blog
Google+Digital Surrey – June 2013
Last night saw the first gathering of Digital Surrey since we went quarterly earlier this year. June’s event was hosted in the fantastic surroundings of G Live in the centre of Guildford; made even more beautiful by the appearance of some late sunshine flooding through the floor-to-ceiling glass panels! We began with some short presentations from each of our panel members – @lglenday @Nashy @dwoodhead and @ade_oshineye – in which they shared some thoughts on digital strategy. This was followed by a brilliant Q&A session...
read moreEmployee engagement insight… from Sir Alex Ferguson
An insight into man-management by Sir Alex Ferguson, arguably the world’s most successful football manager, should be seized on by everyone involved in employee engagement. Phil Neville, who played under Sir Alex, says the Manchester United boss’s highest priority was recruiting the right player and his second highest priority was knowing how to handle that player to get the best out of him. How many middle and senior managers have such clarity when it comes to making sure their team players have the right characteristics and...
read moreCIPR Social Summer – When Social Media Grew Up
Last week I went up to London for one of CIPR’s Social Summer talks called ‘When Social Media Grew Up’. Mindshare‘s Head of Social Strategy, Jed Hallam was the chief and he took us through a packed agenda talking about big topics such as data, convergence, death of the ‘brand’ and more. What Jed said (ha!): Anyone can influence a brand now. We don’t control brands completely, but we certainly influence the way they act/react/think. Social business is a business that has human insight in its DNA,...
read moreCIPR Fresh – Client handling
On Tuesday morning I enjoyed yet another brilliant event from CIPR Fresh – they just never disappoint! This one was led by Jim Hawker of Threepipe and concerned the sometimes tricky topic of client handling. According to Jim there’s no such thing as a difficult client; you’ve just got to know what makes them tick. From what Jim was saying the most important thing seems to be to REALLY get to know your client. I’m talking birthdays, kids’ names, football teams – everything you can find out about them to be...
read moreThe power of alliteration
When buttering my toast in the morning, a little ditty often pops into my head: “You’ll never put a better bit of butter on your knife.” For those who don’t know what I’m on about, that was the memorable slogan in a 1980s Country Life butter ad. Well, it’s certainly stayed in my mind all these years! ‘Better bit of butter’ – what amazing alliteration! At theblueballroom, we can bring your business and your brand to life by creating compelling content. Whether that’s for magazines or ezines, speeches or...
read moreWomen in Business: our time is now
Hearing Philippa Snare, chief marketing officer of Microsoft UK talking yesterday at the Like Minds Salon Talk was further proof, as if we needed it, that women make a difference.
read moreThe joys of being offline
I just spent a long weekend offline. No landline, no internet and a mobile phone connection that is sporadic at best. How was it? Mostly great, but also frustrating. It made me realize how much I rely on Google and Facebook for instant information. Over the course of the weekend I wanted to know: Did my daughter have a verruca on her foot? What exactly do they look like? How do I easily remove a sycamore tree stump that is still sprouting branches? And, does everyone else think the Dutch Eurovision Song Contest entrant is fantastic? I also...
read moreDo you want to live in a smart city?
At theblueballroom we think a lot about the interplay between traditional media and social media, and the opportunities this brings about. Taking this view of the larger, societal picture, and the smart cities we could be living in, was at the heart of the fantastic FutureEverything #futr conference I attended, dubbed the ‘summit of ideas and digital invention’. Some of the key discussions were around these topics: Smart cities and smart citizens The notion of smart cities, is being supplanted by the notion of smart citizens: people who...
read moreFood for workplace thought
Good communicators not only provide information, they make it relevant to people’s everyday lives – whether in schools or workplaces
read moreCIPR International Scholarship: a genuine opportunity
The CIPR has announced a new scholarship in the name of recently departed Doug Smith, the founder of CIPR International. With an ethical slant, the scholarship will allow students to develop an understanding of PR in other countries by studying overseas.
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