Why are commuters so miserable? Men in Black International

This big old advert is currently in London Waterloo. The idea is that you sit in the booth and get a picture from one of the agents. I didn't really hang around to find out. What I did observe is that most commuters we just blanking these guys like they didn't exist. Now I'm no raving MIB fan, but why not stop for a laugh.

I'm assuming people are just too busy, self conscious, or miserable.

I wish people unleashed a bit more fun in themselves and had a bit of a laugh. Commuting is soulless enough as it is!

Marketing is difficult

Dear friends, I read this recently: Marketing is the only field I know where once a new strategy has been tried and is found to work, it completely stops working.  Absolutely nailed it. This is the single reason marketing is tough. Marketing is all about using channels, techniques and messaging in unique and creative ways that stand out from the crowd to get you mindshare for whatever it is you are promoting. As soon as you find the winning formula everyone knows about it and copy it, so so it's longer effective. That's what makes us marketers a little bit bonkers. We have to keep trying new things. Doing the same thing as you did before means you are effectively going backwards. Did you ever meet a successful marketer that wasn't trying new things, a bit of a risk taker? Pushing things forward to try brand new ideas can lead to challenging conversations in a business. How does a marketer build a business case that  demonstrates ROI for a brand new marketing strategy or programme? It's not easy and involves some guesswork and intuition. Two words that most CFOs seem to hate. Nothing in marketing is predictable. It sounds unbelievable, but I've been in a meeting where someone has suggested we "create a viral marketing campaign". Yeah, like that's something you can just roll-out. That said, the challenge of constantly trying to find a winning strategy is is what makes it a such an interesting career choice. Cheers and all the best - just another of my 100 days of writing challenge

On being selected a top10 engaged marketer by LinkedIn

I recently received the following message from LinkedIn.

Hi Mark,
I'm excited to let you know you've been selected as one of LinkedIn's Most Engaged Marketers in the UK for 2015.
Our list of the top ten Most Engaged Marketers was determined based on a number of engagement factors including connections, group membership, companies followed and content sharing on LinkedIn.
We are finalizing a media advisory to share with marketing trades our 2015 list. Would you have any concerns about being mentioned in our media outreach? We may also want to use a quote from you so let me know if you'd be amenable to that.
We'll be in touch soon regarding details on a celebratory gathering at our office where we'd love to welcome you and the other Most Engaged Marketers this year.  Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions at all, and once again congratulations!

This was quite a pleasant surprise. I was not expecting this news. Naturally, I responded by confirming I would be delighted to accept, and happy to meet up.

The meeting was at the LinkedIn offices in London. The offices just off Oxford Street were very swanky. They had just been refurbished, and had all the funky design of a tech company. Including classic red London telephone boxes, free food and drink fridges, chill out zones and mood lighting.

I spent around 40 minutes with them. The meeting was essentially a product workshop. They gave a bit of insight into the roadmap. They also wanted feedback on how we were using the platform. It was good to connect with peers from different industries. The breakfast was also decent. Before departing we were given our gift of an umbrella, moleskin, pen and a year's subscription to LinkedIn Premium.

How do I think I achieved this? Here's the lowdown:

1. Used many LinkedIn tools. This year I was pretty active using all of the tools LinkedIn had to offer. I started using Sales Navigator and also took a trial of Recruiter to hire. This in addition to generally good discipline to keep networking and connecting.

2. Hired through LinkedIn. I think this was a pretty big contributor. I used LinkedIn to get in touch with potential candidates. This put me in direct contact with a lot of people. It was a successful project, although more time consuming than using an agency.

3. Published an article. I only posted one article. It got a few likes, comments and views. It didn't exactly go viral. I assume it did so enough to bump up my ranking.

4. Changed jobs. At the start of 2015 I moved roles. I think a combination of congrats, views and recommendations would have bumped up my rankings.

I don't think there was any more to it than that. I don't spend all that much time on LinkedIn. I think that the activity was across all of the tools on the platform probably met LinkedIn's 'engaged' criteria.

Simple tips for using periscope at events

I've started using Periscope at the last few business events I've attended to broadcast live video. If you are new to live smartphone broadcasting, two of the popular apps are Meerkat and Periscope. I won't go into the details here, but my app of choice is Periscope. Here are few observations and tips from a novice smartphone broadcaster.

Observations using Periscope at events

- There are usually few people periscoping at the business events I attend. Even the organisers are slow to adopt this tech. I'm not suggesting I'm a trail blazer, but by day two of the conference I occasionally see the event organiser starting to stream. Could it be because they clocked me periscoping? Either way, it's a good way to get conversations started.

- Viewers peak at 10- 15 minutes then start to drop off. Even with the most compelling of speakers or topics, viewers are very transient in nature. Short and sweet is good.

- I've made business connections just by Periscoping. Several occasions delegates saying "I was sat behind you - that is cool you were presicoping - hi how are you?"

- I've had a few viewers who couldn't attend the event express thanks for sharing a broadcast.

Here are my 10 tips:

1. Get on the venue wifi or have unlimited data. Periscope chews through around 400mb of data every 30 minutes.

2. Find a decent location. Periscoping from the back of the room isn't great for anyone.

3. Be prepared. Fire up the app before the speaker, get the hashtags and title ready to go.

4. Get the event hash tags in - otherwise how will people find your broadcast?

5. Make sure you have "post to twitter" and "your location" enabled, again to maximise your coverage.

6. Hope that a good friend with lots of follows retweets you. Or tell them beforehand.

7. Make sure you are pointing at something relevant at the start of the broadcast. Otherwise you will have a shoe or the back of a head as a thumbnail for the broadcast.

8. Consider taking a old smartphone phone for periscoping. This leaves your main phone for tweeting or checking comments.

9. Show the face behind the camera. Viewers want to see who's broadcasting too.

10. Don't worry too much about the quality. This is live and raw, it doesn't need to be a polished production.

That's it. It's simple tech, experiment and have fun.

I'd love to hear your tips, or experiences with Periscope or Meerkat . I also have an interest in how "OTT" broadcasting like Pericope is disrupting the traditional models. Particularly for broadcasters and content owners. Happy to chat.