Mashable; ‘The Social Media Guide’, the monstrous mash-up blog that opened up the world of Social Media at the helm of Scottish born Pete Cashmore. The site quickly became the leading new media website in the world due to it being the most comprehensive and active Social Media News site of recent years.

As it has expanded in size, recruiting more and more writers from different journalistic backgrounds, it has made a transition into wider areas of Digital Technology where the competition is greater and the audience is larger.

Formally known as ‘The Social Media Guide’… Now that the slogan is no longer present on the site, what kind of site are Mashable now?

Continue reading “Are Mashable Spreading Themselves Thin?” »

Client: “Hi, would you be able us out with a Digital Strategy for our business?”
Me: “Yeah that sounds great. Send me some links so i can check out your online presence.”
Client: “We don’t have a website but we use a Facebook Fan Page and YouTube channel to market.”

So you run a business or plan on starting a business in 2010 and do not have a website; i suggest you take 10 steps back and re-evaluate where exactly you consider your market to spend the majority of their time.

If your audience is over 60 years old and you are starting a Poker Club for the elderly, then maybe yes you should create a direct marketing campaign at a selective group of old people’s homes and push the online campaign to the side.

However, if you believe that there is a large proportion of your audience using the Web; how can you expect people to buy into your brand if you don’t even buy into your brand yourself?

The first consultation i will advise on when clients enquire about Digital Strategy involves their website. A Digital Strategy is the plan of action in driving more users and traffic to a source where you can sell or promote a product.

If i ever click on a link and it takes me to a Facebook Fan Page; like the majority of users, i will glance for a few seconds, then proceed to check my own Facebook Profile and begin chatting with my network about Eastenders or Hollyoaks… NOT ABOUT YOUR BRAND!

Now that you are reconsidering your need for a website, it’s lucky i have links to the cheapest deals around isn’t it!

Click here to check out deals for Hosting Options and here for deals on Domain Names….

NOW GO!

I was having a conversation recently with a friend about his business model. We were throwing ideas back and forth and then he asked about interaction and engagement with his market. (The most famous words in a Social Media Guru’s dictionary).

Engagement and Interaction… Engagement and Interaction… Engagement and Interaction! It’s all i keep hearing from Mashable content recyclers.

“Social Media is Engagement and Interaction and by utilising Web 2.0 in accordance to your audience you can build a reputable network and substantial ROI.”

The old boring word known as ‘Communication’ is dead. Revitalizing buzz words such as Engagement and Interaction are leading the way and a whole universe of confused brands and businesses are throwing money at rogue ‘Digital Marketers’ to explain to them what these words actually mean.

Want to know what it all really means? Here’s a simple tip that i won’t charge you a ridiculous day rate for:

It means you have to LISTEN to your audience when they speak, REPLY when comments are posted and RESEARCH available tools that are relevant to your campaigns.

I understand that not everybody is savvy with the online media world, so if you still want to pay me to teach you the fundamentals of new age words that you don’t understand; then drop me an email and i’ll be more than happy to assist. Ca-ching!

Within the past year i have watched a heep of motivational, inspirational and personal development videos. Finding that guidance in life so you know deep down that you are heading in the right direction is not in any way easy to find.

In my last post i wrote something very personal; as i am currently going through a transition period in my journey to find self fulfillment.

Tony Robbin’s is one of the world’s most famous public speakers, first brought to my attention by my former mentor Andrew Davis. I have watched this video over and over, and some of the quotes he uses are remarkable.

Take eight mins to understand how he identifies having Clarity and Purpose in life.

“Clarity is power, you gotta know the specific result you are after. What do you want. If you can’t answer that question right now, in your personal life, in your body, in your relationships, in your finances, in your spirituality, then you’re not gonna be as fulfilled as you want to be.”

The quote above; while lengthy, is brilliant. Tony Robbins talks real sense and most of our days fly by us without us taking a moment to really understand where we are heading, what we want to achieve and how we are getting there.

“Life will pay any price you ask of it.”

Every once and a while our lives get to a crossroad where a decision needs to be made so that we can progress.

One of the first posts i wrote for this blog entitled Just Another Chapter In My Story explained how a series of events had occurred in my life. I ended that post writing this analogy:

Every challenge is like a chapter in a story; the story of your life. While the chapter will eventually come to an end, it does so to let another chapter begin. The next challenge will not be the final chapter in your life, and as your story goes on, each chapter will make it easier to understand what this story is about. As you progress, the book will become clear and you can conquer the rest of the story with ease.

Around six months have passed and im up at the next set of crossroads again.
Continue reading “The Next Chapter: Joining Chelsea Football Club” »

With the World Cup kicking off tomorrow it’s time to lay down the law and let the world know all my inside secrets.

Top Scorer: Luis Fabiano
England gets kicked out: Quarter Finals
Surprise Team: USA
Outside Tip: Holland
Most Heartbroken Team: England lol
Biggest Disappointment (Team): Argentina
Biggest Disappointment (Player): Rooney
Team that was great last world cup but now they are useless: France
Your coach should have picked you: Ronaldinho
Biggest Moaner: C Ronaldo
Most Overly Patriotic: USA
Players of the tournament: Fabiano or Villa
Best Fued: Capello lobbing a boot at Beckham for tryna tell him what to do.
Most patronising things said by the press: Wow Africans have boots on and they’re not playing with oranges.
Lose my tember like Zidane award: Terry when he finds out Bridge is banging his wife back home.
Best Advert: Carlsberg
Winners of the World Cup: Italy

Whats your predictions? Continue reading “My World Cup Predictions” »

Of course the Top Link this week was going to be the unveiling of the iPhone 4. After the leak on Gizmodo in April, it was only a matter of time until we were given the real details on Apple’s latest masterpiece.

Apple have done it again. I started out with the first iPhone 2G back at the start of 2008 but in 2009 i switched over to Blackberry to get my business game on. Now i think it may be time to revert back!

Continue reading “Luca’s Links: The Top 5 Links of the Week” »

What you are about to read is a compilation of my Top 5 Favorite Links of the past week. Each and every week i will post links from various topics. Whether they are tech, videos, sport, gaming or girls; i guarantee they will entertain….. or so i hope.

I could not stop laughing when i saw this. Looks like a mob boss with his leather jacket sitting in his chair giving orders to the peasants. But seriously, cruelty or comedy?

Continue reading “Luca’s Links: The Top 5 Links of the Week” »

If you work in the music industry, odds on every day you will get an email from these people informing you of a the best in new music that is generating a sufficient amount of heat out in these here hills.

Well on Tuesday 18th May 2010, @SmilerMusic was the official Record Of The Day.

If that wasn’t enough, each and every week the music website publishes a magazine with all the details of the artists that are about to blow and features them in a nice tidy PDF.

It also, makes one of its artist’s and their track the ‘Record Of The Week’.

In other news, Enza is officially on the BBC 1Xtra ‘B’ Playlist, @SmilerMusic is in the May edition of RWD MAG and to top it all off MTV Base, The Box, Hits, Flava and AKA are all spinning the video.

Not bad considering most people were raising eyebrows at a hard Hip Hop track that had no singing hook, no bridge and no candy floss.

Breaking the mould…

So I was set the challenge of creating a thread/post relating to My Community for Gumtree.

Challenge: Pick up to 10 of your favorite things about your community and create an ad page on the Community section. Simple enough!

The task is to get as many comments and views as possible to this thread.

“Gumtree are passionate about communities and bringing people together.”

Being that the London Southbank is built up on creativity I decided to be a little bit more innovative with the challenge and rather than pick a selection of my favorite things, I took my new moleskin notepad, a sketchbook and my new digital camera (courtesy of Gumtree People) down to the Southbank and chose a selection of things that inspire me from the Southbank area.

So, my lovely readers, i need you guys to help me out a little:

- Head over to My Southbank
- Leave a nice little comment
- Retweet the My Southbank to your network.
- Let me know when you have done so and i will add you to my personal reward list!

**Alternatively if that is all too long, just leave a comment on this post!!**

Continue reading “Competition Challenge: My Southbank” »