Challenge yourself

Do you like challenges? I love them, I enjoy the chance to stretch myself, pushing myself a bit harder. It could be creatively - making a client stand out from the crowd. It could be technically - developing a website that pushes the boundaries of what's possible.

The bike for the big challenge

However, next week it's not a client whose setting me a big challenge, but myself and it's my legs being challenged not my brain. I've always enjoyed cycling, but the last few years I haven't kept up the training, so to get myself back into shape I set myself the big challenge of cycling round the North coast of Scotland. My Dad's joining me (who hadn't let himself get out of shape) and we'll be cycling around 400 miles over some pretty hilly terrain. If you want to give us a bit of extra encouragement you can sponsor us via JustGiving.

So how does Real Point's skill set fit into this? We've set up a blog for the ride which makes use of several social media services. We're also using an iPhone app, Cyclemeter, which allows us to live update our twitter feed with our progress. We plan to use the iphone to update all aspects of the blog while we're on the ride - from taking photos and uploading straight to our Flickr feed, updating the blog using the WordPress app, keeping followers up to date with Tweetdeck, which allows us to quickly up date Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.

So if you've got a big challenge, why not see if the creativity at the Real Point office can help you? And if you want to know more about effective use of social media on the move, just give us a call.

But most importantly - what big challenge are you going to set yourself?

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May 31, 2010 at 9:51 pm | Design, General, Social Media | No comment

Twitter at work

Many people see Twitter and other social media services as time wasters, still unsure of their benefit in the real world. But as Donato, Vankilter and myself can all testify, it works in the real world.

I met Andy, from Vankilter, a little while ago at the Solihull Business Breakfast, but as so often happens never got round to doing anything about seeing him to get the Kilt I wanted.

The other day, Donato, a business friend and avid Twitter user was at his shop and posted a picture of the kilts there. This prompted me to answer saying "I keep meaning to get a kilt", a few messages later and Andy phoned me, resulting in my visit to his shop and a kilt on order (Donato has also posted about this)

So next time someone asks, "why are you wasting your time on Twitter", answer "Because you never know just who might be interested".

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February 15, 2010 at 9:30 am | General, Social Media | No comment

The Price of Free - BBC Virtual Revolution

Another interesting episode of BBC's Virtual Revolution, interesting not because I learnt a great deal, but because it shows again how polarised opinion can be. As I enjoyed the ability to engage in debate and comment through twitter as I watched the programme, it demonstrated that some:

  • Are happy to make the trade - free services for my personal information (I happily stake my claim here)
  • Are nervous about who holds the information, and in to whose hands it will fall
  • Are blissfully unaware of just how much information is being collated and how it is being used

It is this last group that perhaps most concern me. As our use of digital services increase, and as everyone, from my parents to the young people at my youth group, search and post online, how educated are we on what this means? For many of us watching Virtual Revolution, we are well aware and as such make informed decisons, but I do think there needs to be some work done to ensure that everyone makes as informed a decision.

As I commented during the programme, "What happens in Vegas, no longer stays in Vegas" but do we all fully realise and appreciate that?

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February 13, 2010 at 10:44 pm | General, Social Media | No comment

Business Networks in Coventry, Solihull, Birmingham and surrounding areas

With our web design and social media work you may expect us to live almost entirely in the virtual world, to do all our networking online through social media from Linked In to Twitter. While this is a strong part of our marketing strategy it's certainly not the only one, and is actually made more effective by developing great social networks in the 'real world'.

So you will find myself and other members of the team here getting up at unearthly hours to attend local networking breakfasts or, for those who enjoy the extra hour or two's sleep, going to business lunches and evening talks and nibbles.

As people know that I network widely, I often get asked about what events are available locally. With that in mind I thought it might be useful to put a list together of local networking events. If you know of one I haven't added then do comment and let us know. Big thank you to Becki from Learn2 for supplying details for many of the clubs on this list.

Ones we attend regularly

We are also actively involved with the Federation of Small Businesses who run a wide variety of events at various times accross the region as do the IOD.

Other local clubs

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February 11, 2010 at 12:47 pm | General, Social Media | 2 comments

BBC’s Virtual Revolution

Tonight I, along with almost everyone who is driven by the www, tuned into the first episode of the BBC's Virtual Revolution programme, presented by Aleks Krotoski. Not a history of the world wide web as many people expected it to be but a thematic look at how the internet and the www is affecting the world socially.

But the most obvious evidence of the social impact is how quickly the #bbcrevolution tag trended on Twitter. That we now have the means for so many in a world wide arena to comment and interact live as we watch is surely one of the greatest changes that it has facilitated. To me this not just adds, but multiplies the value of watching such a programme. I was able to comment, engage in debate and learn from others knowledge, stopping me from being solely dependant upon the progamme makers version of events.

So if you're not using Twitter already, you're missing out, sign up, download tweetdeck and, instead of just consuming TV, enter the debate.

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January 30, 2010 at 10:00 pm | General, Social Media | 5 comments