Should I be using Pinterest?

If you are a organisation that sells desirable / aesthetically pleasing items (clothes, furniture etc) or your services please the eye (you are a designer, very good at cleaning windows) then you should think about showing your images to the world using Pinterest.

Pinterest is a visual scrapbook. Users put together clusters of images based on the merit of how they look. These are then arranged into categories defined by the user (for example "things I want to buy" etc). Pinterest is now driving a huge amount of targeted and relevant traffic to a range of websites. It is also staggering to see that the amount of traffic Pinterest now refers to third party websites exceeds that of Twitter, Yahoo and Bing (according to data attained by Shareaholic).

Pinterest is easy and intuitive to use (it is also a great tool for those who like to go window shopping online)

The Samaritans using a Giant Mobile Phone!

The Samaritans are currently using one my giant mobile phones complete with LCD screen as part of their marketing efforts. Registered charities and not for profits are welcome to use one or both of these giant phones for free. More information and an image of the giant phones can be found here.

Giant mobile phone hire

Photo by @DavidsWayRound in Peterborough

The Samaritans is a confidential emotional support service for anyone in the UK and Ireland. The service is available 24 hours a day for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those which may lead to suicide. Volunteers offer support by responding to phone calls, emails and letters. Alternatively people can drop in to a branch to have a face to face meeting. Across the UK you can call Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90.

UCL & Goldman Sachs 10ksb Social Media & SEO Workshops

James Norris will be running two sessions on Thursday 14th June for UCL & Goldman Sachs 10ksb program. The two workshops have a 30 minute break in between, however many of the areas addressed overlap. If you are able to attend both we recommend doing so. The first workshop 'Growing your Business with Social Media' will address using social networks and online tools from a business perspective. This will allow you to attain an insight into your business, raise its awareness and ultimately help you to achieve your goals (such as profit, downloads, enquiries etc).

Growing your Business with Social Media – Workshop 1 Thursday 14th June, 11.00am to 1.00pm

This workshop will teach those attending how to use specific online platforms and why they may want to use each one for their own business. There will be a series of short tasks for attendees to carry out during the workshop each lasting no longer then five minutes. We encourage attendees to (ideally) bring a laptop with them. If those attending do not have a laptop they may wish to bring a tablet or a notepad.

We expect all attendees to have a Facebook and Twitter account prior to the workshop. If you do not have an account for each please create them before the start of the workshop.

…..Light lunch provided 1.00 – 1.30pm

Getting your business "found in Google" using SEO, analytics and online tools – Workshop 2 Thursday 14th June, 1.30pm to 3.30pm

James Norris will be running two sessions on Thursday 14^th June for UCL & Goldman Sachs 10ksb program. The two workshops have a 30 minute break in between, however many of the areas addressed overlap. If you are able to attend both we recommend doing so.

This workshop Getting your business "found in Google" using SEO, analytics and online tools will begin with ‘an introduction to search engine optimization’ (SEO) presentation. This will show attendees how search engines (specifically Google) works and the criteria’s in which Google ranks websites for specific terms. The presentation will help attendees to think about factors that influence a website’s performance within search engines. After the presentation a number of SEO and analytic tools will be addressed. This will be carried out in a workshop format and attendees will be able to use a variety of free tools to get an idea of how their own website is performing. If attendees do not have a website they (in some circumstances) will be encouraged to use the tools to evaluate a company who could be seen as on of their competitors.

This will give attendees the knowledge and tools required to analyse their website’s performance and help increase the amount of relevant traffic to it. We encourage attendees to (ideally) bring a laptop with them. If attendees do not have a laptop they may wish to bring a tablet or a notepad.

About James Norris

James has devised and executed a range of different campaigns for brands and organisations including Channel 4, Nokia and Glastonbury Festival. He has also advised the Labour Party (Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and Ken Livingston) about the state of the startup scene in the UK and troubles new businesses face in the current climate.

James is the founder the startup ‘DeadSocial’. DeadSocial attained support from UK Trade & Investment to announce the platform at SXSW in Texas earlier this year. DeadSocial has since enjoyed early success and recognition becoming a finalist at the London Web Summit 2012 before achieving a top four position at The Next Web & Microsoft’s ‘Startup Rally’ 2012 in Amsterdam in March.

More information about James can be found at: Social Media Strategist / DeadSocial / James’ Twitter account

Mobile Marketing Statistics

The infographic below highlights the importance of engaging with consumers via their mobile phone

Mobile Marketing Statistics 2012

StartUpStay Review

I am currently sat in Belfast airport writing a blog post (and review) on my experiences with StartupStay. In a nutshell, StartupStay is couch surfers for the startup generation. I have followed them on Twitter for a while and I sent a tweet of support a month or so ago after reading about their offering. Although they haven’t officially launched yet I thought it would be worth contacting them to see if they had any suitable hosts in Belfast ahead of a three day business trip to the City.

George Best, Working Class Hero

I was given three offers. The first offer pulled out due to it being inconvenient. The second person accepted however due to me being out of the country when she did (at The Next Web’s Startup Rally) I was slow responding and the host unfortunately had left to go to Scotland before I had a chance to reply. However, StartupStay came to the rescue at the last minute and found an awesome host. Richard Brown, a developer and entrepreneur based in Belfast put me up for the three days and was a awesome host. I spent most of the time in Belfast at an external office but did manage to have a few pints and a meal on the last day.

Belfast Buildings

I would like to thank StartupStay and Richard for helping to make my stay in Belfast awesome ‘ it “was a good crack, so it was” (sorry I had to get this quote into the post). Anyhow, I would also like to recommend startup stay to founders, VC’s and entrepreneurs of all ages.

Loyalist Art in Belfast

EasyJet Sunset…

EasyJet Sunset

Signup to become a beta StartupStay host or traveller today 🙂

Exclusive interview with Klara the Cow at TNW2012

Dungville

Dungville was a location based game created for The Next Web Conference 2012. It included a real farmer, a cow called Klara and a field divided into 48 squares to roam in. The winner of the game was the person who predicted which grids would attain the most dung over the conference. The poo was weighed by an independent referee to ensure that there was no 'foul play'.

HOWEVER there was an element of controversy surrounding Dungville and it's star Klara. It seems that Klara's real name is not actually Klara! Klara is a stereotypical name given to Dutch cows. My interview with the cow and the farmer can be seen below: