Safety Tips for the Party Season

Safety tips for the Party Season originating from American police officers, worth repeating on the basis that, hopefully you’ll never need them, but you’ll be glad to know them if you ever do.

o Avoid stairwells – they are favoured places for attacks – take the lift.

o Keep an old wallet, or purse in one place with a small amount of money in it and the rest of your money, cards etc somewhere else. If mugged, an increasingly common street crime, throw the wallet or purse one way and run very fast the other.

o The elbow is the strongest part of the body, so use it if attacked.

o Before getting into your car get into the habit of checking that no-one else is already there. Do not open your car if you are not happy about the look of the driver parked next to you. The passenger sides of large vans can also conceal attackers, crouching down underneath windows. If unhappy get someone to walk to your car with you – better paranoid than dead.

o As soon as you get into your car lock the doors and drive off. Do not make yourself a target by sitting checking receipts, making phone calls etc.

o Should you be unlucky enough to get someone in your car with a gun to your head telling you to drive off slowly, drive off very fast, swerving, and smash the car into something solid. Then quickly get out and run away, preferably in a zigzag pattern.

o Attackers of women, like serial killer Ted Bundy, often limp or carry a cane to get sympathy and then ask for help getting into their car, when they then attack. Be on your guard.

And from our own British Transport Police, advice when travelling by train at night:

o Travel in a busy carriage, and don’t be afraid to move if it empties.

o Travel in a carriage close to the driver or guard.

o On stations look for the CCTV cameras and stay within sight.

o Avoid short cuts and unlit alleys.

Useful tips on saving petrol costs

Useful tips on saving petrol costs; – assuming you are already searching for the cheapest petrol in your area online at www.petrolprices.com  and driving ‘fuel aware’ with less ‘hard-braking’ to save fuel:

*Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the petrol, when it gets warmer petrol expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening….your litre is not exactly a litre. In the petroleum business, the specific  gravity and the temperature of the petrol,  diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum  products plays an important  role.*

*A  1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for  this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.*

*When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3)
stages: low, middle, and high. You should be pumping on low mode, thereby minimizing the vapours that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapour return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapour. Those vapours are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting  less worth for
your  money.*

*One of the most important tips is to fill up when your Petrol tank is HALF FULL. The reason for this is the more Petrol you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space.  Petrol evaporates faster than you can imagine.  Petrol storage tanks have an
internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the Petrol and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, every truck that is loaded is temperature compensated so that every litre is actually the exact amount.*

*if there is a petrol truck pumping  into the storage tanks when you stop to buy  Petrol, DO NOT fill up; most likely  the petrol is being stirred up as the Petrol is  being delivered, and you might pick up some of  the dirt that normally settles on the  bottom.*

What to say?

I’m Summer-cleaning my emails at the moment. Unfortunately I’ve let Outlook store lots of important information too long. Our new IT manager is likening this to storing important documents at a motorway service station. So 26,000 need pruning down to a manageable number before we burden The Cloud.

As I’m doing this there are business contacts I’m being reminded of that I haven’t spoken to in a while. Always on a guilt trip that I should spend more time ‘networking’ and ‘keeping touch’,  I’m starting emails to them with “How are you? What’s new? How is everything?”

However, one particular contact is ‘Mr Networking North West’. An early adopter of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and all things social networking, he spends time an effort letting everyone know of almost everything he is doing and thinking. The trouble is most of my LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube contacts are doing the same. And I need to filter and select what I can practically follow and still manage to get things done. Which brings me back to my dilemma.

How do you ask someone so social media switched on, how they are? You are supposed to know aren’t you?

Crowdsourcing: The Pitfalls

Crowdsourcing or “outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to an undefined, large group of people or community” as the master of crowdsourcing Wikipedia defines it, is starting to become mainstream.  Perfect for opinions, surveys, ideas generation or product development it does, as with most things, have its pitfalls. It is also starting to threaten the traditional market and marketing research professions and rearrange the ways organisations are ‘doing things’ as social media blends into the traditional spaces of marketing, media and communications roles.

A great way to build brands and brand loyalty quickly, tap into talent, gain opinions & try out new ideas, all at little or no cost, crowd sourcing needs a health warning too. Mission-critical activities to crowd source? I’m no so sure…and the ethics of free work for nothing that takes away paid work from skilled people – not my ethics – I already hate free pitching for competitive tenders!

• No written contracts, non-disclosure agreements, or employee agreements or agreeable terms with crowdsourced ‘employees’. Barter agreements are usual for wages, if any wages are discussed. Who is to say the rates are raised once you depend on the work?
• Possible bias of results caused by targeted, malicious work efforts, or just plain bias because the crowd has time on its hands.
• Difficulties maintaining a working relationship with crowdsourced workers throughout the duration of a project.
• Increased likelihood that a crowdsourced project will fail due to lack of monetary motivation, too few participants, lower quality of work, lack of personal interest in the project, language barriers, or difficulty managing a large-scale, crowdsourced project.
• Added costs to bring a project to an acceptable conclusion.

The freelance space is a good interim between a crowd and employee. Perhaps dip your toe in the water with this first!

I think I’ll consult LinkedIn – surely another great crowd source of advice! At least I know who I’m dealing with! Or do I?

 

I can’t understand what all the fuss is about…

When I started out running my own company 15 years ago we created a database (now standing at 12,000 personally made contacts). One of the fields it still contains is ‘preferred method of contact’, inwhich in the early days we duly recorded ‘phone’, ‘fax’ or very occasionally ‘email’ and ‘telex’!

Now the medium has changed. For many of those and more contacts it is twitter, facebook, SMS, email or phone – but the principle remains.

That’s why I can’t understand what all the fuss is about with ‘New’ media. We’ve always had ‘new’ media. And why is it called ‘social’ media? Surely all media is social? Billboards are very social and they were new once. As Jean-Francois Decaux says; “The beauty of our medium is that you can’t turn the page or switch off.”

Our role as marketing & PR professionals is to select the preferred media and that preference is usually the one more likely to be seen and responded to by our target audience – and ultimately the one/s to generate the biggest returns on investment in the shortest time. 

In today’s business world we all need to embrace change, and I do, but for many the jury must still be out on measuring the time invested v. the benefit gained and in monetising ‘new’ social media.

Remembering too, that as the channels multiply, the audiences and our mindshares get smaller and smaller – the words from Bruce Springsteen’s 1992 classic come to mind “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)”. Air pollution, noise pollution, light pollution…. information overload….media pollution might be next.

QR Codes Come of Age for Quick Response

We’ve been using QR codes (Quick Response) and our ScanLife for Blackberrys decoders on our phones for 4 months now. All credit Rob Edwards!  http://uk.linkedin.com/in/robedwards1970

// Last week we invested in a new pop up display with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, RSS and LinkedIn symbols next to our QR code to our web site ‘about us’ page. We had lots of people asking us what it was about when out in public for the first time in Manchester. : www.EnterpriseFreelanceFair.co.uk I so enjoyed demonstrating!

It appears QR went mainstream today, when the 2 dimensional barcodes were seen all over the Sunday Times.

So you don’t miss out, link to Scanlife here www.scanlife.com to find out more and then from a photo phone download www.2dscan.com

Here’s ours! We predict it will make display advertising a whole new interactive experience and a much better added value tool for marketers. (QR rather than Marketing Projects’ About Us page, I mean!!! But then….we can still have ambitions…)

Park, dump or stick this Christmas?

I’ve just received the excellent Will Kintish newsletter.  It talks about networking at events. Referring rather harshly to ‘parking and dumping’ – how you negotiate your way round a (hopefully crowded) room this Christmas – it suggests better ways to do this.

“Bob, I’ve just seen Charles over there & I haven’t seen him for ages, goodbye” makes him sound like the weakest link – ‘dumping’ as Will refers to it as (and I’m sure it really is Will writing the newsletter, but that’s another topic).  But ‘parking’ is much better. Find out early in any conversation with them who they know there and then it is easier to move on. – unless you need a pitstop, food or refill that is.

Try - “I’ve not seen Andy for a while, would you like to come and I will introduce you?” or

“Why don’t you come and mingle with me?” or “Why don’t we join that group over there?”

I’ve added my own – ‘sticking’ – achieved at the excellent EDEN launch at Liverpool Hope University last night when Sir Michael Heseltine opened the new EDucation:ENterprise gateway there. Six people all talking together from two people I knew.

See how many you can ‘stick’ this party season! Enjoy….

Starbucks and Weddings: Lessons in Crisis Management

I am watching the Maldives wedding story with interest at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11644328 – an English understanding couple are married in the local language which wasn’t quite the words you expect. Will it really affect tourism to the beautiful islands or is it a media storm in a teacup?

The following viral received today and below add to an otherwise quiet week – but both have crucial PR issues to resolve.

Recently, British Royal Marines in Iraq wrote to Starbucks because they wanted to let them know how much they liked their coffees, and to request that they send some of it to the troops there.

Starbucks replied, telling the Royal Marines thank you for their support of their business, but that Starbucks does not support the war, nor anyone in it, and that they would not send the troops their brand of coffee.

Sgt. Howard Wright,
1 Platoon, Recon Company, Royal Marines

When the Twin Trade Towers were hit, the fire fighters and rescue workers went to Starbucks because it was close by for water for the survivors and workers and Starbucks CHARGED THEM.

STARBUCKS HAD STORES ON SEVERAL MILITARY BASES IN THE UNITED STATES. THEY ARE NOW BEING REMOVED BECAUSE OF THIS.

There are 227 Starbucks stores across the UK, and there’s no doubt that our soldiers would get the same response from this company

PLEASE BE KIND ENOUGH TO PASS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR E- MAIL LIST, IN MEMORY OF ALL THE TROOPS WHO HAVE BEEN WOUNDED, LOST LIMBS AND EVEN DIED, SO THAT WE MAY HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE, WITH THIS KNOWLEDGE, WHETHER WE BUY THEIR COFFEE!

Why keeping promises is so important for business – August 2010

In many businesses promises are made within slogans, deadlines and deliveries. However, it is often debatable whether these promises are definitely assured. Keeping a promise is a basic principal that we can apply everywhere. If your business promises 24 hours delivery, but the actual time is 48 hours, what does this say to your customers? You won’t be used again. The same applies to us – Marketing PRojects. We have to and we want to meet the deadlines for PR and Marketing campaigns, strategic plans and simply everything involving our customers.

In a service-based business `keeping your word` builds customer loyalty. At Marketing PRojects we believe that delivering promises and meeting our clients’ expectations are vital factors to our success. We also know satisfied and loyal customers recommend us, so we always try to go beyond what they expect. And it is more efficient to retain customers than gain new ones. One of the worst things a business can encounter is a dissatisfied and angry customer, telling their friends what a horrible service they received.

Bonjour from France! – August 2010

Life is not only about work… and summer time  reminds us that it’s high time to rest. Hope you are enjoying the summer this year as much as I am. It’s 21°C in France at the moment; a country of great art – we saw the Bayeux tapestry a few days ago, culture – we had an excellent visit to Mont St. Michel and food – too much to mention!

I am just a short way across the Channel in Normandy – just wanted to say ‘bonjour’ to clients, supporters and friends of Marketing PRojects.

I am enjoying Normandy’s local dishes in its picturesque villages, strolling down quiet country lanes, admiring beautiful landscapes, walking around historical towns and meeting friendly people. No matter where you are now, what the weather is out there and whether you have time off… enjoy summer! I will shortly be back at Marketing PRojects with fresh ideas, reinvigorated to deal with new projects. A bientôt!