Some of you, tourists or locals, might have heard James O’Reilly singing. He’s an incredibly gifted young Irish singer that does small gigs in the Dam Square, Amsterdam centre. I came across him 2 or 3 times and I stopped every single time to listen. Last time I saw him it was in December, right before leaving home for Christmas. I was looking for a gift for one of my friends and I thought of taking one of his CD’s with me. So I did.
First of all, I don’t know whether this is just a hobby for him, a temporary way of making some cash or he’s actually trying to get noticed, find a record studio and get his voice on album.
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On May 24, Seth Godin took the idea of his book Linchpin even further and invited people to discover each other wherever they are, to connect and hang out. As he said – ‘Chemistry happens when people interact’. The meeting in June was a true success so he continued the initiative with a second meetup, on December 7.
For the Amsterdam meetup, although 25 confirmed, unfortunately only 6 people made it for the event. If I would make a geographical spread I can say we were 6 people from 3 continents: 2 people from United States, 1 from Taiwan, 1 from Netherlands and 2 from Romania.
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I finally found some free time these days and finished reading the e-book called Oh My God What Happened and What Should I, written by the guys from Innovative Thunder. A book that I stumbled upon by pure mistake, seeing it heavily promoted through Twitter. I download it, read the first pages and got wired. And I’m really glad I found it. With all the changes taking place in the marketing industry, this book was in the right place and at the right time to answer couple of questions I had been carrying in my head for some time.
Now, about the content of the book:
The book is flagging the fact that media is changing and there’s a new generation emerging, a generation with a totally new media behavior. And it’s imperative for the marketing industry to adapt since the traditional means will no longer work in reaching this generation. Well, most of them. The book comes up with a set of tips and guidelines to help traditional advertising and marketing people make their way into the digital era.
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Having to wait has never been as painful as it is today.
“Make it accessible. In an on-demand society, companies have to make sure that their products/services are as available as they can be, which means via a variety of channels. When a user can’t get his or her need met immediately the user will wander off to the competition, be it a legal or an illegal one”
Oh My God What Happened and What Should I Do
I was thinking about something really interesting going around.
The traditional deal was the following: you get exposed to loads of ads (TV, print, online etc.) with the hope that ultimately you’ll take out your wallet and pay for a particular product/service. Now something changed. And I noticed that while playing around with Grooveshark and Spotify, two streaming services that allow listening to music online.
You can stick to your basic account which is still good, it’s free but full of ads (banner ads, audio messages). Or you can upgrade to a premium/VIP account for an ad free experience. In other words: ‘You need to pay us to stop advertising’.
Every single time I see ‘please RT’/'please retweet’ I have a strange feeling. It’s like seeing an ad. Or someone trying to sell me something. In my case (at least), when I see a please RT after a certain message, chances of actually passing that message further fall way below.
And I’m not taking here about humanitarian causes or charity campaigns. I’m talking about the usual messages/links running in my twitter stream. Worst case: your blog posts.
You don’t write on your blog, share it on Twitter and then add please RT. Trust me! If you’re really good, if your content rocks, it will get promoted. People are more than happy to spread the news around and share the good stuff.