Eggblogg

Interesting things I've been reading lately

The thing about going on holiday when you run your own business is that the weeks leading up to it are hell. No matter how much notice clients are given, everything still seems to come at the last minute and it's impossible to explain that actually although there may be 3 days to go, every minute of those three days is already planned for and booked out, so no, I can't physically fit in any more work!

All the same, despite neglecting to post, I've managed to catch some interesting articles recently:

Top 10 reasons small businesses excel at social media - thanks to Chris Brogan for flagging this one up.

Why urgency succeeds like nothing else in a bad economy - the excellent Sean D'Souza with a great post

42 HTML email design resources - a jaw-droppingly good list for any email marketer, by Mark Brownlow

The peril and promise of Google's Knol - Shel Holtz on the cutting edge as ever. I must check this Knol out.

Things I've enjoyed reading lately ...

What social media professionals can learn from traditional PR:
Skills to be successful in integrating PR and social media

Good advice from Silverpop on what to do about 'dead' email subscribers:
3 tips to reactivate your recipients and get them engaged again

Chris Brogan does it again...fantastic post that will keep me buzzing all summer
50 ways marketers can use social media to improve their marketing

Never thought I'd be so in agreement with the Pope:
Pope hits out at consumer culture

Why do small businesses waste their money on useless advertising?

Here we go again. Yet another 'local guide to your town' has plopped through my letterbox this week, full of 'handy information' about Lewes - in other words, a few skimpy articles purporting to tell me stuff which as a resident I already know, plus endless adverts for businesses who already advertise in all the other 'local guides'.

The formula is always the same - full colour, A5, homely design, a cosy foreword from a friendly looking lady and a publisher based in some town at least 50 miles away. This one is mysteriously called the '2008 - 2010 Guide' - pull-ease. They probably sold it as 3 years' worth of advertising for the price of one!

Why oh why do small businesses spend money on these useless publications? I know many of the business folk in this town and I know, like me, they can't afford to waste a penny on 'me too' advertising that won't deliver any kind of business benefit whatsoever. And yet these here-today, gone-tomorrow publishers somehow persuade them to part with their hard-earned cash, based on reinforcing the fear factor (all your competitors will be in it, can you afford not to be? ) and a few dodgy stats about how many homes they're planning to blitz with their junk.

Small businesses - could we all please once and for all stand up to this rubbish and refuse to advertise? Without any ads there wouldn't be any more bogus 'local guides', a few acres of forest would be saved and we'd all have more money to spend on genuine marketing that actually works.

A re-reading of 'As we may think'

I met with a prospective client the other day and in talking to him was reminded of all those serendipitous moments that happened to me about ten years ago, the start of my love affair with the internet.

One of those moments was reading 'As We May Think' by Vannevar Bush. It's an extraordinary essay, written in 1945, in which the author (who worked for the US military during the war) talks about his visions of the future of communications, from a proto-internet which he called a Memex, to micro computing, digital cameras and more.

It's written very much a period style, with references to 'roomfuls of girls' operating keypunch machines. I wonder if Bush was envisaging today's computer-dominated world when he mused on the possible applications of technology beyond mere number-crunching: "Whenever logical processes of thought are employed—that is, whenever thought for a time runs along an accepted groove—there is an opportunity for the machine."

Re-reading it today I still find aspects of it amazingly fresh. Do check it out if you've not read it.

How to systematically capture notes, links and other bits for future reading or reference

As a new computer wings its way towards my office, I'm doing some digital spring cleaning.

One of the things I find hard is keeping on top of blog posts, news stories that I really need to read, but don't always do so right away because of pressing client work, etc. And even if I do read it, how do I quickly find it again?

Should I set aside half an hour each morning? Should I have a hard and fast rule that once I start reading a blog post I MUST finish it and decide there and then on an action: blog about it, bookmark it, file it for future reference or move on?

It gets even harder when I'm researching on behalf of a client because then I do need to record what I've found in order to report back.

So far I've tried using various tools including Google Notebook and even just bookmarking on del.icio.us.

But I recently came across this brilliant post by Steve Rubel in which he sets out 3 methods of capturing notes or bookmarks, including using a FriendFeed room as an archive. I haven't tried them yet but I will do, as they seem like great tips.