going, keeping it going and for standing up and introducing everyone!
It was chaired by Aonghus McAnally - who gave up so much time for us - and was a superb presenter and speaker.
It was hugely inspiring - there was so much feedback - and everyone was positive. It was everything we as a group wanted, and it was great to see that there was only a message of solidarity and support. We had no idea that so many would turn up - but we're pretty glad we planned for it. With about 160 people pre-registered, we still had no idea of how many others would turn up but we were so happy to see the Strand Hotel fill up so quickly!
Support from the Strand and Absolute Hotel has been superb. The Absolute has been "housing" the many meetings that the event organisers have held to prepare and plan over the past 3 months (and I've only been a small contributor) - and the Strand generously and similarly donated the fantastic Shannon Event Suite.
Fair play to everyone and all of the volunteers who got involved - anonymously and without self promotion - it's so good to see community/altruistic spirit at times like this. And to many the people who gave up 3 hours of a Monday night in January on a whim of a chance at watching something happen to make a difference.
Also - super to see so many people who have moved to Limerick become so involved. Limerick is as diverse and as friendly as it is historic and traditional.
I think we all loved the Monorail idea - who couldn't but be reminded of the classic Simpsons Episode featuring the town hall meeting to propose a monorail? Absolutely brilliant - and with all of the colleges and skilled engineers we have, a chance to revisit an idea that has become a worldwide obsession since the 1800's - cheap, easy to build transport for everyone.
Thank you to everyone!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Public Town Hall Meeting for Limerick Local Heroes
Limerick Local Heroes are inviting the people of Limerick to attend a townhall meeting to discuss the project and how people can get involved. The meeting will take place on Monday, the 30th of January at the Strand Hotel in Limerick. More details here.
Tony Frawley, spokesperson for the Limerick Local Heroes Steering Group, explains
“Limerick Local Heroes was born out of a frustration amongst genuine Limerick people drawn from the arts, business, sporting & community sectors who believed their voices haven’t been heard in developing a future vision for Limerick, particularly in terms of job creation."
The Limerick Local Heroes initiative is not for profit and the steering group behind the initiative is made up of individuals from all sections of Limerick society, business, sports, arts, community, education all of whom are giving their own time to developing an environment for job creation.
Those who are interested in attending can pre-register at http://llh.eventbrite.ie/?ebtv=C
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Limerick Local Heroes | Be the change
I've always thought it was important for local citizens to support their city - take pride, responsibility and get involved in whatever they can. Limerick has been an employment black spot for a very long time. In fact, it seems like it's been that way forever. But something is afoot to change it - Limerick Local Heroes
It struggled to get a University - and only when an American entrepreneur philanthropist decided to back (read: fund, pay, do it) and it struggles to get other things - like developing citizens who can believe in themselves, their city and their county. Limerick is the underdog of the underdogs. The National media pour scorn on Limerick - as if to point out that living in the overpriced, traffic choked capital isn't so bad because it could be worse - you could live in Limerick, where presumably people are shot dead just for trying to go outside to find water or charcoal.
Its a city that struggles with itself. When your own government tells you can't then you begin to believe it. The best leave. And then come back and find that the people who stayed behind now demonstrate a feeling of collective abandonment.
But those are just feelings. The thing is that Limerick is a terrific place in my opinion. And I grew up in the place that was just voted as the top destination on the planet: Cape Town.
There are fantastic things happening in Limerick. And Limerick is made up of lots of really smart, interesting, talented and lovable people and includes people from all over the world who now call it home.
So lets highlight this a bit by supporting the Limerick Local Heroes Initiative, based on the incredible success of "Can Do" recently exhibited by Dundalk on the RTE show, "Local Heroes - a town fights back".
Great to see many of the faces from Limerick Open Coffee and Bizcamp Limerick there (mainly Gabriela Avram, to whom this city owes a huge debt of gratitude and high praise for her tireless efforts in promoting the city, educating the city and creating so many positive events that include the very successful 3D Camp amongst many more).
The problem with blaming the government for the lack of progress in dealing with job creation and economic success is that holding them responsible for something that they know nothing about is frankly, absurd. The government needs to create the right conditions for economic activity to take place: Infrastructure, Education, Security, Enabling Trade. There are some interventions that are super necessary - enterprise ireland, the IDA, regulators. But frankly, entrepreneurs have to be the small in SME. Nobody is going to do it for us.
What makes America great, in my opinion, is Americans. They take pride and responsibility. They've believed in the unbelievable and made it happen. Now its our turn: after all, where did most Americans come from?
Some of the many success stories in Limerick include: Analog Devices, Dell, Vistakon, Cook Medical, LIT, The LIT LEAP Programme, The University of Limerick - which includes Leroy, Aughnish Alumna, Wyatt and so many more.
Follow the Local Heroes Limerick campaign on Twitter via the hashtag #limerickurmylady and on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/localheroeslimerick
Its a city that struggles with itself. When your own government tells you can't then you begin to believe it. The best leave. And then come back and find that the people who stayed behind now demonstrate a feeling of collective abandonment.
But those are just feelings. The thing is that Limerick is a terrific place in my opinion. And I grew up in the place that was just voted as the top destination on the planet: Cape Town.
There are fantastic things happening in Limerick. And Limerick is made up of lots of really smart, interesting, talented and lovable people and includes people from all over the world who now call it home.
So lets highlight this a bit by supporting the Limerick Local Heroes Initiative, based on the incredible success of "Can Do" recently exhibited by Dundalk on the RTE show, "Local Heroes - a town fights back".
Great to see many of the faces from Limerick Open Coffee and Bizcamp Limerick there (mainly Gabriela Avram, to whom this city owes a huge debt of gratitude and high praise for her tireless efforts in promoting the city, educating the city and creating so many positive events that include the very successful 3D Camp amongst many more).
The problem with blaming the government for the lack of progress in dealing with job creation and economic success is that holding them responsible for something that they know nothing about is frankly, absurd. The government needs to create the right conditions for economic activity to take place: Infrastructure, Education, Security, Enabling Trade. There are some interventions that are super necessary - enterprise ireland, the IDA, regulators. But frankly, entrepreneurs have to be the small in SME. Nobody is going to do it for us.
What makes America great, in my opinion, is Americans. They take pride and responsibility. They've believed in the unbelievable and made it happen. Now its our turn: after all, where did most Americans come from?
Some of the many success stories in Limerick include: Analog Devices, Dell, Vistakon, Cook Medical, LIT, The LIT LEAP Programme, The University of Limerick - which includes Leroy, Aughnish Alumna, Wyatt and so many more.
Follow the Local Heroes Limerick campaign on Twitter via the hashtag #limerickurmylady and on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/localheroeslimerick
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Techspectations - SEO & Social Media - great day for IM Geeks
I was delighted to be at DCU yesterday to see the speakers and audience at the latest Techspectations event. Its the second one I've attended and I was very kindly asked to join the Q&A Panel at the end. It was by far one of the most interesting discussions I've seen with some great questions from some very engaging members of the audience.
Who's Who
+Gillian Muessig (CEO, SEOMoz) @seomom http://www.seomoz.org
Anne Kennedy (Beyond Ink) @annekennedy
Evan Fishkin (Slingshot SEO) @efishkin http://www.slingshotseo.com
+Alan K'necht (Digital Always Media Inc) @knecht http://www.digitalalwaysmedia.com
+Krishna De (BizGrowth) @krishnade http://krishnade.com
Rick Kelley (Director of Sales- EMEA at Facebook) http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickkelley
We held a free Techspectations event today at Dublin City University in conjunction with the LINK Research Centre, North Dublin Chamber of Commerce and DCU Business School. The event was entitled "When Search and Social Collide" and Master of Proceedings as our very own Sean Donnelly (@Seanog1982).It was a really enjoyable day with a lot of high level and technical knowledge being handed out. As I was invited to sit on the panel, I also got to meet some absolute legends from the world of SEO and Internet Marketing, which included SEO Nuts Alan K'Necht, Gillian Muessig, Anne Kennedy, Evan Fishkin, our "own" Krishna De and Rick Kelley from Facebook.
You can read the rest of the post on Theo Lynn's Google+ page
Who's Who
+Gillian Muessig (CEO, SEOMoz) @seomom http://www.seomoz.org
Anne Kennedy (Beyond Ink) @annekennedy
Evan Fishkin (Slingshot SEO) @efishkin http://www.slingshotseo.com
+Alan K'necht (Digital Always Media Inc) @knecht http://www.digitalalwaysmedia.com
+Krishna De (BizGrowth) @krishnade http://krishnade.com
Rick Kelley (Director of Sales- EMEA at Facebook) http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickkelley
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