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#followamuseum – More Museum Madness

February 4th, 2010 · Marketing

I have talked about Jim Richardson (@MuseumMarketing) before in relation to his activities revolving around Sumo Design and the Small Historic Houses of London project, which I described as ‘the relish on top of a perfect sandwich’.  Well, needless to say, here I am, about to pour compliments on him and his merry band again.

For those who may have missed it, February 1st was ‘Follow a Museum’ day on Twitter.  This was organised single-handedly by Richardson and his cohorts and made some big waves, reaching trending topics in many parts of the world on Twitter.

The real impact is in the process of being assessed and unfortunately, rather than being scientific seems to come down to anecdotal evidence.  All the same, it is clear that museums, great and small have benefited, with anything from 10-20-30-40-50 to about about 1000+ during the course of the day.  Personally I followed several new museums, and per chance decided to become a member of the Tate on the very same day.

As an informal and private endeavour I am very impressed by everything that has happened and been gained.  My hat’s off to Jim and his team, but just imagine the possibilities in the future with more more of a coordinated effort to take the Twitter -sphere by storm.

People obviously hate it when they have culture rammed down their throats, but this is a super way to do the soft sell, and with even more linkage online amongst museums of all sizes, the natural network of followers for all museums will grow organically, which can only be a good thing!  It reminds me of what I wrote when talking about the London SHH project, and how those small organisations stand to achieve so much more when united, rather than trying to develop alone.  No museum is necessarily in competition with another, and working together is a positive move.

A ground swell of support has already been gathering pace and plenty of people have been writing about the project online and providing plaudits for it also.  Obviously there is much to be learned and improved upon in order to take the idea onwards & upwards, to generate even more interest and benefit for said museums in the future.

Some reviews include Culture 24’s Follow a Museum day eclipses England captain and iPad to become hottest topic on the internet, Musematic’s Follow a Museum Day, and Cybernetik Inkwell’s On Following Followers, With Help from Miss Manners.  You can of course follow the exploits of Jim and his crowd with a follow up blog post on Museum Marketing’s own Follow a Museum Day.

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Creativity: Production Company of the Year – Not Quite …

January 25th, 2010 · Work

Firstly, congrats to MJZ on being Creativity’s ‘Production Company of the Year’ for 2009/2010.  Hats off to them.  Needless to say however, yours truly was mentioned, otherwise I wouldn’t be typing about them.  Stink has been hoodwinked by Creativity for their innovation over the last 12 months with outstanding work by Ivan Zacharias, Ne-o, James Brown, and of course Stink Digital’s work with Adam Berg that won awards all round, from Cannes to BIMA.

And for a more details view of why Stink were nodded as runners up, here is the full paragraph in questions:

It’s been Creativity’s mandate to honor not just the best work, but also the innovators who are redefining creative production. Stink emerged as one of this year’s frontrunners. The global, multi-hub company has long been known for its top-notch commercial production. It continued to deliver on that front with spots such as the Ivan Zacharias-directed VW “Fight”; a James Brown-directed roller-girl show for Bonds; and more dynamite visuals from Ne-O, who steered Audi’s “Economy Drive,” Frank’s “Braincrashers” and Toyota’s “Better Together.” The shop’s biggest highlight, however, came out of the company’s new-media arm, Stink Digital, via Philips “Carousel.” Directed by Adam Berg, the viral bandit-clown hit was also a critical smash, earning digital and film accolades, including the 2009 Cannes Film Grand Prix.

You can read the original piece ‘Creativity’s Production Company of the Year: MJZ‘ on Ad Age, as well as see more work by Stink and Stink Digital over on the respective websites, and of course work by MJZ themselves. Congrats again to them!

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All Qype’d Up

January 9th, 2010 · Personal

Whilst on a mission to get lunch yesterday at Malletti’s in Clerkenwell, I took note of their little We’re on Qype sticker in the window.  When married with the thought that a friend of mine had just registered his business on there, I decided to get signed up to Qype.

First port of call was to review my friend’s business, and that much I did, but this review game is addictive, and before I knew it 31 reviews and 2 days later I am a Qype Insider.

For what it is worth, I am not sure Qype does anything quite amazing enough to beat out an already crowded market place of Trusted Places, Google Local Business Center and others, but there is no denying it’s kinda fun!  And whether you write long or short reviews, it doesn’t really matter, they all add to the stock pile of understanding about the bricks and mortar businesses around us.  As they say local knowledge is invaluable.

For those interested in what I have to say about places in Shoreditch, Clerkenwell, Chelsea and beyond to the USA,  feel free to check out my profile on Qype and sign up yourself if you like.

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On the Campaign Trail with JFK

January 6th, 2010 · Marketing

I absolutely love this idea.  The JFK Library is running a Twitter stream that documents the day-to-day of John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign.  the project brings a slice of American history back into the present day and allows people – who knows the exact target audience – to tap into and feel part of it once again.

Whether you are interested in history or studying it in class, interested in the kind of events that would surround AMC’s series Mad Men or even just interested in the United States and/or political processes, the JFK Twitter stream has something for everyone. It’s not going to teach readers every last detail but it might prompt and inform people’s understanding at least, which can only be a good thing.

The campaign stream covers everything from the mundane “American Airlines flight to New York” to the more interesting “Universal Newsreel: JFK Announces Candidacy for President” with links to archive content on YouTube and other sites. So how do they accomplish the project?

Bringing History to Life

Well besides the content of their own archives at the JFK library, with scheduled tweets, the process of building the a stream is made super simple because it doesn’t need to be built in real-time.  Scheduled tweets allow you to build a plan of attack and add to and enhance the list of tweets with additional material, links or otherwise as you go.

Twitter doesn’t provide as much of a rich time line that you could achieve with any multimedia project, but it provides a simple and more complete way to accomplish the project using social media products that people in the here-and-now consume and understand easily, an important aspect of reaching out as quickly and as easily as possible.

Spreading the Word

Trans-media is a great way to tap into resources on many different levels and this certainly does that.  Whether promoting history or the present day, Twitter, in conjunction with other social media, sites, and archive resources brings things to life in imaginative ways.

The campaign is a great way to spread word of the JFK library and everything it has to offer and certainly helps fulfill its remit.  As I said, I love the idea and am looking forward to receiving the tweets and learning about a part of history that I know little about; and for those interested you can follow ‘JFK’ via the Twitter username @JFK_1960.

Photo from TellMeWhat on Flickr.

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Apparently Mark Coughlan is Not Having a Webinar …

January 5th, 2010 · Marketing

This is the oddest thing I have seen yet on Twitter.  Some guy whose account username (not account I might hasten to add) has been hijacked for the purpose of sending around some perfunctory message about spreading messages, and the thing is going like wildfire.  What does that tell you and me?

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A New Take on Marilyn Monroe

January 5th, 2010 · Personal

Marilyn Monroe, ever the beauty, ever the poster girl, ever the icon.  People love her and they devour her.  She is held in a static place and is never allowed to die.  The reverence for her short but diamond-encrusted life is stellar and her true lifetime, apparently eternal.  She has come to embody the values of a generation, of an age, representative of a time past that people seemingly hold dearest to their hearts.  So what happens when you tear it all down?

Warhol has iconized her, and D-Face has mortalised her, whilst with my work provides for her edification and the opportunity to set her free of the shackles that have bound her to the brand that she has become today.  Marilyn is my poster girl, but in a VERY different sense.

The artwork, in part influenced by Kurt Schwitters’ collages and of course the Dada movement as a whole, holds true to their primary ethos as being:

… a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works.

The works laud the inherent beauty in the detritus of modern society.  Tapping the shapes and forms, the crap and the dregs of the old and discarded street adverts, torn up, stripped down and washed over.  Beyond this, connections with Pop Art are equally obvious:

… challenging tradition by asserting that an artist’s use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art.

This series of 100 Marilyns, which will be finished with the 1o0th picture is made and sold connects with that on many different levels, from Warhol to Denny and on.  This is by no means a destruction of the persona that is Monroe, but rather a new look and view of her and what she represents.

There are currently some 20-25 pieces available for sale for anyone who is interested in purchasing one, or more.  If so then feel free to contact me via email (artist@bixentro.com) and I can send you a e-catalogue or you can find out more by visiting my web site at bixentro.com.  Otherwise feel free to join me on Facebook or Twitter.

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Brill – More Than Brilliant

January 5th, 2010 · Opinion

Brill, the music store and coffee shop is quite simply one of my new favourite spots in London.

Brill itself, owned by the cooly named Jeremy Brill, started life in the 90’s as Clerkenwell Music, but changed to its latest incarnation in the last couple of years, thanks to the advent of Amazon and iTunes, or rather internet shopping and downloads. You know you are entering a music mecca when you read the shop board on the street which includes the words No Woman, No Chai alongside the Brill logo.

Betwixt the CD racks are desks, usually with 1 or 2 people huddled in front of their Apple Macs or others chatting over a decent latte and home made sandwich or patisserie.  On a cold winters’ day, the condensation on the window is a sure sign you are heading into the welcoming warmth.

If decent music advice is what you are looking for then Brill is definitely a good shop to stop at, with racks filled with Jazz, Reggae, Dub Ska and plenty of current indie faves.  Consider it a wicked little micro-social-network for music.  In addition they have music and artwork on the walls from local musicians and artists, which only adds to the spiffiness.

I personally and religiously drink their lattes but others will ask for Americanos and Espressos on the ‘Brill Run’ from the office.  That being said I have zero complaints and there is ALWAYS a friendly face behind the counter when you walk through the door.

Brill comes wholeheartedly recommended and so, if you are up Clerkenwell/Islington way and want a decent coffee, head on over to Brill at 27 Exmouth Market, Clerkenwell, EC1R 4QL.

Photo by Evil Twin on Flickr

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Personal Branding a.k.a. Personal Investment

December 31st, 2009 · Marketing, Opinion

You - Hanger Today saw an outbreak of the Personal Branding contagion.  In other words a rash of links to articles on the topic were swirling around the Twitter-verse.  First 1 link and then another, and before you know it another 20 have passed you by in your tweetstream.

Many a merry blogger touts the benefits of taking control of your online space and making sure that you are on message with who you are and want to be online, but to me that’s a rather 1-dimensional view.  Personal branding is more than just being ‘on message’ and being ‘in control’, it’s about wholeheartedly investing in yourself, enjoying what you do and expressing that online and off, though of course that’s always easier said than done!

To my mind it is more than a mere web site or blog, and of course it has to be yours.  I perennially ask myself: “Why would I write for a company blog, when I can and should really write my own, in a free and unencumbered fashion?”

Both Last.fm and Stink Digital, for whom I have worked over the last 3, almost 4 years now, have operated blogs, but conditions are always preset on what you can and can’t write, and although I understand the reasoning, I disagree with the unwarranted restrictions.

To me, they simply place a hurdle in front of your potential, which ultimately are for the company’s own benefit.  When, in this day and age, your personal time is at a premium, it makes little sense to spend it writing ‘on message’ for your employer when you can unwind, vent, and out pour, as you see fit on your own blog, and ultimately do it with the benefit of promoting yourself.

Above and beyond ‘online’ and the networks you have built, it’s always good to move that personal brand into the real world.  Twitter, Facebook et al, all provide you with ways to connect to people, and I don’t mean simply to hawk your wares, but as many a social media maven will tell you, it’s a way to flaunt your personality and build links of real substance, online and off.

By way of example, prior to Christmas, a nice Christmas card with personal message rocked up on my desk at work.  It was completely unexpected, and a nice surprise from a Twitter-friend.  How did she know my address? Well I suppose it’s not too hard to connect the dots, but more importantly, it leaves a lasting and positive impression and one that only raises her profile in my eyes, much to her credit.

Another great example, and perhaps a decent example for bridging the offline and online worlds.  A while back, having completed work on a couple of projects for one of the clients at Stink Digital, said client sent us a box of gorgeous cup cakes, with a cutesy thank you note.  Needless to say: “what did we do?”  We snapped a pic, and posted it, with a glowing response, on the Stink Digital blog.  Kudos to them for garnering positive public feedback!

These two examples show that it is not hard to build a brand around yourself, and to make a personal investment in yourself.  It’s your life and if you don’t look out for yourself who will?  Keeping up-to-date is like trying to hit a moving target, but it is always good to keep updating the world, because you are always more prepared when you need it to draw on that brand you have invested so much time and energy in already.   More importantly, if you don’t invest that time in building a profile, then ‘others’ will do it for you and who knows what ‘they’ will present you as.

Of course, ultimately, everything you do comes back to personal identity, branding and effectively promotion in the form of how you present yourself to the outside world.  From the way you dress to the way you talk and think, and how that appears in photos or written form.  You should always use the online sphere to reinforce the offline perception of you. It therefore makes sense to stop and think somewhat about each and every step you take, but at the same time you need to also ‘just be yourself’, and whatever you do, just remember, it is always an investment in yourself.

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The Soup Metric – A Great Way To Measure Social Networks

December 30th, 2009 · Marketing, Opinion

Campbell's Soup Can Street ArtIn her post Soup Metrics, Tara Hunt discusses the propensity of those in your various social and business networks online that would be inclined to bring you soup if you were single, ill and unable to fend for yourself.

Notwithstanding the basic fact that some might be on another continent, she reasons that it is those same people who would bring you soup when ill are likely to be career changing, and whom, though they may not know you intimately would stand your ground, fight your corner and bend over backwards for you.

In a world of social media streams and feeds that see you inundated with complete guff on a second-by-second and day-by-day basis its easy to looks sight of real connections and to feel completely overwhelmed, even more so when you look at the unread items in your RSS inbox and it totals 7376!

Tara Hunt’s Soup Metric really brings all the hype around social media back down to earth, and highlights the oft-mentioned fact that people and businesses with any form of social media presence should generate communications of substance and real connections with colleagues, counterparts, unknowns, clients and whomever else you end up tweeting to, status updating to, or just plain ol’ communicating with.

Sure there will always be those who use a new medium as a market stall, shouting loud and hawking their wares but amongst the drowning shout of their yells, you will find meaningful contacts and it is only with the effort, time and energy that you will foster stronger and decent strands to your network. As the old saying goes, you can count your best friends on one hand, and though with social networking you ‘might’ need 10 extra hands, how many would actually bring you soup?  And of course, above and beyond that, how many would you take soup to?

Thanks to Tara for the insightful post, and for those of you interested in Tara Hunt’s work and ideas about the power of social networks, you should check out her book The Whuffie Factor: Using The Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business.

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SEO – If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix it!

December 26th, 2009 · Marketing

Let me paint a picture.  Your web site is running at 30 visits a month and you need to raise your profile online.  You hire someone to do so and in a matter of many months they raise your monthly visitor count to 3000+ unique visitors and all for relevant search phrases of 2-3 words each, and a low-low bounce rate.  What do you do next?

One thing I can tell you for sure is to not redo the work already accomplished and which has led to positive results, because the level of monthly visits is only going to head south.  Experience tells me this when you see the so-called ‘benefits’ of others taking over your own work.

As a client, unless you are constantly monitoring the performance of your site and you know how well it is doing, it is easy to fall prey to so-called SEO gurus who tell you they can further improve your performance, or greatly enhance it.  Who would say no to such claims?  And until you really put those claims to the test you can’t be sure.

The reality is that SEO is just one part of a larger marketing picture, and once you have had benefit of that initial hit, you should start thinking beyond that equation and see about how you can draw potential customers in by creating useful content specific to your range of keywords.

It’s always easier to pay someone to improve the relevance of your site to search but it takes real effort to actually add content to your site that will widen the net and drive potential traffic.  The cost of setting up a blog, or social media profile from which you can blog, micro-blog, or post relevant items, is NIL, and the advantage of doing so huge, but being convinced of actually making the effort is another story.

I suppose what I am trying to say, more succinctly, is that wholesale change will have a potentially negative impact on your traffic, after an initial hit and improvement of SEO, and that you need to think above and beyond the component of SEO as part of your online marketing strategy before you seriously start thinking about monkeying around with your site and its relevance as has been set and achieved already.

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