London, UK
Originally seen in the Grauniad, this wonderful acronym was posted by a fellow London blogger “Henry North“, an anti-EU independent candidate standing in the Hornsey & Wood Green constituency.
The incumbent in Hornsey is the magnificent Lynne Featherstone. She’ll fancy her chances of retaining the seat due to “Cleggmania” now apparently sweeping parts of the country, or is it county?
Lynne Featherstone
Photo by BDTube
London, UK
I’m really looking forward to working with Susan Heaton-Wright at Speak Connect Engage on July 7th. Yesterday, Susan posted some advice for users of microphones in the wake of the Great Gordo Gaffe in Rochdale. She really does know her stuff.
If you’ve never used a microphone before, learn when to turn it off and on and never, never leave it on whilst going to the lavatory. I’ve made that mistake once and got away with it.
London, UK
In media, sales and other walks of life, keeping one’s thoughts to oneself is very important. My take on Gordon Brown’s "Bigotgate" gaffe is simply this – "engage brain before opening mouth"
On the other hand, sometimes one has to express one’s feelings on a situation. Mrs Duffy of Rochdale said to Gordon Brown – "You can’t say anything about the immigrants," "but all these Eastern Europeans what are coming in, where are they flocking from?" I would imagine Eastern Europe Mrs Duffy!! Seriously, she seems to misunderstand what this country’s membership of the EU entails – "one of the foundations of EU treaties and agreements is the free movement of labour within member states" There’s nothing either she, the current or next government can do about this. However, nearly 1,000,000 Britons do work in EU countries, so I guess it cuts both ways.
What I didn’t like was the way she said "all those Eastern Europeans" – perhaps I’m being a trifle paranoid but it’s thinly veiled racism in my opinion. Over a hundred years ago, Jewish economic migrants were called by some the "off-scum of Europe" and I can’t help feeling that many of those who hold similar views toward today’s immigrants from the Indian sub-continent, Africa and elsewhere who have arrived at our shores in recent years, will vote in their thousands for the ultra-left wing BNP.
London, UK
Interesting story in The Sun. Looks as though Noah’s Ark may have finally been located on Mount Ararat in Turkey.
London, UK
One aspect of sales is how to correctly introduce new products to your customers. In this video, Geoff Burch explains what to do. As you may have already noticed, this is one of many videos Geoff has issued in recent weeks and they’re full of useful sales tips.
When I was a young salesman, I remember that the firm I was working for introduced a lower-priced photocopier for smaller businesses. I was very enthusiastic about this machine and sold quite a few of them over a period of a few months. But as my then sales manager pointed out I may have been successful on the one hand but not on the other. These machine sales came at a price because I may have neglected selling the more expensive models thus reducing my overall gross profit. It’s what marketers refer to as the “mix”.
London, UK
Over the past few months numerous articles have been written on the importance of blogging and there’s enough anecdotal and firm evidence that those companies and individuals who blog on a regular basis will attract more customers. In fact just recently, the Internet Psychologist, Graham Jones wrote on this very subject (1). So I was a bit surprised to read that up to a third of companies don’t update their websites which can be achieved by blogging or changing content on static pages. How is it that companies invest time and money getting a website but seemingly don’t have the resources or incentive to update? Like the training budget, are web-sites not seen as important by SME’s and corporates?
For the past couple of months, I’ve started to write a blog post each day which takes takes discipline but it isn’t that time consuming. It’s had the effect of improving my Google and Alexa rankings as well as getting me a more enquiries for my forthcoming seminar and availability for event host and presenting work.
London, UK
Yesterday afternoon, I met up with Chris Mounsey whose on-line alter ego is the political blogger Devil’s Kitchen. You may have seen Chris on television recently speaking on behalf of the Libertarian Party who are fielding a few candidates at General Election. I videoed him for my Movin’ Up series on YouTube and then afterwards discussed, with the award-winning blogger, the state of politics and the forthcoming election.
Both of us mentioned the apparent lack of posters and general political activity in our respective constituencies. Outside of the London area perhaps there’s more to be seen but we both couldn’t help thinking that the turnout on May 6th could be less than the 62% in 2005. The apparent malaise maybe derived from the expenses scandal, the general distrust of politicians and their “spin”, the “first-past-the-post” system – who knows.
London, UK
Poor old Marks & Spencer. The Facebook campaign to force them to reduce car-parking charges at Temple Fortune has worked and I’m pleased that yours truly was able to help the campaign. It just goes to show that a bit of people power coupled with social media can work wonders for certain causes.
The Facebook campaign was started by Caroline Ratner and Deborah Blackburn and has attracted much support in the North London area. So many thanks to them and thanks to the “Ham & High” for publishing the story.
London, UK
Looks as though the weather will be sunny for England’s national day. Will you or your car be bedecked with the flag of St. George, or are you ambivalent about this national celebration?
London, UK
So word has finally got out how Nick Clegg connected with the television audience in last weeks leaders debate – “talk to the public like they are ten-year olds” as outlined in the Daily Mail. On the one hand this is clearly an effective tool, on the other, people like you and I don’t like to be patronised do we!
But it doesn’t come as any surprise. Winston Churchill’s speeches were simple and effective. No flowery techno-speak, just plain ordinary talking using plain language. Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan was known as the Master Communicator because of his use of a clear message.
Away from the political speeches is the blogosphere. A little while back, the Internet Psychologist, Graham Jones wrote this piece about business blogs – His main point; make your blog easy-to-read.
In the world of sales, one of the first things I was taught was to “Keep It Simple Stupid” or the K.I.S.S. method – in your dealings with customers. People don’t want to hear or to read complicated stuff, instead they want simple, straight-forward messages.
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