October, 2008 Archive

Escape To The Country? – Guess Where & Win!

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We’re off today down to Eastbourne to film the BBC TV reality show Escape To The Country!
A TV crew has spent the last couple of days finding four properties for me and Ashley to view with the fabulous presenter Alastair Appleton.

They’re looking anywhere in East Sussex so pick a town or village from this map and the nearest correct guess to where we end up wins a prize!

It’ll be an adventure so watch out for some tweets at http://twitter.com/MelCarson

Will tell you all about it when we get back!

SMX London – PubCon – SES Chicago 2008

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In these lean economic times, even Microsoft isn’t mad enough to keep flying me back and forth across the pond at every drop of a Tweet, so I won’t be going to SES Chicago in December this year.

I will be there in spirit though, but will miss the insight, chat and revelry in the snow! There are some great speakers lined up and it’s not somewhere I’ve been before so maybe next year! 🙂

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December will be a quiet month for me as we wrap up 2009 after what I’m sure will be some great times at SMX London and PubCon which I will be attending.

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Check out the adCenter Blog in a couple of days for some insight into what we’ll be talking about in a couple of weeks in Covent Garden!

Win John Lewis Vouchers With Big Snap 2 Live Search!

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The Windows Live Search team in the UK have launched Big Snap II at www.BigSnapSearch.com

In partnership with leading UK retailer John Lewis they’re offering 24 prizes per day from £25 up with daily £500 prizes.

One lucky winner will walk away with a £1000 shopping spree every week!

The idea is to drive awareness of Live Search and to increase leads for advertisers who advertise on Microsoft adCenter.

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The first campaign, earlier this year, saw searches grow by a 3rd during the 8 week period and this one will be running till 5th January to take advantage of the Christmas buying season!

 

The game is based on the card game Snap!

The way it works is that consumers search for product and services and Live Search generates random cards at the top of the page.

If the cards match that’s a SNAP!!

If they don’t you LOSE – simple huh?

 

As my colleague Marie Thirwall says: “BigSnapSearch.com was a hugely successful mechanic to increase consumer awareness and understanding of all the cool features we have built into Microsoft Live Search. By engaging consumers in a fun, rewarding way we managed to double our search volumes, reaping huge rewards for our advertisers.”

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Check it out at www.BigSnapSearch.com

Public Speaking Tips To Improve Presentation Skills

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What’s The Secret?

Let’s face it, presenting in public isn’t easy! Some say people’s fear of public speaking comes second only to their fear of death – so what’s the problem?

Well to some people it comes naturally. They seem to swan in, make people laugh, get their point across, inspire and get rave reviews.

People who are not so confident are immediately plunged in a quagmire of anxiety wondering how on earth they can compete. They fear the exposure and they are frightened of failure.

Well here’s the secret!

Every one of those great speakers rehearses! They think long and hard about what they are going to say and HOW they are going to say it.

They have TECHNIQUE!

I’ve now spoken at well over a hundred conferences, pitches, summits and events. I’ve always been determined to make it look easy and natural, because that way you put the audience at ease. If they are confident in your ability to guide them through your agenda, they can learn and absorb more deeply.

But making it look easy comes at a price. The cost is time, effort and practice!

How many times have you seen presenters who mumble, don’t seem to be aware of what the next slide is going to be, apologise all the time, riddle their PowerPoint with text, turn up late or simply look all at sea?

Here are some tips to help turn you into a wizard public speaker:

Timing – Try and Go First early-bird-cockerel

Try and influence whoever has asked you to speak to let you go on as early in the day as possible. We humans only have a certain attention span and it can wane by the afternoon. If it’s a conference or you’re on a panel with other speakers, going first gives you the opportunity to set the scene and get your thoughts and ideas out before anyone else does.

Very often content will duplicate, so you want to appear to have been the first to have thought about it. Also it helps your brand as subsequent speakers will almost always refer back to you when they speak if they make similar points.

Hearing someone from the competition saying “Just to back up what Mel was saying earlier……” is a beautiful noise! You can’t buy that kind of PR…..unless of course they disagree with you!

The caveat to going on early is if it’s a conference run over a couple of days, you might not want to kick off the second or third day as your audience may be listening to you through an alcoholic, bleary haze garnered from the previous nights partying.  Most people will have recovered by 11am though in order to hang on your every word! 🙂

Be Prepared – Get There Early

Never assume the technology will work! I once woke up at 5am before a live demo keynote, panicking that the venue wouldn’t be able to cope with my requirements, even though I’d emailed them in a fortnight before.

Sure enough internet access at the hotel was down, but luckily I’d started writing a back-up presentation at 5.05am that morning.

Get to the venue early, check out the space, meet the sound guy and tap through the presentation on the laptop to make sure there haven’t been any issues with compatibility.

If you turn up late you’ll look unprofessional, the audience will need a lot more convincing and the conference organiser will be looking for an alternative speaker for next year!

The Hook – Your Opening Line

image If you rehearse nothing else, make sure you know exactly how you’re going to start your presentation. Thank your introducer, thank the audience for being there and tell a story or a joke relevant to the subject you’re about to speak about. It might be about your journey to the conference centre, or an anecdote from the welcome cocktail party the night before.

You need a hook to draw people in and want to listen to you. Laughter is a great tension reliever and if you hit the spot your confidence will be at the right level to keep you going through your material.

On no account make any excuses! Delegates have not spent £1000s to hear you bang on about your cold or sore throat. They will be able to hear that you’re not well and will hold you in higher regard if you soldier on and get to the end with no fuss and bother.

If it’s the first time you’ve done the presentation don’t tell them that either. Let them hear it from someone else. They don’t need to feel they’re being practised on!

Be Relevant – Tailor Your Material

Make sure your speech means something to the audience. There’s nothing worse than hearing a speaker jabber on with little or no knowledge or understanding of who he’s talking to or where he is. Make it relevant. Call up the organiser and get filled in on the “local colour!” What are the issues the delegates want addressed? Are there any local considerations? What would they like to hear?

Projection – SPEAK UP!

If you mumble – forget it! You might as well be at the back of the room. If your delivery is loud, confident and enunciated you’ll differentiate yourself from everyone else. Don’t shout and be obnoxious obviously, but be clear and audible so the listeners don’t have to strain to hear you.

Your Deck – Making Power Points

The PowerPoint deck you use should be light on text and large on imagery. Your adoring public have come to see and hear you speak. They do NOT want to read paragraph after paragraph of text off a screen. If they have to read loads of words they’re not listening to you. They’ll get irritated and give up adoring you pretty sharpish. Your audience don’t want to work too hard either. If they like you, they’ll come up after and hand you their  image business card or sign up to your blog or newsletter. Promise to post a more detailed presentation somewhere or record and distribute a 10 minute podcast of the points you were trying to make.

The “So What?” Factor

Make sure people don’t walk away from your presentation saying “so what?”

You want them to have some “take away” points to think about on the way home. What have you told them that they didn’t already know? What have you told them that they now want to tell other people? What have they learned from you that they can begin to implement in their own lives or businesses?

The End

Make sure your talk builds to a crescendo or a natural ending. Too many presentations end abruptly, very often surprising the presenter themselves! You want those listening to remember your talk like a story with an intriguing beginning, a meaty middle and an actionable end.

Don’t take the wind out of their mental sails by shutting down shop just when it was getting interesting. Warn them you’re starting to wrap up. If their attention has started to drift, you’ll reign them back in to listen to your most important, final points.

Lastly – Enjoy It!

You’ve been asked to speak because someone thinks you’re good at something and have something interesting to say – that’s to be celebrated.

If you look like you’re enjoying yourself then the chances are the audience will enjoy your presentation with you! 🙂

Cost Per Monk Story From A4UExpo 2008

Joost has written a good sum up of a4uexpo and Dave has written about last nights dinner so I’ll write up my thoughts on my Media Week blog tomorrow.

In the meantime thanks for all the great feedback about Dixon, mine and Tor Crockatt’s presentation.

I was asked about the the opening of my talk so do read the Cost Per Monk story and feel free to mention it whenever appropriate!

It was great to meet even more SEO’s and internet marketers including Al Carlton, Patrick Altoft, Marcus Tandler, Todd Crawford who shared some great stories and tips over some great Thai food.

Big hand to Matthew Wood for a great show. Gawd knows how he felt this morning!

If you ever wondered what it’s like up there on a panel – see below!

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That’s  Anthony Shapley in the front row holding the orange show program. He’s not just a talented SEO but an awesome photographer!

And it’s his 21st birthday tomorrow!

9 Easy Steps To Email Heaven

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Guy K’s tweeting last night of Michael Dolan’s post on attacking the email monster reminded me that I’d promised Chris Winfield some insight into how I irritate my colleagues with a seemingly simple method that never fails! 🙂

In my job I get a load of the bloomin’ things!

I’m less of a control freak than I used to be, but I do like to know what’s going on in the world and what’s going on in the company and with the competition.

People look to me and the adCenter Community team for all the online insight as soon as anything good (or bad) happens, so I have a plethora of alerts and newsletters set up so I’m as plugged in as I possibly can be.

Sometimes though it can all be a little overwhelming but I have a system which gets right up some folks noses when they peer over my shoulder and cry:

 

“How come you’ve only got 15 emails when I’ve got 1500?!”

 

Here’s how in 9 sure-fire bullets: 

1 – My Outlook Inbox is my work dashboard, my “To Do” list – to reply, to write, to read, to listen to, to think about…….if it ain’t in there it ain’t getting done!

2 – I never finish the day more than 30 emails in my inbox – if that means deleting a couple of newsletters after a quick scan then OK. No one ever died from not knowing something digital!

3 – Once actioned, I file most emails in folders if I need a copy for future reference. Otherwise I delete them.

4 – If someone emails asking me for or to do something, sometimes I have to email back asking for more information. If I do then their email gets deleted and I forget about it. If they need something that bad they’ll reply with clarifiaction. I’m not going to remind them they asked me for something.

5 – If there’s a back log, I’ll scroll down to the oldest email and spend 30 mins working my way back up deciding whether I need to know the information or jotting off a shorter reply than I would normally have done.

6 – I don’t filter emails into folders to read later – If they’re out of sight they’re out of mind!

7 – If I’m late replying to a time-sensitive email, I’ll manage expectations by responding quickly with when they can expect the information. That puts the pressure on me to work smarter and get to their request!

8 – If, on the rare occasion, I have to leave with a glut of mail clogging my professional arteries, I don’t stress about it as I’m probably going to do something more interesting any way!

9 – I always apply the “Circle of Influence & Concern” to everything I do – more of that in another post! 🙂

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Dinner Next Week With Dave Naylor & Joost De Valk!

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This is a picture of Gordon Ramsey’s place at Claridges in London 🙂

Now Dave has offered to buy some lucky winner AND a friend dinner next week while he’s down for A4U.

The newly married & exhausted Joost De Valk will also be there to add a bit of European sophistication to the evening’s proceedings because Dave and I are from England – not Europe!

All you have to do is leave a comment on Dave’s blog telling him why you want to have dinner with us!

Apparently Dave wants me to choose the venue – anyone got any ideas?

Faile – Street Art In Amsterdam

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As I missed out on getting my hands on a Banksy, I’ve been looking around for an alternative.

My buddy from Scottsdale, Evan Hartstein, pointed me in the direction of Faile – a New York Art Collective – who he knows pretty well and who have been taking the art world by storm recently – not least with a huge presence at the Tate Modern.

Luckily I got my hands on a print in August which is being framed at the moment so I’ll write that up another time.

But on a recent trip to Amsterdam the most amazing coincidence happened!

The girlfriend and I had decided on a well recommended B&B called Boogaards in Langestraat really near the station.

As we walked down the street looking for the B&B we saw some Faile on the wall!

Faile Amsterdam Faile AmsterdamA few more yards down the road we stumbled upon some more, painted on some wooden bin covers outside some social housing.

CIMG1716 CIMG1717 CIMG1718 What was incredible was it was right outside the B&B’s door and Peter, the owner, had no idea who they were or that he was staring at a potential goldmine.

I emailed Faile and they confirmed it was genuine from a few years ago:

“Hey Mel,

Cheers for the pictures, that was a good wall, nice find.  Hopefully they stay up on the street for a while!

All the best,

Matt
Faile”

I’m looking forward to their London show:

“Lost In Glimmering Shadows”

It’s going to be from 7th to 17th of November but not sure where yet!

More on my print when I get it back from the framers! 🙂

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