.. my blog that is. It has emigrated to planet Wordpress here at markkelly.net
If you've ever read this here marketing blog or if you are subscribed to it and get a feed alert from this post, please point your browser at http://www.markkelly.net..
The new blog looks a bit raw, some archive post images are missing BUT in theory I'll get greater functionality, great SEO benefits and more of a bloggers community expereince.
That's my thinking and its been borne out with my hiking blog which is already on Wordpress.
Squarespace is great but didnt quite do it in the long run.
For those of you who don’t know what flavors.me is (or indeed rival service about.me) – it started life as a signposting site.. a way for your to have a web based introductions card / signpost to all your disparate online presences.
Handy for things like business cards or email signatures.. People can then choose which of your streams to check out : your tweets, your photos (on flickr) your CV / résumé or biz updates on LinkedIn etc. Flavors.me has now expanded that initial service further by allowing you to see what other flavors.me users are updating within their respective ‘native’ services.
I wrote about both the new service itself and where that could go in the future : have a look here over on the Brass Agency blog (3 stories in , scroll down the page).
Personally I prefer flavors.me because of the other users aggregating tool thing and I’m used to the design options and functionality now. But the about.me url is much better...
Do you use either? if not, why not ? if so - which do you prefer?
I went to another great panel debate as part of the recent @LDSdigital Festival - this time it was geolocation and what that means to different people (whether marketing practitioners, tech heads or 'the public').
I haven't got time (sadly, as I'd like to) to replicate the session content or conclusions (as such) and I don't think it was filmed, so this is just a signpost for the Leeds Digital festival website (above) where you can get more info. And also to say that its clear we're still collectively figuring out what works (and maybe what doesn't) to get meaningful (as in, making money or offering brand value) engagement.
And also that the panel was really good (worth following these guys .. I've added correct twitter adds I think):
So , Google has launched a new music service, intended to take on Facebook’s Spotify tie-up and bash Apple (Apple juice?), but with music linked to your Google + account. And it should help tie together a range of Google's services like G+, youtube and search.
Although just launched, there’s been a lot of behind the scenes label negotiations (of course) and it can boast a huge song base already (at c.13 million songs). Which compares against around 15 Million (according to Wikipedia) for Spotify and 18 Million or more at the end of 2010 for iTunes (so 20+million now maybe).
The band (artist) hub feature looks really good, maybe a bit more dynamic than Facebook pages (in design maybe, not reach initially). And an alternative to Facebook is good for fans and prices surely? With Android now having 52% of the global smartphone OS market (Gartner Nov 2011) artists will be making the most of the band hub feature that Google Music will offer, potentially putting some squeeze on Facebook band pages and impacting on ad revenue in that space?
And as android user it should be easier for me to buy and sync tracks for my phone. Not that its such a hassle now but it’s a two stage process and I use an app called Double Twist which links my iTunes purchases and playlists with my Android smartphone.
Secondly, it may make Google+ more social. I’m still not Google+ ing much but music can be a real conversation starter so it may oil the wheels of adoption in that space. But I won’t know if that’s the case for a while as Goggle Music is only available in the states at launch.
And there’s an obvious eCommerce tie in with YouTube , letting you purchase a tune straight from a video that fires you up. But will Google music move past the G+ / android space and be a bigger crowd pleaser? I’m not so sure it will.
I went the Leeds Girl Geek dinner (http://lsx.co/girlgeek/what.html) event last night. The second for me but 9th for the organisers. And from last night I'd say there'll be a lot more as it was really well attended. Mostly by girls but that's the point. Men are allowed but only if invited by a girl.. I'm saying 'men' not 'boys' as I'm way too old to be a boygeek. Greygeek, chapgeek, baldgeek.. much better descriptors.
As the website said (and I knew from the one male amongst women organisers, @Imran) “so far, we're expecting 47 girl geeks and 02 guy geeks...” As a fairly shy guy that ratio was a bit intimidating as I headed over to the Mint hotel. And to be really honest as its billed Girl Geeks I didn’t want to intrude in a space where maybe some women felt more comfortable without men around. But the ethos is one of geekdom and digital discussion above all else - and I knew from the last event I'd be welcome. And I was again, it was a great atmosphere, really good food (that's a biggie on my list) , two great speakers and lots of questions for them from the audience.
As I say, the two speakers were great, both really interesting. First up was Kathryn Grace (@KGBD ) who is a Design Manager at Everything Everywhere. Kathryn talked about Service Design and gave a really good overview of it (I'm not sure if there'll be a slideshare so here's some background for you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_design). Some of the things Kathryn talked about around having T shaped Designers .. e.g able to think / work across a range of disciplines .. resonated with the recent debate at a Leeds Digital Lunch on design for digital (see my last post).
Second up was a talk from Elizabeth Sanderson (@lizziesanderson ) who is Leeds City Council's Web Services Manager. She talked with lots of humour about wrestling an all male team into Agile methodology submission through the use of postcards and wipeboards and the liberal use of Donuts. And probably body slams (ok, (I'm making that bit up) as she's a Roller Derby player. I don't know much about Roller Derby but Rollerball is one of my top 20 films ever and based on that, I'd get my part of a coding project delivered on time if Lizzie ran a team I was in. And not forgetting the brave (as was a new approach for the council) but forward thinking approach of using Agile and not getting Prince2'd into IT deadlock. I don't live in Leeds so I wasn't focusing on whether the new website that is being built using the Agile / Scrum approach will get my bins empted (I'm sure it will), it was just a really interesting insight. I've worked with anther UK council and I know they were looking at similar challenges of Marketing / design / UX / 'IT' build process harmony.
So, the ethos of the evenings is really sound I think and as the Girl Geeks site says : " It is a learning experience for both the men and the women as men in tech aren’t used to interacting with women in tech on a technical level. Technical women are also not used to being technical with other women either… it’s a learning curve on all sides."
The evening was also under the working umbrella of Leeds Digital Festival , which is shaping up to be a really full and varied schedule and all credit to the guys who organised it. If you’re in the Leeds region have a look at the site and see what’s on during November.
January 10, 2012
