Film pastiche misses mark, hits vein

Sam Michel — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:20:46 -0700

Whilst on a Friday afternoon diversion sent to me by a friend who knows I have the attention span of a....ooo, look a shiny piece of paper...

My gaze drifted towards this banner advert for Times Online's Good University Guide - and there's an expression that you don't hear often:

Remind you of anything? Ah yes...

Seriously? Are you kidding me?

Aside from the lame pastiche, have I missed the 'obvious' humour in this? Yes, I suppose there is the unintentional comedy in advising potential students on their future academic institution and a film about anti-establishment heroin addicts. Maybe they're trying to say something subversive and politically poignant about the weight of student debt and the difficulty in kicking hard drugs?

Or not.

Basic Badge Marketing Mistakes

Sam Michel — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 02:30:30 -0800

Admittedly, it's taken me an absolute age to sort out my personal blog. I've had one previously, but ran out of time to keep it updated. Fortunately, blogging, social media and community are at the heart of what Chinwag is trying to do, so I get to dabble and it's relevant to the day job sans guilt. Marvellous.

One thing that's surprised me is how hard some of the social networks and web-based applications have made life for me. I've been trying to find buttons or badges to add to my blog, partly so I don't have to replicate lots of information here and partly as an exercise in cross-linking. Roll on the day that there's a tool to manage all this stuff. My aged brain has plenty of trouble trying to keep up with all these accounts.

Considering word of mouth marketing is central to most of these organisations, it can be a bit of a hunt to find how to make these links. Perhaps, it's just the way I look at web pages, but judging by the instructions in this rather excellent post, I'm not the only one. In case you're wondering yourself, I've put some quick instructions below.

	Login to Facebook Navigation to your Profile page Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page Click on 'Create a Profile Badge' link
	Login to LinkedIn Click on the 'My Profile' tab Voila! There's a link to Promote your profile half-way down the page
	Login to your Upcoming profile Scroll down to the bottom of the page Click on the 'Upcoming Badges...' link
	Login to Twitter Scroll to the bottom of the page Click on the 'Care to Share...' link

Gold star to LinkedIn who have the easiest link to find and a good variety of badges.

And whilst I'm in minor-rant mode, why don't they have simpler badges, too? The badges and widgets that have interactivity up the wazzoo are all well and good, but what if I want a straightforward image? Wouldn't a selection of different sizes logos in badge format be a useful addition, not just for bloggers but also press people or anyone who wants to make a generic link to their sites. Definitely missing a marketing trick.

Still, I can't grab too much of the high ground. A quick scan of Chinwag's sites quickly reveals that we don't have badges, widgets, logos or anything else, but having been through this exercise, it'll be one thing that certainly gets bumped up the 'to do' list.

bloggage tagged with marketing

Film pastiche misses mark, hits vein

Basic Badge Marketing Mistakes