I was at a networking meeting the other day when someone declared that blog posts should always be infotaining. i.e. informative and entertaining. Well, quite. It got me thinking about portmanteaus: those words that are a blend of two other words. Or to be more precise they’re the beginning of one word joined to the end of another. Some are rotten. Like...
In honour of English Language Day last week I tweeted an old blog post about Anglo Saxon words. On Twitter @CiaranNorris replied “because Anglo Saxon words are ****ing great.” (Ciaran’s asterisks.) Indeed. It’s not cool to swear though, right? Or is it? Once frowned upon as showing lack of intelligence it now seems perfectly acceptable to cuss. Stephen Fry, the cunning linguist says...
A few weeks ago, I managed to squeeze in a quick lunch with the very busy Julie Hall of Springmedia and Women Unlimited. (Yes, she really does run two companies. And a family. She’s, like, Superwoman!) Over a jacket potato we discussed positive discrimination (we disagreed), the UK versus the North American work ethic, and the tools she uses to help...
You may recall, a couple of months ago, I wrote a blog post about how I was going to call everyone I was following on Twitter. Yes, I know. Crazy. And yet, I have to say, so far it’s been absolutely brilliant. I’ve swapped ideas, learnt new things, planned a few joint projects and really got to know the people behind...
In the paper the other week some jobsworth from the council described a new parking regulation which would be ‘like marmite’. He then went on to explain that local residents would either love it or hate it. Which got me thinking. How many other advertising slogans have become part of the vernacular? Which awesomely brilliant straplines do we now say every day? Here are...
This month, I’ve managed to grab a few moments with digital marketing expert Matt Sawyer (who was one of the first industry bods I ever followed on Twitter). Matt heads up the online marketing department over at digital agency Datadial. We talked about link campaigns, the best blogs to read and why is the SEO industry coming in for some...
Standing in a queue at the Nationwide Building Society this week, I picked up this little leaflet. (Note to Nationwide: 9.30am, 7 people in the line and only one teller and a trainee serving. Please address this before my next visit. Ta.) Anyway, because I had nothing better to do, I started reading about Nationwide’s latest TV ad campaign which...
On this blog, the other week, I was going on about old school communication, having received a handwritten letter (sort of) from my MP and a postcard from Jerry Marshall, who I’d met networking. So, I had a few of my own postcards printed up and I’ve been sending them to people I’ve met out and about at networking events and conferences. I’ve even...
Back in February I 'fessed up to being an email junkie. I was a ‘reader, filer, reader, filer’. And sometimes I was a 'leave it in my inbox for weeks and weeks in the hope I'll get round to it at some point'. But as of today, the inbox is EMPTY. Yay. And, no, I haven’t just shoved all my emails into folders....
This article was written for Social Media Lens, a collection of articles and anecdotes written by brands, businesses and influencers, and produced by digital agency immediate future. Social Media Lens was launched at the Marketing Week Live Show this week. Download your free copy here. We all know about the benefits of using social media. Take Twitter for instance. Get it right and you...
