February 2011
1 post
6 tags
Get well soon Rob
He is regarded as one of the best drivers of his generation, some regard him as one of the best of all time, but today Robert Kubica’s career is hanging on by a thread after partially severing his right hand and receiving multiple fractures to the body after a rally accident yesterday. What he was doing rallying 5 weeks prior to the start of the championship is a question that has been lauded...
January 2011
8 posts
3 tags
Decency begins with a 'Good Morning"
It has only been 3 days into a new job, and whilst my time there is very young I have noticed one thing which makes my day compared to my last post. People have the courtesy to say “good morning”.
Now it’s not a big thing is it? Basic human courtesy which is fitting in any society in any country around the globe.
Now, in my last job, I had the pleasure of working with some really nice people,...
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Guitar hero: no, not the game that everyone is...
The other day I came across an old video on youtube of Hotel California and it reminded me of the romantic notion that I had when I was a mere boy and that I wanted to learn to play guitar; in some ways it was the epiphany I longed for. However it was only until I turned 17 I turned my hand to it. 11 years later I have by no means mastered the art but here’s to hard work and sacrifice!
It then...
Anonymous asked: Sport is sociologically defined as skilled, competitive with physical requirements. I am not a golfer. But there are physiological demands. Motor racing in general, rely's heavily on car design, research and car construction. We've recently seen how important the right car is, and potentially how the right car can dictate success or failure. The ability and of course fitness of drivers...
Controversy for today: Golf is not a sport...
I don’t like golf. I never have and probably never will. It seems too arduous to be lazy yet too flimsy to be considered physically strenuous.
To the avid golfer, the conversations always reverb around “we’ll it’s not as easy as it looks” or, “it’s one of the most skill demanding sports going”. I don’t doubt for one second it’s easy, and nor do I doubt it’s extremely skillful. I do however doubt...
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"I'm in a serious relationship"
Oh mr President when will you learn? My disdain for the man has increased ten fold after his public appearance on one of his several TV stations proclaiming that he did not have illicit affairs with a minor, and his defence for the whole case was… “at the time of these allegations surfacing, I have been, and continue to be in a serious relationship, all of which I have kept quiet to maintain...
Anonymous asked: I'm a fan so don't take any of the below the wrong way.
Why don't you have room for questions or comments following your blogs?
Whilst I understand the volatility of the comments made regarding taking oil, your analogy to the scenario in a shop isn't accurate. Whilst there have previously been issues between the middle east and the USA, they are...
Why don't you have room for questions or comments following your blogs?
Whilst I understand the volatility of the comments made regarding taking oil, your analogy to the scenario in a shop isn't accurate. Whilst there have previously been issues between the middle east and the USA, they are...
5 tags
All in the name of liberation?
Imagine the scenario.
I own a convenience store. One evening whilst minding my own business serving some little old lady, a man walks in with a gun, and says “give me all of your money” whilst knocking back on the five fingered discount of liquor he has just so kindly taken from MY shop. Upon me emptying MY till, all of which I never asked him to do, never wanted him to do, he gets...
December 2010
2 posts
3 tags
November 2010
3 posts
5 tags
The internal censor button
“Can I contact someone at Twitter about a post that was just a little too offensive?” was the question I was greeted with this morning. “Yeah, there is an admin that you can get in touch with” was the chorus of reply’s that resonated between fellow colleagues.
It had transpired that one of my colleagues, Becky, had seen a twitter message this Sunday from a well know industry person that was less...
4 tags
I'll be back...
I am not going to blog for the sake of blogging. Recently I have struggled to find content for my blog. Maybe it’s down to me writing pretty much every day, and being burnt out from it all, or maybe it’s because I have lost that spark of originality I had, but quite sincerely I find it hard right now.
I am struggling, and whilst this is not a plea to anyone in particular, if you have...
October 2010
3 posts
5 tags
No need to get lippy I am doing this for charity
Around 2 weeks ago I was asked to participate in a sponsored moustache growing event for charity. After I stopped laughing (and if you know me, you’ll know why) I carefully thought about it. Yes, that’s right I carefully thought about it.
The event known as Movember occurs once a year and it was originally started several as a game between friends. Since then it has become somewhat...
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Jamie Oliver should either be mad or laughing in...
Now, this is traditionally the kind of piece I wouldn’t write. You know the sort, the one where a chap who isn’t the world’s best marketeer tries to talk about Marketing in a way that Seth Godin could appreciate and then use for his own mundane blog writing.
Anyway back to my point, which I hope is quick and easy to understand. The other night I was watching Jamie’s...
September 2010
5 posts
4 tags
WatchGreat video from this year’s social media summit
4 tags
who am I?
The ever burning question for web companies nowadays is who am I? Their identities are either fully integrated services or specific niche areas who can concentrate on one particular area of the web. And whilst most are moving to a shift of “let’s hit as many markets as we can” I find it interesting to read that Google may be worried about Facebook. A recent statistic has shown that more people...
3 tags
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August 2010
8 posts
4 tags
amazing touch screen technology...
Mashable have posted an unbelievable tool which I can see having a huge impact on all our lives within the next 5 years.
Touchscreen technology has been around for a while, but this hardware goes into any non metallic surface and can have multiple users - great for presentations, schools and medicine.
For more information read the full article here.
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the perils of annoying your peers
“Russ, what have I done?”
A question you would never give one of your superiors at work, but Russ being Russell Hirst and a social media manager he was best equipped to calm my nerves. “Have you got many followers because of this?” ermmmm “an extra 40 and counting”. Russ looked at me, I looked back and he said “good, that’s how you get them”.
The incident had only happened 15 minutes earlier,...
5 tags
why there should be a social media etiquette...
Social media has broken down the barriers of communication in a lot of ways. It’s easier for us to make contact through dedicated real time channels. (And if nielsen’s latest report is to be believed, then we are emailing less and talking more through public arenas) We can also trend topics through veracity rather than mere participation, and we can gather sentiment of topics being...
July 2010
8 posts
3 tags
the proof is in the viral...
I was confronted with a great question the other day, “can social media really increase my revenue?”. To answer this in a mere paragraph or blog post would be a futile attempt to entertain even my notion of fun.
Gary Vaynerchuck, Brian Solis and Chris Anderson would be the best people to talk about this in depth, and in fairness they are the gods of the marketing mainstream.
What I...
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is the free entertainment model sustainable?
This was a post that I wrote last year, but still think is relevant to this day. Especially as the free business model grabs our life even more with the digital world we live in!
We had the dot.com crash of 94, then another in 01; but this only spurred the internet to bigger and greater things. Software developers at various universities amalgamated skill set and knowledge and gave us sites...
a bit of an apology to Foursquare and Gowalla
A while ago - and yes sorry about the time it’s taken to get a new post up and running - I gave geo-locating services such as Gowalla and Foursquare a little bit of a ribbing. I was worried about the security aspect left by the user if people were publicly announcing where they were; I still am. But where my apology lies is that the benefit these services can provide to businesses are not being...
still alive...sorry
Hi all,
One of the things I advocate is that blogs should be kept up to date as much as possible, and I think it may have been a fair few weeks since doing so. Either way, just wanted to say that I am alive and a new post will be coming soon. I somehow managed to let this slip, but never fear I will get back to you all shortly.
Apologies and thanks
Gino
June 2010
6 posts
Loyalty, what loyalty?
Loyalty is a big word now probably more than ever. Friendships are based on them, and businesses fight for it. Today, with the economy as fragile as a new born, loyalty is fast becoming the fighting ground.
Brian Solis has recently discussed how social crm has and will be the future for buisnesses in these “desperate” times, and I for one can’t help but agree with him.
My...
“I hope there is no italian fatwah for this!”
– http://tv.repubblica.it/copertina/bono-vox-gioco-online-contro-berlusconi/48100?video
May 2010
11 posts
5 tags
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a quick shout for the good people of el gazelle
So, one day Myspace came along and changed the way we listen to music and discover un signed acts.
Now, I don’t really do much with Myspace apart from monitor brand traffic and discussion for clients, but I thought I would give a nice little shout out to one band.
I currently work with the guitarist (Rick Hyde) and they have some proper northern music beats - good stuff indeed.
Check...
Social privacy begins with the user
Today, the observer has an interesting editorial piece on how social media is being “misused” by biological parents “stalking” the children they have given up for adoption.
Whilst social media has opened up the avenues of communication and sharing, this is one of the many facets of social media that I worry about. It’s no secret that privacy has become a major issue...
4 tags
agrooved and smitheadcreative team up
agrooved and smitheadcreative have announced a collaborative partnership focused on delivering social media solutions backed up with interactive design and focus for social media outlets.
agrooved director Gino De Blasio says of the partnership “working with smitheadcreative will allow agrooved to provide clients with some fantastic creative work, whilst maintaining a purity to the social...