Rebecca Caroe

This blog is now transferred

I have transferred all the new content to my new site Creative Agency Secrets.
Apologies to loyal readers - please check out the new site.

Rubbish or a social experiment?

On the tube at Kings Cross this morning, circle line platform towards the City and I saw a pile of 6 books stacked neatly against the wall.

Alan Greenspan's autobiography, a book about Citroen, a novel.... Some with bookmarks and pages marked.

I looked through the lot and then stood back waiting for my train. And noticed another lady do the same thing.

Were we being secretly watched? Or had the owner been arrested and left his books behind?
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

Stumble stones

My family is partly Dutch and today I have been reading the family society magazine, MishpaGazette.

A fascinating article about Struikelstennen (stumble stones). These are the product of a German artist Gunter Demnig who make brass plated cobblestones and lays them in the road or pavement outside the houses from which Jews were deported in WW2. The stones are engraved with the Date of birth, date of deportation and place where the person was murdered.

Over 10,000 stumble stones have been laid in Austria, Italy and Hungary as well as the first Dutch ones in Borne: laid on 29.11.07. These include Jews who worked for our family factory, Spanjaard Textiles.

What a great reminder linking world history with local village homes! Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

Interviews

Reminder, I am transferring this blog to Creative Agency Secrets.  Here's an interview i just did with Gill Hunt of Skillfair

Pearlfinders advertises with Guardian

I get a daily news digest from the Guardian. Attached was an advert from Pearlfinders the agency new business lead tracking service.

I met the owners a while ago and although I have never used the service, it may be worth investigating if you find it hard to get leads or if you are trying to get into a new area of business.

Follow the link http://www.pearlfindersnews.com/landing/uk1.html Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

Resolution for 2008

Talking to Gill Hunt last week she said something that really resonated with me. "if I find myself doing something for the third time, I find a way to automate it."

What a fabulous resolution for business this year. I am telling all my clients. Let me know WHAT you automate. Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

Stats - creep up

I am very pleased to say that my webstats are getting better.
Got a lovely result for a google search "advice on making business grow"  and I'm at number 4.

And I have also been picked up by FutureLab on their list of B2B Marketing Blogs....

A belated thanks to the InHouseVillage folk for adding me to their list of blogs to watch. [curiously filed under 'toolkit'??]

MyBlogLog

I have used MyBlogLog for a while to enable some basic community features on this site so that you can see a list of recent readers, for example.  But apart from preening myself that Hugh McLeod, David Airey or Bert Cocu has viewed what I'm writing, it hasn't really added any useful depth to my site to date.

But, having joined the Yahoo stable of services, I found that when I just logged in MyBlogLog asked me to merge my account into my Yahoo account.  Cunning.

So I did.

And here's what I found. 

• They are trying to build some community features into a more detailed profile / home page for my account.
• The site stats link is FANTASTIC.  You can actually see the search terms used which led people to click on your site, plus what they read and which links they clicked out from your site on.
• There's a long list of social media sites where you can add your profile / moniker all neatly aggregated into a single page.  So you can link to me in lots of other sites from Stumbleupon to Flikr
  
• Theres a neat "about me" widget that may come in handy if you don't already have a profile page.
• A list of Family/Friends/Contacts and My Admirers is created. 
• And apparently 128 people have viewed my profile (believe if you will)
• And you can get messages too.  I got one.  From Azeliana whoever she is... her profile says her blog is 
  
  • "Here I'll share my knowledge, discovery and experience related to my hobby. Most articles on this site are related to mesothelioma lung cancer,asbestos, short reviews, tips and making a healthy life."
• So I reckon I won't be reading much of that!

Anyway, there it is.  I really see most opportunity from studying the stats and links information which is LOADS better in that one regard than the Typepad ones and even my WordPress blog stats.

[Afterthought: having read the stats in more detail, I was inspired to write the post on Skype for business prospecting. Because that was the exact search term someone entered that led to my site.  Gratifyingly, one other was "CRM Consultant".   Maybe my  SEO and prospective clients' search terms are mis-aligned?]

Business Prospecting using Skype

Is it possible?  Can we now use VOIP as a tool for researching and finding new prospects?

I have been using Skype for  a couple of years now and it's a great way to keep in touch with customers who are abroad using SkypeOut and to have extended conversations with UK customers / colleagues for free.

But the lack of a "directory enquiries" function makes this a poor substitute for other resources.  The SkypeFind function is supposed to be for 'local' businesses.  This strikes me as inadequate in today's global reach www world.  Why would I use Skype to find a local business?  There are great sites  like Upmystreet.com for that in the UK.  However, I have, naturally listed Rowperfect and Rebecca Caroe on the off-chance that someone uses this to search for some rowing or sculling equipment or a business development consultant!

Now, a "SkypeCast" is definitley a possibility for some public speaking / seminar / workshop type focus if you can set it up so that a decent number of people sign up to listen at a fixed time.  But this requires good marketing and PR support, much the same as you would do for any marketing event.
[However, at the time of writing, most of the Skypecasts going on were definitely pornographic!]

Now I can see SkypeCast being a good CRM tool in order to offer insight and access to a close-knit group of key customers as part of a relationship management programme.  However, as a participant in webinars and even internal conference calls over the years, I find that the number of people who actually participate is much much lower than the number who sign up to join in.  If you do run an event like this that has a high drop-out rate, always offer people the opportunity to download slides or a summary of the conversation after the event if they missed it.

Any views out there?  Anyone using Skype as an active part of their biz dev?

Sign 'o the times

Getting out of touch with other generations than your own is a fact of life.  I had personal experience of a  couple in the pub tonight, and another courtesy of my Uncle Malcolm (thanks, mate!) this Christmas.

First Malcolm.  He's studying at Nuffield College Oxford right now for a year.  And since he has real white hair, the staff asked him to be Santa for their kids party.  He did the usual "hello kiddie, what do you want for Christmas" line and all was going well until a little boy said to him
"I'd like a wee!"  Well, uncle M sent him back to him Mum quick-o...... but later it was explained what the boy really wanted, a Wii!!

Tonight in the Coach and Horses, Waterbeach, I read a sign behind the bar.  "Meal Deal, £1 pack of crisps and a pickled egg".  Says it all, really!

And overhearing a punter place his order which included a "posh wine".  Apparently this is wine (red or white) with lemonade.  God I'm out of touch.  Plus it sounds about the only way to drink unspeakable pub wine. Tell me I'm wrong, someone, please tell me.....