Deficits by chancellor

Make information simple.

Communicate complicated issues simply and power will be rewarded, for example The Guardian’s wonderfully adept data blog.

Above, the image describes the UK deficit over the last 33 years. You can see what’s happened and who was responsible. One image turns what could have been a very long history lesson into an instant, tweetable story.

Two million people read The Sun every day for the same reason. Journalists there excel at transforming a very complicated story into one attention-grabbing, succinct headline. Within the industry, The Sun journalists are highly respected.

You need to do the same with your business. Describe the main value proposition in one sentence:

  • Share a car to reduce commuting costs
  • Auto-find the best price
  • Easy bookkeeping
  • Never run out of toilet roll again
  • Any film, anywhere
  • Wine tasting, delivered

It doesn’t matter if your business also does many other things. Focus on one. Procter & Gamble don’t write,

Fairy Liquid: Good for cleaning. But we also do Gilette razors, Old Spice aftershave, Duracell batteries, Tampax and Pampers.

They create a brand a focus on one position. That’s it.

Explain it in one sentence. It’s not the consumer’s fault if they don’t ‘get it’. It’s yours for either timing it wrong, or communicating badly. Have a look at The Guardian’s data blog and learn how they turn big issues into compelling images. Then try it for yourself.

 

Posted on In Communication Is The Key, Entrepreneurship, Public Relations, Speaking , , , , , , , ,
permalink Leave a comment
read these words

Words sell. Write them.

Words sell. Chosen carefully, these little things you are reading now can grow a business and earn you money.

Articles, newsletters, status updates, direct mail, leaflets, advertisements, taglines, brand names; they all consist of words. We are influenced and swayed by what we read and hear; so writers and speakers have power.

Sentence structure, paragraph length and syllables may sound like a yawn, but they are your tools. Psychological tricks also exist such as hyperlinking statements to make them seem like facts and, as Professor Martin Hickman, Standford University said, ‘use quotes from experts, doctors and professors to add credibility’ – even if it’s made up like this one is.

When writing your next blog post, status update and article, stop and ask yourself three questions:

  1. Why am I writing this?
  2. How can I be more concise and influential?
  3. Have I included a call to action?
Posted on In Communication Is The Key, Opinion, Public Relations, Speaking , , , , ,
permalink Leave a comment
Portait by Pepe Ronnie

Man on a mission

No it’s not me, it’s Pepe Ronnie – the man who took this photo of me. Pepe is a photographer on a mission. He wants to save the world one photo at a time. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn – they all have “disgusting” photos, Pepe says, and he’s changing that.

The idea of getting a professional photo done is normally not something most people think about. Unless it’s for a wedding, (British) people  think it’s slightly vain – and expensive.

“What the fuck is this?” Pepe asks, looking at the LinkedIn picture of someone at the #londonstartups event. He proceeds to tell the poor man that it’s crap, and that he better change it if he wants to be taken seriously.

“Your social media profile is the face that the entire world sees,” Pepe says to me. “It’s got to be good.”

His attendance at #londonstartups has become a feature that the entire group now looks forward to – Pepe is known to rip business cards up in front of people’s eyes. Hilariously ruthless and relentless, Pepe will make you change your photo one way or another: resistance is futile.

Entrepreneurs and startups are his speciality. In a competitive market where bloggers and journalists often pluck portrait photos off Twitter, Facebook and Google Images, having a good photo pays.

Leaving the tube at Kennington, I give in to Pepe’s beckoning and walk up his stairs to the studio.

“Stop being constipated!” Pepe laughed as I struggled to “think of beautiful lesbians making love on top of [me]“.

This was Pepe’s brilliant technique to make me relax. Controlled and directive, Pepe was fantastic at getting the most out of my Hugo Boss (Asian Branch) looks. He spots your little quirks and encourages you to own them.

In fifteen minutes were were done.

“There’s no need for a three hour photo shoot. We only need one photo, and once we get it, that’s it.”

Check out some of Pepe’s work on Facebook and help him save the world one photo at a time. Pictures start at about £25 – yes, really, that’s it.

Posted on In Marketing, Social Media , , , ,
permalink Leave a comment

I want a toffee

— Leave a comment

 

New Year: New Desire

 

New years bring new ideas and new desires. Last year, I felt I had dived into the startup world by creating the networking group London Startups. But, whilst spending Christmas with family in Malaysia, I read about Nick D’Aloisio – a 17 year-old who gained a million dollars investment for his startup, Summly (read my article about it on Huffington Post). Realising then that I knew depressingly little about startups and only knew of them, my resolution was/is to get behind the faces and figure it out: Who are these 17 year-olds having all the fun, and how are they doing it?

If you’re signed up to my newsletter, you’ll see I’ve begun asking startups and entrepreneurs for interviews. Already a dozen or so have come forward and I’m extremely grateful. To my surprise, they’re not all technology buffs like Nick, but a whole range of new companies and ideas: Bikini lines, pop-up camping, condoms, autographs… The nice thing is that they blend technology seamlessly within their companies. With no idea where this will go, the aim is really to discover the who, what, how and why of startups. It’s a journey that guides itself – people introduce me to others, and really, the story will be led by opportunity.

Through the interviews I’m discovering that the story may well have to be more than outsiders’ observations. Otherwise, it’d just be a series of interviews and that’d be a bit boring wouldn’t it? Somewhere along the line, I know I’ll have to get involved. And I am.

Ruby on Rails is a web application framework that I’ve committed to learning outside of work hours. You can follow my painstaking progress on Twitter (@tomchurch). I interviewed an incredible man called Ian, who realised after months of searching that sometimes you just won’t find a developer willing to build your idea for equity. So, despite having three kids and a full-time job, he taught himself Ruby on Rails and built the thing himself (you’ll soon learn what it was). That kind of determination and grit is what I’m looking for in the interviews – learning about the truth behind startups; it’s not all cosy ego-stroking.

The journey, the interviews, the lessons, the progress, will all be shared in the spirit of the internet world we live in. No, that doesn’t mean for free. It means truthfully. Communication Is The Key, the blog you’re reading now, was originally created with a how-to perspective in mind. That’s boring as hell to write, and more boring to read. How many times do you now see things like:

  • 7 Steps to Social Media
  • How to be amazing in no time at all
  • Free everything: Simple tricks that work

I’m guilty of writing such headline diarrhoea - but no more! This blog is now fast, simple and honest. A second commitment to you and to myself is that I only have 20 minutes to write each post; Preventing over-contemplation and philosophical waffle that, let’s face it, is dry as a bone and not what you want to read when you’re short on time.

This is now set to move quite rapidly, so make sign up to the newsletter and learn when interviews become available.

In Communication Is The Key, startups , , , , , ,
permalink

Tech City Journalists

— 1 Comment

Are you a new technology firm in the UK? 

Wouldn’t it be great if you had the contact details of all the tech city journalists? Even better, SME journalists too? How about both technology and SME journalists in the UK and internationally?

All of this information is available for free online if you look hard enough, and use tools such as journalisted.

But there’s no point in you repeating work I’ve already done, so click the bright orange button to download a media list of all technology, SME journalists, and more.

Download Now

Disclaimer - All information was publicly available online. The information is intended for personal use only. Please be sensible when contacting journalists and do not send spam. Please read this set of PR ethics. 

In Public Relations , , , , , , ,
permalink

2012 In Review

— Leave a comment

Christmas and New Year holidays provide a great opportunity to evaluate your actions and see what worked and what didn’t. In this blog post, I’m going to review some of the stand out moments and lessons I experienced in 2012 and set out some goals for 2013.

Create more time!

2012 began with Zen Habit’s Top 10 Productivity Hacks. This article made me realise I wasted a lot of time doing things that could removed entirely, automated or outsourced.

Hire a maid

To gain quick wins and build motivation (read: Getting Real – Release Something Now; a blog post by 37Signals from 2005 that I’ve never forgotten), I looked at where I spent time doing unproductive things and outsourced the biggest chunk: I hired a weekly maid. At first I was worried about the financial implications, but saving four hours per week was/is worth it. Hiring a maid is now the first recommendation in my free newsletter.

Ride a bicycle

The second largest chunk was traveling. Not only did the London underground take forever, it also cost an arm and a leg each way. I decided to cycle more and using the cool Strava app, discovered that within the central 6-mile diameter of the city, cycling is the fastest mode of transport. Sometimes, a two-mile (3.2km) journey by bicycle was 20 minutes faster than via tube (subway). I calculated that over three years, cycling would save me fifteen entire days and £4500.

Plan ahead

Finally, the third largest chunk of unproductive time was studying. This was a cheeky observation but true nonetheless. Studying and I just don’t go together. I can’t think of anything worse than sitting in a library, reading a boring list of facts and committing a hundred opinions of other people to mind. I prefer research projects, experiments and interviews – that was what I was good at. And so I wrote my Anthropology dissertation nine months in advance using such methods, and planned ahead such that I could do as much as possible of the latter than the former. The result: I finished my degree is almost half the time it normally takes.

 

Take more risks!

Reading books by entrepreneurs (see book reviews), I was often frustrated with phrases such as ‘move fast and break things’, or ‘learn to make mistakes’ because unlike those with millions of investment, I quite simply couldn’t afford it.

Workshops

However, I had long known that my adversity to risk was a problem, and vowed to change it where I could. The first action was to introduce paid workshops at London Startups (my meetup group). I was scared that this would put people off, but in February, I invited a professional brand expert to deliver a workshop to a group of paying attendees. Eight turned up and I made a profit – hurrah! I then did it again for product development and gave my first personal workshop on Google search engine optimisation later in the year.

Putting the mugshot up

At the same time, I launched this blog - Communication Is The Key - with my mugshot on the sidebar. I had never had such a public online profile before, but the response has been fantastic. At networking events, people have recognised and approached me exclaiming they’re readers of the blog. This opens doors to conversation and opportunities (pay cheques). I also started writing for The Huffington Post although I must admit that I haven’t utilised this as much as I could have done.

Spending money

Within this blog, I’ve made risk-taking a central element. For example, I spent hundreds of pounds experimenting with various Twitter programs and strategies to write the results up in a free eBook; and spent hours creating 20+ WordPress tuition videos giving them away in exchange for a Facebook ‘like’ (read: pay with a tweet). You’ll be interested to know that I’ve also experimented with paying for StumbleUpon traffic (only gained sustained growth for visual stories i.e. pictures), YouTube views (led to organic growth one of three times) and spent over £500 on SEO.

Make More Money!

I won’t bullshit you and say I’m not money driven, a large part of me is and 2012 was about making more of it. Passive incomes, automated cashflows, side incomes; I love it all. Yet, I really don’t feel I got this under my belt this year and is definitely an area for further improvement in 2013.

What I did learn however, is the joy of advertising for free online and picking up a few consulting jobs here and there. Small cash injections that make a big difference to the weekend plans. Using the same marketing technique, I also created nearly a dozen websites (WordPress) for various individuals and companies. As these are simple sites and I have five years of experience with WordPress, it’s a quick turnaround.

Most of you will recognise that this has been inspired by The 4-Hour Workweek and might be interested in the following case studies:

The largest achievement for 2012, in regards to money was securing a job at BR. An award-winning corporate communications agency, I’m learning a tonne and, God forbid, enjoying it.

Take more breaks!

In the hustle and bustle of London, it’s too easy to get caught up in the daily grind and forget that an entire world lies outside. I’m incredibly fortunate to have Europe on my doorstep, and took full advantage this year traveling to the Tuscan hills of Italy to drink copious amounts of incredible wine, and to Barcelona for the thrill of lying on a beach with a city skyline behind. I’m also now heading off to Malaysia to spend Christmas and New Year’s with some family.

Holidays like this are great, but they’re expensive and far between. In 2013, I would like to get in the habit of creating more breaks, albeit shorter and cheaper ones, so that I’m not about to die before I head-off. Taking a note out of Ramit Sethi’s blog, I’ve created an automated system to put aside money each month specifically for this purpose.

 

 

In Communication Is The Key , , , , , , , , ,
permalink

Google Analytics Shows You What Bad Web Practices Look Like in Real Life

— 2 Comments

Start using Google Analytics to see what your customers really want. It’s a free tool from Google, allowing you to see what people are doing on your website.

In Social Media
permalink

Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Posted on In Opinion
permalink Leave a comment

Kill the marketing stamp

— Leave a comment

When people first start looking online for marketing advice they’re swamped with things to do: Make a Twitter! Do it on Facebook! Keep a blog! Google! Upload YouTube videos! Advertising!

It’s like someone’s created a stamp with these words carved into it and every new business that comes along gets it pressed on their forehead.

But that doesn’t fit for every business. Should a laundromat really keep a Twitter profile? Should a bailiff company create a Facebook fan page?

If you just do it because everyone says you should, then you’re missing the point and will get bad results. Having no profile is better than having a dead profile.

To know what and where to market, ask yourself these two questions:

  • Who is my target audience?
  • Where is my target audience?
When your washing machine breaks down and you need a local laundromat, will you turn to Twitter? No. When your business requires professional bailiff services, will you go to Facebook? No.
Flip your thinking and start looking through the eyes of your customer.
In Communication Is The Key , , , , , ,
permalink

What leaders think vs. what followers think

— 1 Comment

Leadership defined by leaders:

Forward-thinking, determination, ambition, strategic-clarity, emotional intelligence, drive, creativity, initiative, energy, charisma, inner-awareness, team-building expertise, belief, command, consistency, discipline, empathy, focus, self-assurance, positivity, a thirst for knowledge and a thousand other things.

Leadership defined by followers:

  1. Trust
  2. Compassion
  3. Stability
  4. Hope

It’s easy to see why young people, startups and anyone with aspirations get confused with leadership. If you go to a book shop and walk to the business section you’ll find a thousand-and-one leadership titles all saying different things: GO BIG and Gun-Hoe! vs. tread quietly and be thoughtful.

Yet what all these books/authors have in common is that they recognise their own strengths. The charging bull knows it’s fast and strong whilst the turtle knows it has time.

The acknowledgement of your own strengths allows people to have trust in you; You’re not bullshitting them. And by focusing your strengths in the work you choose, you increase your stability.

However, relationships work both ways. Whilst followers like the fact they can trust you and that you have stability, they also want to know you care; that you show compassion. Together trust, stability and compassion leads to hope.

—

I learnt this whilst reading Strengths Based Leadership, by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie. It’s more of a leadership glossary than a book, entwined with an online test to help you find your strengths (mine were forward and strategic thinking. They’ve surveyed over ten thousand leaders across the world, and also thousands of followers too. Worth doing the test, called StrengthsFinder, as it literally helps you find your strengths (note, once you start the test you can’t stop and it takes ten minutes).
In Communication Is The Key, Opinion , , , , , , ,
permalink