Home » Blog»Archive by category 'Emedia'

Emedia

Do marketers smell the social media coffee yet?

This article was originally published at Digital Biographer, also written by David Petherick, in January 2008. That’s Eight. A year ago. I think it still is very relevant a year later…

The significance of social networks is now starting to become obvious to the marketing departments of larger companies, largely due to two factors – 1) Traditional advertising channels are proving less and less effective and 2) Marketing and advertising agencies have started to realise where people are spending their time.

They have seen the writing on the wall – with one particular statistic likely to be a challenge for many a marketing manager: “Social networks will become the dominant channel for viral marketing campaigns – email has been the dominant channel for viral marketing campaigns since the mid 90s, but social networks will overtake it in 2008.”

Another fact that’s staring marketers in the face – a tipping point that only has one further hurdle to clear: “In October 2007, Social Networks accounted for 7.7% of upstream Internet traffic to all other websites, making the category the second most important source of traffic after Search Engines.”

The next hurdle of course is for social networks to become a more important source of traffic than search engines. That’s a whole blog of its own, however.

An article in this morning’s Financial Times is entitled “Business urged to woo social network figures“, and uses language very firmly couched in the tradition of ‘moving product’ and the pages of publications such as ‘Campaign‘. This all suggests to me that although businesses may have woken up, they have not actually smelt the coffee – they still have the urge to sell cereals.
Read the rest of this entry »

Cyber-Biographer makes it to Russia.

I am a ‘Keeber-biograph‘, meaning Cyber-Biographer.
This is a term I came across when searching through Yandex, the Russian search engine that’s been in the news recently, and which is rightly proud of the fact that, thanks to them, Russia is one of only four countries where Google is not the significantly dominant search engine.

The term was coined in a blog by Maya Kim, in the context of an article by Steve Rubel entitled ‘Three Emerging Digital Careers to Watch‘ and I was interested to see that only one of the three terms Steve had used had been expanded and given further clarification using English terms in the context of a Russian blog.

Steve’s term of Super Cruncher was unchanged, and Chief Customer Experience Officer was simply translated into Russian as ‘Head of the Department of Quality Service for Clients’. But his term ‘Digital Storytellers’ was translated into Russian as ‘Cyber-Biographer’, and also expanded to include the English terms ‘digital storyteller, cyberspace concierge, blog butler, ghost blogger, digital biographer‘.

I recall the terms ‘Cyber Concierge’, ‘Blog Butler’ and ‘Ghost Blogger’ were used when BBC News 24 wrote about my work as a Digital Biographer over a year ago, but I was surprised, and quite delighted, to find this reference being made. (For those of you who may not be aware of the fact, I speak fairly good Russian and am also known as ‘The Digial Biographer‘.)

I like the term Digital Storyteller – it’s a good description of some elements of my work. But I still think that ‘biographer’ is closer to describing things accurately:

biography

noun ( pl. -phies)
an account of someone’s life written by someone else.
• writing of such a type as a branch of literature.
• a human life in its course : although their individual biographies are different, both are motivated by a similar ambition.

5 little-known Gmail features you may not yet know about

Gmail (or Googlemail if you’re in the UK) keeps on improving. And its free. And you never have to delete anything, and it’s pretty good at dealing with sp*am… yes, I like it. But I just came across a blog from Google with 5 great time-saving practical features I did not realise existed…

5. “Archive and next” shortcut
4. Share mail searches with friends
3. Browser navigation and history
2. Bookmark emails
1. “Filter messages like this”

Official Gmail Blog: 5 little-known Gmail features you may not yet know about >>

PS: If you don’t have a Gmail account, just ask me to send you an invitation – email david dot petherick at gmail dot com

David Petherick (Digital Biographer) interviewed on BBC Radio Wales

David Petherick is the Founder and CEO of Clarocada – but he’s also “The Digital Biographer” according to the BBC…

“I’ve no idea how the 25 minutes or so I spent talking with Adam Walton of BBC Radio Wales yesterday will sound when it’s edited down to perhaps 5, but we had a good old chat.” said David.

All of this follows on from the BBC article which appeared on 16th July “Meet the Digital Biographer“, which detailed how David had been working for some months as the “ghost blogger” for Thomas Power, Chairman of business networking site Ecademy.

“There were of course questions related to online identity and the corporate / personal persona. I had to clarify that I don’t handle email and messages or blog comments for my customers, but do write blog content. It’s a fascinating area, and Adam said he’d like more time to talk about this – one great question was — what do I do if my work for someone results in them being offered a column or guest blog? The answer… well, you’ll have to listen in.”

The programme goes out at 17:03, Sunday 12th August, repeated Wednesday, 15th August, and is online in the archive for a week from Sunday. You can listen in online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/radiowales/sites/mousemat/

David would like to thank several Ecademy Members for demonstrating social networking in action, by providing some great soundbites for him to consider on the morning prior to the interview here in the Blogs Section at Ecademy: Why has social networking become so important?.

Specifically, David’s thanks go to Dan Field, Samantha Cannell, Robert Greig, Mark Lee, Iain Wilson and Philip Calvert.

You’re a Nobody unless your name Googles well – Wall Street Journal

It’s official – well, it is if you rate the Wall Street Journal’s front page as authoritative – if your name doesn’t Google well, you can have problems with your credibility – and not just with prospective employers.

You’re a Nobody Unless your Name Googles Well published on the 8th of May 2007, cites the example of Abigail Garvey, who, when she adopted the married name of Wilson, began to be questioned on publications she listed on her CV (rÃ©sumÃ©) because they weren’t finding the publications in online searches.

In the age of Google, being special increasingly requires standing out from the crowd online. Many people aspire for themselves — or their offspring — to command prominent placement in the top few links on search engines or social networking sites’ member lookup functions. But, as more people flood the Web, that’s becoming an especially tall order for those with common names. Type “John Smith” into Google’s search engine and it estimates it has 158 million results. (See search results.)

Ask.com estimates about 7% of all searches are for a person’s name, and more than 80% of executive recruiters said they routinely use search engines to learn more about candidates, according to a recent survey by ExecuNet. ExecuNet published “Growing Number Of Job Searches Disrupted By Digital Dirt” in June of 2006, which found that “35% (of executive recruiters) have eliminated a candidate from consideration based on the information uncovered online – up significantly from 26% just one year ago.
Read the rest of this entry »

Inside Ecademy BlackStar: Belonging, Sharing, Winning (25 days of Attitude)

Why do people stop reading your Ecademy Profile? | Complete Certainty: Reliable Business Hosting | Do you Speaka Plain English? | Seats at David Petherick’s Barcelona Masterclass: 12-Feb-07

My Testimonials | My MarketPlace Adverts

1: Act 1 Scene 1

On the 28th of January 2006, I joined Ecademy, having come across it as part of my ongoing research and investigation into blogging, social networks, and ‘web 2.0′ in general. Within ten minutes, I knew that PowerNetworker status was the only sensible starting point, and I also recognised that Ecademy had something that an Israeli company I’d been working with needed – and vice versa. I wrote to, and had a response from, Thomas and Penny Power, the very next day.

By February, Ecademy had a deal on the table with Conduit to create the Ecademy Toolbar, and I was beginning to recognise that by sharing ideas and contacts, I might not be getting paid for “the deal” in cash, but I was earning goodwill from all the parties I brought together. Goodwill, in my years of building businesses, I consider is more valuable than money – because you can’t buy it – you have to earn it – and when you need to spend it – it’s inflation-proof.

I started to recognise that my skills could be used in Ecademy in a very specific way: to rewrite profiles, and market place adverts. After all I am a journalist, copy writer, photographer, designer, can code HTML and tell a story. So the “profile makeover” service was created. After honing my talents on a few willing friends and volunteers at Ecademy, I finally managed to persuade Thomas Power that I should rewrite his profile in July 2006. When he published the result and posted a blog about it, I soon realised that I had just invented an industry. By October of 2006, I had a constant three week waiting list of customers, and they were almost half referrals from existing customers.

I decided that I should investigate joining BlackStar: for two reasons. 1) Some of the best networkers in Ecademy were Blackstars; 2) Many of my customers were Blackstars; and 3) The energy and focus these people all seemed to have intrigued me, as did the idea of a wealth profile – something that I kept seeing and hearing about.

In correspondence and meetings with Thomas and other Black Stars, I saw that being “a member” somehow helped other Blackstars to get to the point quickly, establish a level of intimicy and trust that seemed almost automatic, intuitive. I also read up on wealth profiles and the work of Roger Hamilton. I decided to apply in December, filled out an application form, and had an interview of about an hour and a half, at the end of which, I was accepted as a member.

I made my payment, and within two hours, was astonished to see that I had an inbox message welcoming me to BlackStar. What? How did that colleague know so soon? I looked at my profile summary, and it suddenly dawned on me: my little membership icon had changed from orange to black. I was a BlackStar.

It was the 29th of December, 2006. I did not quite know it then, but I had the most stimulating, fulfilling and rewarding three weeks of my life ahead of me, which were beautifully crystallised on Monday 22nd January, at my first ever (and I hear the biggest ever) BlackStar Monthly Meeting in London.

(Free MP3 Recorded version of this story will be available shortly – just send an email to blackstar25@searchsuccess.net and you’ll get to grab it when it’s edited.)

Read the rest of this entry »

David Petherick’s Online Profile Masterclass: Barcelona, 12 February 2007

David Petherick, the Profile Makeover Expert, is offering a one-day Masterclass on how to edit, format and promote your business and personal brand through your online profile.

Thomas Power is Chairman of Ecademy, and Penny Power is its Founder. Together, they have perhaps the most-visited profiles online at Ecademy. However, both asked David Petherick to makeover and rewrite their profiles. Why was that?

The answer is that they were objective, and recognised that they were not the best person to author their profile. Being objective about what to include and how to structure your own profile is very difficult. Most people can not be objective when describing themselves – that’s why so many autobiographies are unreadable.

Your profile is your first and often your last chance to make an impression online. No matter how impressive your online contribution to discussions, groups, clubs, assisting and advising others – your profile is the touchstone and reference point. It’s a combination of a sales pitch, a personal presentation, a business card, a brochure, a personal statement, a list of recommendations, a mini web-site, and a wave from across the room.

It has a lot of work to do. Is your profile doing you proper justice?

Date: Monday 12th February 2007
Time: 10:00 – 16:30
Place: Barcelona, Catalonia
Fee: Â£97

Click here to Reserve your Place at the Barcelona Profile Masterclass today!
Read the rest of this entry »