Posts Tagged ‘social media’

A morning blogging in Birmingham

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

Another fresh spring morning in Birmingham and DigiKev is sitting on the steps of the ‘Floozy in the Jacuzzi’ by Victoria Square working on a blog post about the effects of social media and how it can benefit both businesses and individuals. He has decided to take his laptop into the centre of town to, in his mind, blow away some cobwebs and get some new perspective by writing in unfamiliar territory. He has done it before and knows it works, so, confidently he bashes away at the keyboard of his laptop while the rest of Birmingham revolves around him, hurriedly carrying out Saturday morning tasks, shopping frenzies and commutes to work. WebBrochure, an acquaintance of DigiKev is part of this melee of Birmingham society and enters Victoria Square from New Street and spots DigiKev doubled over his laptop.
“Hey Digi, what are you up to man?” asks WebBrochure inquisitively, he hadn’t seen DigiKev out with his laptop by the ‘Floozy’ before— actually, he thought to himself, he could’t remember seeing anyone he knew with there laptop out on the steps of Victoria Square before. DigiKev looks up and has to squint with the sun in his eyes; it is difficult for DigiKev to work out who is greeting him up until WebBrochure is directly in front of him to block out the suns rays.
“Alreet dude, not seen you in a while. I am just working on a blog post. I know it is random that I am doing it out here amongst the madness of the Saturday morning shopping rush but I am trying out blogging in different places at the moment. It kind of brings some clarity to what I am doing.”
“Blogging? You’ve lost me mate I haven’t heard of that before. I guess it is something web related?”
“Yeah that’s right; it’s a web log of personal events or, in my case, a log of articles on social media.” DigiKev pondered over why WebBrochure, who owned his own website hadn’t heard of blogging before as he explained to him what it was.
“To be honest WebBro, I am surprised you haven’t got one as you own a personal website.”
“Yeah, well you say it is a personal website but it is in fact more of an online store. I design and sell t-shirts you see. It isn’t exactly ecommerce but it makes me a few quid so can’t complain” says WebBrochure, rubbing his hands together while talking through the side of his mouth which causes his left cheek to screw up and eye to partially close. He would always talk like this in a very casual, laid back but down to earth manner. DigiKevs’ eyes brightened,
“Perfect! This is just the kind of business that can benefit from a blog and social media”
“Huh?” webBrochure was confused,
“Seriously” DigiKev applauded
“It will not only help you with the creative process of gathering together snippets of new design work into a journal but you can also get direct feedback and input from visitors to your store” DigiKev beamed. He continued,
“This in turn will also mean that you will be producing more content for your website so there is more for Google and other search engines to index, which in turn pushes you up the rankings. You will also gain popularity from this and the interaction with customers will mean they spread the word of your service. It is just like having a little shop down New Street and being able to talk with people that come in.” DigiKev was on his feet now, still clasping his laptop and taking WebBrochure through an example of a t-shirt company doing exactly that, using a blog to interact with web visitors.
“It all sounds well and good fella, but won’t all of this take a long time to keep adding to. You know, this is just a sideline business so I don’t want to get completely bogged down in writing every day” criticised WebBrocure.
“Not at all, with what I am thinking on how you could use blogging is to post up potential new design work and to ask for feedback from your web readers and customers. You are more than likely producing designs already and the blog engine has a user interface, like a login area with a dashboard where you just quickly upload your work. A quick few sentences of explanation won’t eat into your time. Everyone is busy, but everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. Just spend, oooh, I don’t know, 15 minutes every evening before bed adding design work or writing a few sentences. You will be content rich in no time.”
“What can I say Digi? It sounds great. I always thought that you build a web store, open the doors and in come a flood of customers. I have done some search engine optimisation, added some keywords and descriptions and all that jazz…”
“Search engines such as Google and Yahoo are getting cleverer with their algorithms my friend. If their little spiders find that you have fresh content added and updated regularly they will keep coming back for more. By providing a good service to visitors it will mean that you will begin to get linked to. You will also gain a certain authority on your area of expertise. Interact with web visitors and allow them input and your website will become, what we call, sticky. They will keep coming back for more. If you were to open up a shop in the real world you would have to market your wares and provide customer service otherwise no one would know you exist or no one would do business with you if they did. Same principals apply on the web!”
“Wow, I have been really missing something Digi, this is incredible stuff and makes so much sense now. Why haven’t I heard or thought of this before?”
“Don’t worry WebBro, there are plenty of web retailers just like you, you’re far from the last to see the light.” DigiKev chuckles. “Tell you what lets go and grab a cup of tea and chat some more about what you can do to make your website more social, fancy it?”
“Oh, would you mind? That would be top” WebBrochure says appreciatively. “You have got me thinking you see I can make all of my blog posts push different merchandise and sell, sell, sell…”
DigiKev interrupts “Nah-uh, that will be a very bad thing to do WebBro, you know how annoying it is when you walk into a shop and suddenly get pounced on by the shop keeper and shown different items and given suggestions, blah, blah, blah- well same thing in blogging. Don’t whatever you do make it too corporate or sales based or else you’ll come a cropper. Just talk with your visitors, show them what you are up to and about. It is all softly, softly and friendly.”
“Man, I have a lot to learn. Glad you can point me in the right direction or else I would shoot myself in the foot, cheers Digi, lets get some food too, I am getting peckish”.
“Now your talking my language” said DigKev cheerfully.
“So are many people writing blogs then Digi or is this something new?”
“Oh there are plenty, last count in December 2007, Technorati who are a blog search engine had 112 million weblog indexes. Blogging is a web phenomenon and is here to stay.”
“Looks like I am going to have to change my name Digi, what do you think?” said WebBrochure teasingly.
“Haha, yeah you are damn rootin’ tootin’ there WebBro, online brochures are old hat. It is all about conversations and interactions now…”

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Tags: birminghamuk, Blogging, digital media, social media, upYerBrum, writing techniques
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Plane talk on blogging and writing techniques: Part II

Saturday, February 9th, 2008

Good afternoon, this is DigiKev and I will be your captain today aboard this digiJet Boeing 737 from Turin to London. We will be cruising at 34,000 feet and expecting turbulence today as we look at ways to push your writing techniques to the limits and out of the comfort zone. We will be turning the seatbelt light off shortly which means you may release the clasp but we do recommend you leave it loosely fastened so you are not disturbed during the remainder of this flight. A Light refreshments trolley will be passing through which offers a choice of tea, coffee, water and soft drinks as well as a selection of hot and cold food which will be supplied by the cabin crew. Audio headsets are also available at a cost of £1 sterling or €1.75. We apologise for the delay today, this was due to a refuelling failure with one of the trucks at Turin. We are aiming to arrive into London Luton Airport at 5.15pm local time. I wish you all a pleasant and relaxing flight and am rest assured we will aim to keep turbulence to a minimum as we steer you through the possibilities available to you in keeping your blog writing techniques fresh and engaging. I will now pass you over to the cabin crew who will be performing pre-flight checks and taking you through the safety procedures.

Welcome to digiJet ladies and gentleman, my name is DigiBot and I am the big chief cabin crew drone. My fellow cabin crew and I will now take you through the safety procedures should we happen to make an emergency stop. In the event of an emergency, off site hyperlinks will be illuminated at floor level and can be found at the front, rear and centre of the plane. Linking to other websites that relate to your blog post will improve search engine rankings and credibility with readers as it shows you have researched thoroughly and are happy to provide links to third party websites where further information can be found.

During takeoff and landing we must insist that you remember that writing a blog post should be above all else a pleasurable experience for both you and your readership. Make sure that you are providing a quality service with good content. Making money or gaining fame and popularity from your blog are second to the enjoyment of writing and providing quality material. Above all else blog writing is the act of engaging in social media and conversing; making a quick bob or two is secondary. If it is seen that you are more driven by the money than by the passion for writing and providing good content, the blog may be too heavy for the overhead lockers and come crashing down, injuring you or a fellow passenger.

Should the oxygen masks be deployed during the flight please pull towards you and place over your mouth and nose, placing the elastic band over your head. This will ensure that when you write, it is in a style that is open and warm. Writing in your natural voice will come across to those that read your articles as welcoming and conversational. This is unlike the robotic drone voice you are hearing from me at this moment. Take note. Ensure you go to length in providing a full in-depth analysis of whatever the subject is you are talking about; gather and provide fully researched information before helping others with there masks.

If we must land on water, lifejackets are provided under your seat allowing you to create a joint blog post. Do not inflate your jacket until you are outside of the aircraft as it may impede your exit. Joint blogging is a technique that I have only seen before by Lee and Rhett. By inflating your lifejacket with a fellow blogger you could take it in turn to write alternate paragraphs or sign off your part of the blog and handover the next section to your fellow blogger. This is provided to attract attention. Should you need to top up with air or the jacket fails to inflate, blow through the tube at the top.

Thank you all for your full attention, we would like to leave you now on a final note that you can further make your writing interesting by using a characterised style or theme such as used in this particular demo. You may even use a dialogue conversation or interview. This list is far from exhausted and adding a personal touch or spice will keep visitors to your blog entertained, informed and returning readers. The captain has now turned off the seatbelt light, you are free to release your buckle and leave your seats.

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Tags: birminghamuk, Blogging, digital media, social media, writing techniques
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Plane talk on blogging and writing techniques: Part I

Friday, February 1st, 2008

Over at Epiblogger the guys Rhett and Lee have been writing a series of blog entries on how to get the most out of writing posts by trying different styles such as using a narrative or taking a first person view. This is a great way to liven up posts and not only makes it fun for the writer as well as a challenge, but hopefully will be appealing to the readership too. In my last two interlinking posts I used a dialogue between myself and a fictional client in the first instance and with Dr. Pete in the second. Now with this article I am writing it on an easy jet to Turin. Writing on a plane is a first for me and a rather strange experience, especially when you’re at the very back of the plane, yes that’s right, right next to the toilets. Lovely. Everyone seems to need to go one after another so every few minutes I can hear the flush of extraordinarily super suction force clearing the toilet bowl. That’s quite enough toilet talk— I just wanted to set the scene of why it is such a different experience to the comfort, solitude and peace of my regular blogging environment.

So what is the point of this article? Well mainly just to try out a touch of blogging outside of the comfort zone, try new techniques, inspire you, my readers to try different writing styles for your own musings and with any luck produce an interesting article in it’s own right. The idea that popped into my head when I began this was to try and produce a post which takes on the feel of being on an aeroplane, perhaps using the run-down of safety procedures that we receive on flights from the cabin crew/flight attendants. Alternatively maybe the captain’s tannoy announcement. So far you and I both know this hasn’t happened!

I felt it worthy to set the scene beforehand. This surprisingly now has developed into a two-part article. In the next there will be none of this faffing; straight into the style. And it will be written on my return journey so I can detail another snapshot of the cabin crew and captain doing what they do best. Until then, Ciao! In the meantime I am off to slide down some snow covered mountains with on a laminated board that my feet are strapped bound to.

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Tags: birminghamuk, Blogging, digital media, social media
Posted in Blogging, Social Web | No Comments »

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