{!date dayname+0}, {!date long+0} Dear {!firstname_fix} So, I hope you will be glued to your TV sets this evening as Britain tries once again to win the Eurovision Song Contest. Somehow we think we have the "right" to win, without at the same time realising we are not providing what the European audiences want. For over 30 years we have been saying "it's our year this year" only to be trounced by an Israeli transexual or a Scandinavian rocker. Even the expertise of Lord Lloyd Webber couldn't help us win recently. Basically the Eurovision audiences don't want the kind of music we enter into the contest. It is a reminder that even if you think your target market should like your stuff and that you are convinced they will want it, they are the ultimate judges. If they don't like what you are selling, then sell something they do like, no matter how much you think they are wrong...! Of course that doesn't mean you shouldn't support our lads in "Blue" tonight - the omens are good; today is the 14th and we are 14th to appear. Apparently that means we are winners....!
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED: What is the best way of keeping up-to-date? Thanks to Jason who asked me this question at a meeting at the start of this week. He heard me talk about some new developments in the social media space, particularly "Hashable" - a new way of letting your contacts know who you are meeting and what you are doing (see: http://hashable.com). Jason said that there were so many new things being introduced and that the internet was advancing so fast, how could he keep up. There are a couple of ways you can do this. Firstly, you could set up a Google Alert (see: http://www.google.com/alerts) for the topics you are interested in. Google will then send you the blog posts, news items and new web pages that appear for your subject. You get an email with links to the relevant material. For the social media world you can also read Mashable (see: http://www.mashable.com) which is a comprehensive news and review service for new social media technologies and associated devices, such as mobiles. This site is the undisputed world leader of this kind of material - and it is run by a Brit...! However, your online information needs may extend beyond the social world and thereby Mashable. How can you keep up-to-date with everything other than visiting dozens of different websites? The answer is a "news aggregator" such as Feedly (see: http://www.feedly.com). This allows you to set up categorised pages in a variety of formats for each kind of information you need.
You can organise your feeds in Feedly in a variety of ways, have them appear as lists of titles or as "magazine style" pages with pictures, headlines and so on. In addition, Feedly is pretty intelligent. When you are looking at specific content Feedly recommends other similar news feeds on the subject. In addition, it also finds the most recently published books on Amazon on the topic as well. It can also automatically add in Tweets on the subject, Facebook entries on the topic and the latest YouTube videos. In other words, it is a comprehensive way of having all the information you need on your favourite topics all in one place. There are, of course, other news aggregators available, such as Netvibes or even Google Reader. But Feedly is the most comprehensive and, in my view, the best designed. It even links to Google Reader, so you can have the two systems in operation if you wish. Also, there are mobile versions of Feedly available, meaning you can keep yourself up-to-date whether you are at your computer or on-the-road using a smartphone or a pad device.
WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK: I should do more media work - and so should you...! This week I was a guest (for a second time) on the Anne Diamond Show. She was fresh from the Sony Radio Awards where she had won a "Speech Broadcaster of the Year" award. Her programme is a mix of chat, phone calls and music and I was on for a whole hour talking about the internet (of course) as part of the BBC's campaign "First Click" which is encouraging more people to go online. The hour went by quickly as Anne and I just chatted like two friends discussing the internet over a coffee. As I left the studio she gave me a big kiss and said "you must come back". The producer shook my hand and said I was really interesting and that he was sure I'd be back. I walked out into the control room, where another producer said "don't go, I want to book you again". So, I'm back on the Anne Diamond Show on 10th June if you want to listen. But there are two important points to learn from this. Firstly, I treated the situation as "just a chat"; I did not look at it as interrogation. In other words, I just acted naturally and was "myself" having a little chat. That is the key to media success - be yourself. Often, people go on the radio or TV and try to be "an interviewee" and the result is nervousness, lack of passion for their subject and therefore reduced connection with the audience.
It reminded me of the importance of media and how valuable it can be to my business - and yours. And the fact that the media professionals clearly thought I was "a natural" meant that if I don't take advantage of that, I will be missing out business-wise. But you can be a "natural" too - if you are just that on the radio, yourself.
THIS WEEK'S "MUST BUY": Sign up for SlideRocket Presenting with PowerPoint is ubiquitous - unless you use a Mac, of course and you are a fan of Keynote. But either way, your presentations are on your computer or you have to take them with you on your laptop or on a USB stick. But what if you forget your USB stick when you visit a meeting to present? What if your slide software is not compatible with the computer being used in the meeting room? What if you want to add some slides, last minute, which are actually in a different presentation back in the office? You could, of course, use an online back-up service, like Google Docs. But there is a limitation with that - sharing the slides, adding audio to them or conducting live polls in a meeting is not easy. Enter SlideRocket. This allows you to create slides on any computer without the need for any software - or it can import PowerPoint slides and convert them. You can then show any of your slides from anywhere that has Internet access. Plus, it stores the images from each slide separately so you can insert any picture from one slide directly onto another with a click. You can also share the slides (see a recent presentation of mine: http://uklik.me/gjblogging). And as you will see when you get there (look bottom right) you can download the slides as a PDF. The slides can also be embedded in websites and a host of other features. Using SlideRocket I can now present from anywhere that has a computer and an internet connection. I can even create a presentation quickly using the library of slides from all the presentations I have uploaded - instant presentation in a sense. Plus you can add live polls, live Twitter streams and other interactive features. There is a free version, but the paid version is only $240 a year - bargain! To find out more about this product visit: http://www.sliderocket.com
AND FINALLY: From this week's blog... Five psychological reasons for blogging Blogging is, of course, great for business. Indeed, many successful businesses put blogging central to their online activities. There is plenty of evidence which shows that blogging is related to search engine success, social media success and – importantly – financial success. Blogging works. However, there is more to blogging than might be obvious at first. Here are five reasons why blogging can help your brain. Read More About how blogging can help your brain at: http://uklik.me/m0JlVK
Kind Regards
Graham Jones Web:
grahamjones.co.uk Tel: +44 118 336 9710 If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter than you can delete your name from the mailing list by clicking this link: {!remove_web} Affiliate Links: Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links providing me with a small commission when you purchase the item. However, I only use affiliate links for products which I personally value. |
So, for example, in my Feedly set-up there are pages for "news", "local
news", "psychology news", "internet marketing news" and so on. Within each of
those pages I have several "RSS feeds" from various sources (including
Mashable...!). Every news site or information site produces an RSS Feed,
indicated by a little orange and white icon. All you need to do is get
the link information from that icon (click on it...!) and then paste that into
Feedly. 
