Blog Post from the Bush of Stewart Island

One of the fundamental rules of blogging is to keep on subject. My subject would be best described as “Communications Technology for Business”.

I’m sure that the irony of me writing this post with pen and pad while sitting in the bush on Stewart Island will not be lost on you.

The nearest town is a solid day’s tramp south; my two hunting/camping companions are at different ends of the Murray’s Beach block we have called home for two weeks and all I can see in any direction is trees, moss and fern.

I have forsaken technology for a more primal hunter/gatherer lifestyle. My cell phone is of little use as Vodafone have no coverage here, so the only real modern tools at my disposal are a battery-powered lantern to light my tent, an LED headlamp and a torch.

We cook our meat and other food by campfire and brave the elements as best we can. For early May, considering we are so far south and despite the rain, it is reasonably warm. One of my companions is my father – the reason I have made this trip. He brought me here at 16 and that was 30 years ago now so I thought it was well time I made the effort to spend some time with him again. He has made the pilgrimage to Stewart Island almost annually, this being his 25th trip.

Making the effort to spend some quality time with people certainly helps you to understand them better and more importantly, to appreciate them. Dad’s knowledge of the bush, its flora and fauna has amazed me. Where I see endless bush, he points out endless varieties of native plants and shows me how to use them for medicinal and other purposes. His skill has taught me a valuable lesson in how to make what would be to some, basic survival, into a relative luxury by the application of common sense and practical know-how.  This is something I will apply to my everyday and business life moving forward, we are all capable of so much more than the self-imposed limits we bound ourselves by whether deliberately to be safe or subconsciously because of fear.

My fathers bush dexterity also has extended to the cookhouse. A few tarps, a table built out of manuka poles with a thatch top and a campfire have produced meals consisting of venison steaks, stew, pot roast, scones, pikelets, “Billy” bread, and “Floaters” – which are reputedly a handed-down Maori version of fried doughnuts (complete with sugar and cinnamon coating with long-life whipped cream and jam). We’ve also dined on paua fritters on a few different occasions and we have yet to try our luck at fishing, given we are on the coast. Needless to say going hungry has been the least of our concerns.

The removal or escape from technology certainly has been refreshing. Its forced retirement has enabled me to temporarily abandon responsibilities (and stress) that used to take up the majority of my working day. Of course this has done little good for my business as being “off the radar” means that I would quickly become irrelevant in today’s fast paced, need it now society. I loved every second of the isolation I have experienced but would I forsake modern technology for it, I think not.

Paid Tweets Start Tuesday – Is the end of Twitter as we know it?

A little bird told me that we will soon be seeing Twitter move into revenue generation mode, it had to happen eventually. Before we throw our hands up and say it was all too good to last this may actually be a turn for the good, from a marketers and consumers perspective at very least.

According to Mashable the new platform called “Promoted Tweets” is to launch next Tuesday afternoon (US Time) beginning with promoted tweets appearing in Twitter search results.

The ability to pay to get your self above the rest of the conversation on the surface makes good sense. The roll out will start with search results then enter the Twitter.com stream and third party applications like TweetDeck and Tweetie with only one advertisement appearing at a time.

Like any good social media platforms they are basing the introduction and expansion on how users react. From where I sit now, being able to interact in real time with an advertiser on a product that is relevant to my immediate interest makes sense. Like we have accepted Social Media so readily I believe this advertising platform will give more value than we may credit it for. Time and social commentary will tell all.

Suggested posts to read on this topic: New York Times, Advertising Age and Mashable

The Business Case for Social Media - Why You Can No Longer Ignore It

Yesterday, Sunday the 21st March was Twitters 4th Birthday. Last month Twitter hit 50 million tweets a day and Twitter as a word is to be accepted into the Collins English Dictionary. When was it you first heard about Twitter? I suspect for most it was within the last year.

This months NZ Business Magazine has a cover story headlining “The Business Case for Social Media - Why You Can No Longer Ignore It”. In this story they make some bold statements which include “Anyone that says they don’t have time for Social Media is just ignorant of what the benefits are” and “The longer you leave getting started in Social Media the harder it will become”.

This is of course opinion. Should we just accept this form of scaremongering journalism on face value, I think not. I would recommend though that if their claims have any sort of merit it may be worth the effort of a little research. I would suggest a great way to do research about Social Media is by using Social Media itself. Here are some great places to get started:

• Twitter – people will give lots of shorts sound bites and point you toward some valuable online resources, and it’s free.
• Facebook – Join a group of likeminded folk and share in some discussions, and it’s free
• LinkedIn – this one is for the grownups. Join groups that are oriented toward your industry or niche then watch or engage in the forum discussions, and this one is free too.

While you are conducting this research you may accidentally discover some alarming side effects of the Social Media platforms you have just introduced yourself to:

• You may become a little better informed
• It may actually become apparent not everyone in cyber-land is a con artist and that there are some genuine folk that are there offering good advise that will help you grow as a person and develop as a business
• You may gain a better insight into the power of Social Media
• You may actually get noticed by existing or potential customers who will be reminded of why you are more important, accessible and relevant to them than your competition are.

If you still don’t get it and decide that it’s still a waste of time then simply delete your profiles, turn off your computer and go back to the counter to wait for the customers to file in the door like they always have.

Twitter And The Missing Cat

This post is dedicated to those who use Twitter to listen rather than just make noise, to the few who genuinely care enough to take some time out and help others who ask for it and make the lives of those around them that little bit better. Thank you, thank you.

Our cat Yasmin went missing last week. Cats do that sort of thing; they demand food and respect and have the run the home on their terms. If they decide to go on a roaming adventure then so be it, that’s what they do.  Yasmin was a rescue cat, found on the street in a terrible state as a kitten; she needed a lot of care and attention at first. She was a timely gift for our daughter Maggie on her 8th birthday and much loved.

At first we were not too concerned that Yasmin was not in the kitchen demanding her breakfast on Wednesday, we just assumed she was off having another one of her adventures. Though not a year old she was a tough cat that had ensured all other cats in the neighbourhood respected her territory, though often spotted venturing over the fence investigating the domain of others. She loved climbing trees, especially when we were watching (such a show-off) and was always waiting on the drive for our kids to arrive home from school so she could stretch out and get lots of attention.

After an absence of two days we were touched by a handwritten note from Maggie saying “I miss my cat but don’t know what to do, I need your help”, it was a timely call to action. We checked the usual websites and uploaded her details. It was then I said to Maggie that we would try Twitter. I didn’t think this was going to find our missing friend but what did happen was quite amazing.

The great thing about Twitter is its immediacy, as soon as I had posted a picture to TwitPic and done a couple of Tweets we started to get all sorts of valuable advice and encouragement. People gave suggestions of useful websites and tips on getting attention in the neighbourhood. People gave their own stories of how their cats went missing and turned up days and weeks later.

The greatest effect here, apart from some good advice, was hope. Maggie went from being so very sad to extremely excited that so many people genuinely cared about her issue and were taking the time to talk to us about it. So a big thanks for that to Vicky @vickytnz Tara @tarasutherland, Rebecca @becs355, Sandra @sandrareidnz, Kirsten @kistenmcrae, Simon @simcmanus  for the advise and to the others who passed on their wishes.

I’m sorry to say that this tale doesn’t have a happy ending. We, as recommended, posted posters and did a regional mail drop. Within minutes of doing so started receiving phone calls, one of which directed us to a place a block away saying a cat of that description had been hit by a car. Sadly it was our cat, it had been quick at least and the lovely person there had taken as much care of Yasmin as possible.
Unsurprisingly Maggie has taken this hard, its one of those cruel life lessons we have to accept with the loss of something we love. If you have taken the time to read this I’m sorry if it seemed pointless and self indulgent but I genuinely wanted to thank those that helped. You did made a difference and it was very much appreciated.

How to Create your Own Custom Twitter Background

With a relatively small time investment you can create a Twitter background that can align with you existing branding and help stand you out from the crowd.
Twitter does not supply an official guide on creating Twitter backgrounds so I have made a few notes from my personal experimentation.

In this simple tutorial I am going to give some of the key considerations for designing your own Twitter background and will make available a downloadable Photoshop template to get you started.

The options for creating a background vary, it’s a little like creating wallpaper for your computer, you can tile an image (repeats over and over) or you can create a solid image.

My personal preference is for the solid image so as to make use of the space available to create some branding impact. With the solid image you have to either fade to a colour that matches the background colour to ensure a visually seamless transition or make the image large enough to ensure it will fill the screen for those fortunate enough to have large monitors set to high resolution. For this I would suggest an image size of 1600x1200 pixels though be sure to optimise the image so file size does not become a problem.

Resolving the Resolution
One of the main considerations when creating a Twitter background is that not all viewers have the same monitor size and resolution settings. The Twitter menu, logo and frame are floating over the background so they will centre on any screen. This will change the amount of viewable space either side of the main panel. 
Some of the popular resolutions are: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800

The 1024x768 is what I would recommend that the design should be targeted for. The space at the left of the main twitter frame is the best for your visual branding the remainder is free to be filled with graphics or colour. 

Dimension Detail

1. Use Adobe Photoshop to open the downloadable template (link at bottom of this post)
2. Fill the full 1600x1200 pixels with your design. If you want to use a smaller space be sure to fade out or edge with a matched background colour in the settings to ensure colour continuity.
3. Use the 1024x768 pixel space to contain the most impact as this will be the most visible space to the majority of viewers.
4. Use the “Viable Branding Space” shown in yellow on the left of the template space to create your branding or message impact (123x658 pixel area)
5. Ensure that you optimise the image to ensure a fast download when viewed. (less that 100kb is recommended)

To download the free Adobe Photoshop Template visit our website here.

The problem with time

The problem in business is time, or the perceived lack of it. I say perceived because I am not convinced my issue is real, its really one of my own design.

I just read a blog post citing the problem with New Zealand businesses is owner/managers try to do too much themselves and don’t outsource to experts. It was once a quality that we “can do” kiwis were admired for, rolling up our sleeves and mucking in. Perhaps if I hadn’t read the post I could have saved some time, I would have saved even more time by not checking the emails that resulted in guiding me to the LinkedIn forum in the first place.

I am going to make this post short, I am short of time and have a “to do” list that is growing by the minute. I wouldn’t say I have a time management problem; my issue is I have to be more productive and do the work that is going to pay. Given that I derive most of my income as a consultant that means doing things for other people has to take a higher priority.

My own marketing, much of which is social media engagement then tends to suffer. I stay off twitter, I haven’t blogged for weeks, I haven’t recently provided feedback on any of the forums I visit and I guess those mentor clients can wait another day.

Of course cash flow is the critical thing, if we had an abundance of it I would maybe outsource some work, but we all know finding good people to outsource to and then engaging with them takes time too doesn’t it.

The problem with time is it is finite; we only have so much in a day, a week, before the next deadline. One thing is for sure we will eventually run out of it. When we look back our greatest regret can only be that we have regrets we didn’t make better use of it.

I’m glad I read that blog today, I’m pleased with myself for writing this, and it was quite easy really because I made the time to do so.

Part 5 - Social Media For Business - Who has control?

Before you actually start to engage in using Social Media some serious consideration should be made to who within your organisation or company has the mandate to manage the portfolio.

Those who currently maintain the marketing and communications responsibilities may be the best port of call initially. They have your brand and marketing direction as their primary focus, are often technically aware, already manage the website updates and email communications - so the social media platforms should align nicely. The greatest requirement to maintaining a successful engagement is time so this should be allocated not just added on to an existing workload without proper consideration.

Now is a good time to set the parameters of the engagement and some measurable outcomes to be sure that everyone’s expectations are able to be reviewed and qualified. It may also be the ideal time to initiate a formal Social Media policy so everyone within the company doesn’t get the wrong idea of what acceptable use of the online medium is, and get a better understanding of who is responsible for what, when and why. Remember you are using the web as a serious business tool, not to entertain staff and fill in time.

This is a good time to consider engagement of some external assistance to help you with your planning and possibly implementation process. The opportunity is to get some independent and impartial advice and expertise free from any emotional or political connection to your business.

Social Media consultants seem to be popping up with increasing frequency so trying to qualify their “expert” status let alone what value they will bring to the table can be difficult. While having thousands of friends on Facebook and approaching “whale” status on Twitter (10,000 followers) does demonstrate a high level of commitment to Social Media it doesn’t demonstrate any businesses development experience or acumen.

As with any advisor look for experience in your sector, testimonials and recommendations that you can authenticate and importantly a person that shares your values and goals that you can get along with and trust. Always keep in mind that it’s your business, Social Media is a method of communication and engagement that must be honestly representative of that.

Whatever the decision, be sure your Social Media portfolio manager is a good communicator, is mature enough to understand that what they say can have long term ramifications to the business image, and are responsible enough to ensure that your brand and its values are understood, respected and maintained to the highest standard at all times.