Danny Brown

podcaster - author - creator

Insights

Mapping Your Way Through Social Media

One of the key takeaways that you’ll hear most in social media is that you have to listen. You have to listen to what your audience is saying; you have to listen to what your customers are saying; you have to listen to what your competitors are saying; and you have to listen to what your community is saying.

That’s a lot of listening. And with your time already taken up with so many other things, it can look pretty scary being told you have to do all this listening as well. But do it you must if you want to keep up, because you can bet your competitors are. So what’s the secret?

Simple – you make a social map.

Here’s your starter for ten – questions?

Mapping Your Way Through Social Media

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And the Winner Is…

A couple of weeks back I ran a “mini contest”, if you like, to celebrate this blog’s first full year. The gist was as follows – up for grabs was the Headway premium WordPress theme (used on this very blog) as well as a copy of Trust Agents and Six Pixels of Separation. All you needed to do to “win” was tell me why you wanted Headway.

Well, the votes are in – as in, I’ve made my mind up – and my favourite reason (and the one that wins the Headway theme) is this one:

As someone who changed from Thesis to Headway for the very reasons Charlotte mentions, I feel her “pain”. And the use of “shitty first draft” just seals the deal – anyone designing a new blog or site knows that feeling all too well!

So, congratulations to Charlotte – I’ll be contacting you soon with the details.

For the books, I’ve added a couple more – two copies of Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It! (review coming soon). So, without further ado…

Thanks again, guys, for helping to make this blog so enjoyable to write, and I’ll be in touch soon for shipping details. Cheers!

Note: This blog no longer runs on the Headway framework. Instead, it’s a custom WordPress design by Lisa Kalandjian of SceneStealer Graphics.

Have Your Say

Colourful armySo there are a few new changes/tweaks/additions (delete where applicable) coming to this blog soon, and I’d love your help to decide on how it pans out. After all, you guys are the real stars around here – I just offer somewhere to hang.

The first change I’m thinking about is the design. I’m tempted to go for either a fairly minimalistic look – think something akin to Posterous – or a more magazine feel like this one.

I’ll still be using the Headway theme to make it customized to how I’d like it, I’m just not sure which way to go. Thoughts?

Secondly, I’m starting a new interview series on video using wetoku. This lets you have a split-screen chat on video which viewers can watch live then, once the chat is over, the video can be embedded directly onto your blog or website. I think it’s a really cool little app and one that could take blogging into a whole new sphere.

And I’d like you to choose the guests.

Let me know who you’d love to see, and why. Pretty much anyone in the social media, marketing, digital space, PR field or similar – I’ll do my best to get them on. I’m not promising I’ll be successful – I don’t hold that much sway – but I am stubborn if nothing else!

So, a couple of changes, and I’d love for you to help me one way or another, if that’s okay with you?

Leave your suggestions for either option – blog theme or wetoku – in the comments and I’ll take it from there. Cheers!

  • Update October 25 – Going by comments on here and Twitter, it looks like minimal design is preferred – so, this is the new look that you’re seeing now. Thanks for your thoughts!

Note: This blog no longer runs on the Headway framework. Instead, it’s a custom WordPress design by Lisa Kalandjian of SceneStealer Graphics.

Creative Commons License photo credit: maistora

Instant Coffee

Instant coffee is fast. Instant coffee offers the quick solution you need at that time. Instant coffee keeps you satisfied until you can get to the gourmet roast or Colombian dark coffee from your favourite bean.

As customers, we love full bean flavour but we don’t always need that – sometimes all we need to keep us happy is some instant coffee.

How’s your business at serving coffee?

All You Need is the Story

Creatives are often looking for the biggest bang for the buck.

Marketing; PR; advertising; a lot of the time these disciplines share the same questions – what cool way can we get our product in front of someone? How much budget can we allocate to this product launch? What celebrity can we get to promote us? What lifestyle magazine can we get to write about us?

All valid points, all part of the process. And there have been many examples of truly creative campaigns over the years.

But sometimes, if you really want to drive home your message, you don’t need the special effects. You don’t need the dramatic smoke machines. You don’t need the mini Hollywood budgets.

All you need is the story.