I had to smile when I saw this post from the well travelled Will Kintish. I’m always moaning about bad service in Britain. Whether it’s in a shop, petrol station, department store or your local bookie, things really ought to be better shouldn’t they?
Here, quite clearly, is a situation where the hotel’s general manager went that “extra mile”.
Good for him.
Well how was it for you this month?
Did you achieve what you set out to do on January 1st? Or, could you have done more to meet your target?
I’ve already posted about “posts” on this website here. Now, I want to share with you more general tips on website design.
Some of you may have seen the first encarnation of www.jeremyjacobs.com. It was a great website but it had some drawbacks. One of which was a moving image of “yours truly” although it was still successful in driving traffic to my website. Videotile, an innovative corporate video production company located in Lancashire, use moving images in a way which really helps the viewer and the seller.
However, I’m tending to agree with Alan Stevens, who is his most recent e-zine, pointed out the negatives about moving images on some websites. He cited this example where the images do distract from the main message.
Managed to catch Graham Jones, or GJ, (as he now appears to be known at Google) at today’s London Chapter PSA meeting. We had a brief chat about the Internet, social bookmarking, SEO and tagging.
Both of us enjoyed the day and grinned a lot with Clive Gott’s brilliant talk. I mentioned Clive over at Corporate Presenter earlier today. He’s a right laugh - you should go and see him talk. Next month, Clive is off to South America in order to scramble up Aconcagua - must be raving mad! I, on the other hand, will merely be trudging through the Maasai Mara on behalf of Breast Cancer Campaign
I also had the privilege of meeting the amazing Cathy O’Dowd. Cathy was the first women to have climbed Mt. Everest from both north and south sides. She’s an amazing motivational speaker.
So the 2007 Bloggies awards are coming up. Who are you going to vote for? How about the highly influential Huffington Post,or the amusing Gaping Void or the rather silly Go Fug Yourself?
There are some good UK entries into this year’s award. Details of the Competition are here. “Girl with a One Track Mind” has been nominated but apparently she’s not too happy about it.
Perhaps next year I may get a tilt at the title with Corporate Presenter
Or will it be http://www.jeremyjacobs.com ?
Depending on your line of work your rate of speech can vary. When I’m broadcasting on the radio, it can vary further still. A news bulletin can be around 120 to 130 words per minute. On the other hand, when reporting on a live sports event, that rate can go to 170 wpm or higher.
When conductiong a sales appointment or job interview, it’s very important you remain calm, collected and in control. In those instances, it’s a case of the slower the better.
Whilst I was working with the well known Japanese copier manufacturer in the 1980’s, I attended a special one-day course of the power of telephone sales. I’ve never forgotten these immortal words:
6 As a representative of your company
12 on the telephone, it is important
18 that you speak clearly. That means
24 you must articulate. It also means
32 that you must speak so that you can
38 be understood. Although there is no
44 set rate of speech, most expert
50 speakers talk at between one hundred
56 forty and one hundred sixty words
63 per minute. That is a good speed
68 for telephone communication. It is
75 not too fast to be understood and
82 it does not give the listener the
88 impression that you are under pressure.
93 Nor is it too slow.
100 The one hundred sixty word rate adds
107 an element of dignity to your voice.
114 The one hundred sixty word rate also
122 gives a sound image to the caller that
128 establishes both you and your company
134 as efficient and well-organized. To
141 give the caller the kind of impression
148 of yourself and of your company
154 you wish, speak correctly, speak at
160 one hundred and sixty - that’s one
165 hundred sixty words per minute.
Got it?
If your like me and use your voice for a living, then you must take care of it. But how many of us do?
For several years, I’ve been sports reporting and broadcasting for BBC local radio and independent stations. More recently, I’ve doing some voice-over work as well as an increasing amount of public-speaking. So I was glad to bump into Helen Sewell recently. She’s a near neighbour of mine, a former BBC presenter and producer and experienced in “voice mechanics”. We chatted for sometime about improving one’s speech and taking care of the voice. She belongs to an organization called BVA (British Voice Association) and they recently published these tips:
DON’T
Misuse or abuse your voice…
Smoke, or if you can’t give up, cut down…
Talk above the noise at social or sports events…
Talk or even whisper if you are losing your voice…
Answer by shouting when you’re upset or anxious…
AVOID
Chemical irritants or dry dusty conditions…
Eating a large meal before going to bed at night…
Excessive use of the telephone…
TAKE CARE
If you have to use the telephone for your living…
About what you drink: too much alcohol, coffee, tea or cola will dry you up…
TRY
Not to clear your throat unnecessarily…
To warm up your voice if you’re going to use it for a long time…
To have a humidifier in your workplace…
MAKE SURE
You drink at least 6-8 glasses of water each day…
That if your voice sounds different for more than two weeks, you see your doctor…
NOTE
Spicy foods and dairy products may affect the voice…
Hormonal changes (such as the menopause, pregnancy or menstruation) can affect voice quality…
The voice is closely linked with emotion, so tension or depression might show in your voice…
Get medical advice if you’re worried.
I came across this very interesting article at Todd’s site.
More corporations are realizing the benefits of video… viral or not. Whether video is used to generate sales, recruit new employees or train existing ones, it is becoming a key ingredient in many marketing departments and a critical service offering at both ad and PR agencies.
Check out BusinessWeek’s article “Business Goes Straight to Video” for a quick glimpse into the many uses and results of corporate video.
Some interesting facts and figures from the article include: