More on how I met Andrew Sampson on the community site and how this interview came to happen!
There are more interviews like this on the way…..
October, 2009
Lost Your Phone? Find it with Microsoft My Phone – Review
When the Windows Phone launched a couple of weeks ago, so did a new service from Microsoft called My Phone.
I’d been using it for a while in Beta but the update has really got my attention because of some very cool features.
How about if you’ve misplaced your phone at home or left it on a train? Bloody annoying isn’t it!
The way My Phone works is to synch all your photos, docs, texts etc etc with the cloud under your Windows Live ID AND your phone’s last known location:
Here’s what the website looks like now I’m signed in. On the left is a self-explanatory menus of all your phones bits and pieces that have been backed up.
You can see my phone was last backed up last night – you can set it to synch automatically.
Click to find your lost phone and you’re presented with a “See map” option:
Up pops a Bing map with where my phone was when I synched last!
You’ll also notice some premium features being trialled to:
You can have the system ring your phone and it’ll work even if the phone is set to silent so no worries there!
Locking the phone is easy but obviously be careful with Erasing – last resort for that one.
To sign up go to: http://myphone.microsoft.com
More on other features next week!
A Change of Focus….
I’ve been doing search for 9 years. Except for 10 months in 2001 when I was a display advertising traffic manager for BTLooksmart, search engine marketing has been what I do.
From “Submit-a-Site” and BidSmart to managing blue chips at 24/7 and being part of the team that launched Microsoft adCenter in the UK, the keyword has been “search” and I’ve loved every minute of it.
But more recently I’ve been focused on the social media aspect of what our Microsoft Advertising Community team does. We were originally set up in 2006 to help and support advertisers as they signed up to adCenter. We were also on the frontline at events for answering questions about the platform and dealing with all the suggestions on how we might improve.
As the months have gone on, the way we’ve done business – via blogs and forums – has become more and more important. Social Media Marketing is now almost a given where 3 years ago it was seen as a luxury or nice-to-have.
Last October, when our team moved under Mark Young in Global Trade Marketing, he asked why were only doing this kind of work for adCenter? Why not work towards helping our other audiences in research, mobile and display have a direct feedback mechanism to the product & marketing teams that build the tools they use every day?
So in June we launched the Microsoft Advertising Community site! It’s a vibrant hub of social activity in the forums but also on the different blogs and this is where my “role tweak” comes in!
My area of focus is now the Microsoft Advertising Blog – this is where we’ve already on-boarded Young-bean Song and the Institute guys, we’re also talking about in-game advertising, mobile advertising and display.
This will grow, as will our social media foray. We now have @MSAdvertising @adCenterBlog and @adCenterRep and our Facebook Page cranking out tips, tricks and announcements and I’ll be looking to build our following globally to help continue our support of an industry we’re so passionate about.
So it’s not huge news, it’s not a new job, it’s just a change of direction for me from search and PPC to other forms of digital that need the same love, the same explanation/education, the same feedback and evangelism channels that we’ve been giving to adCenter for the past 3 years.
We’re also going great guns on events too – Cannes Lions and Advertising Week were very exciting and successful for our team with tens of thousands of interactions with our Tweets, posts, photos and videos, so it’s not like I’m chained to my desk either!
And it’s also not like I’m not keeping my hand in with search either. With all advertising becoming digital in the next 5 to 10 years, having an understanding of all marketing in the mix is crucial for anyone’s success in this space so Bing it on!!!
Any feedback, and ideas then shoot them through. I’m always listening!
Singing Play Me by Neil Diamond at Our Wedding
Some friends and family have asked whether I cracked out the vocal chords at our wedding in August. Well I was lucky to have Josh LaBelle, Colleen’s man, agree to play guitar during the speeches.
What came out of an hour or so of jamming in his basement musical lair, was our version of Neil Diamond’s song Play Me.
Tomato/Ketchup Sauce Recipe!
Spent the weekend down in Devon and walked from Budleigh Salterton up the river to Otterton where we stopped for a pub lunch.
Ashley picked chicken and mushroom pie while I plumped for the mussels and chips.
Tomato sauce being obligatory on such occasions, we grabbed a handful of sachets and took our pints of bitter to the beer garden to await our feast.
On close inspection of the packets, we came across, not ingredients, but “allergy advice”!
May contain: Nuts, Peanuts, Sesame Seeds, Mustard, Celery, Wheat, Fish, Eggs, Soybeans, Milk, Sulphites and cereals containing Gluten.
Not sure if the advice was that necessary because, to be honest, it tasted just like tomato sauce and there wasn’t enough room for a peanut!
I’ve Met People Like This!!! – Social Media Guru Video
A bit sweary, but adds to the ridiculousness of what must be happening out there in marketing-land to folks who don’t read the right books or blogs!
I’ve started unfollowing and blocking anyone on Twitter who calls themselves a guru – if you can’t wrap your feet around the back of your neck and you don’t have books and films written about you – you aren’t a guru so get a life!
Thanks to Lorna for the tip!
