Disqus - Latest Comments for mattchedit

Re: Supporting innovation

Matt Chatterley — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 12:43:01 -0000

Would be great to see this tool used to track progress - as has been discussed before, Government can't do this alone (nor should it be) - and by keeping the 'status' of the goals publicly updated and visible, engagement with the community/industry can be encouraged.

Re: Have we had enough of charity food and booze abstinence fundraisers?

Matt Chatterley — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 11:36:58 -0000

Short answer: Yes!

More thoughtful: This is (in some ways) the 'new' "For just £X a month..!" - a tactic which works for a few campaigns and is then over-egged, starts to irritate the public and has to be abandoned (at least temporarily). Although it's arguably fitting into an existing mindset and turning that into a fundraising opportunity (not sure how ethical that is when you're blending it with health? Different debate altogether?), don't feel that it has a lot of longevity. I suppose it also depends on the demographic you want to engage, though?

Makes me wonder what the next big opportunity is though - cryptocurrency micropayments? ;)

Re: The Clash of the (Cultural) Titans

Matt Chatterley — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 02:33:17 -0000

Hi Nicholas - it's not so much about obtaining a stranglehold as it is establishing us as a centre of excellence (much as we did with finance 30+ years ago). If you look at the stereotypical places such as 'Silicon Valley', but also (parts of) Israel, Estonia (especially with their e-gov strategies), not to mention 'Silicon Roundabout' in the UK and the various incubators and accelerators there too, there are many different examples of possibilities for us.

Re: The Clash of the (Cultural) Titans

Matt Chatterley — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 03:17:27 -0000

Indeed. And more-over, I strongly believe we are likely to fail if we (by which I mean the ever-present 'they' of the States Assembly) aren't willing to embrace change - all the well meaning initiatives in the world can't help us if the underlying cultures don't shift. PS. I suspect a lot of people sadly HAVE forgotten about Square & World Pay. Or filed them firmly under 'finance', rather than 'tech'.

Re: If we don’t know who you are, we can’t vote for you…

Matt Chatterley — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 03:15:17 -0000

I definitely agree with you on the first - and to some extent the second (without getting into the party debate, which is one I'm sure will be discussed soon!) - I think for some candidates in the past it hasn't so much been "the more you say" as it has been a case of poor "signal to noise" - or perhaps saying a lot but being seen by relatively few people. Time will tell, as they say!

Re: Does that make sense?

Matt Chatterley — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 04:07:55 -0000

Makes perfect sense to me. Although you have to think through carefully when trying to mirror someone's language as it's all too easy to fall into the trap of copying their phrases and parroting them back - which isn't so great!

I find sometimes I tend to ask "Right?" when explaining a concept, which on reflection is probably a way of (politely) reinforcing to the person I'm asking that they're actually being told how it works.

Re: The Business (No) Show

Matt Chatterley — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 03:58:12 -0000

I've yet to attend a "Modern" business event - it's a realm which as far as I've seen hasn't changed in quite a few years. Perhaps it's not so much "your" problem, as it is to do with the style of events (and peoples expectations) themselves. When business expos, networking events etc first started becoming popular, we weren't all carrying around smartphones, for a start!

Re: The price of cheap bread

Matt Chatterley — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 11:23:43 -0000

It's worth noting as well that various comments have been made over social media by people who say they do buy their bread locally - but from one of the other bakeries, because the quality is higher.

The old phrase "You pays your money, you makes your choice." comes to mind - if you've chosen not to use a company, you can't be too surprised if others make the same choice and ultimately a company with no(t enough) customers isn't going to last long.

For me I'd say that the ill-fated company has an issue of price vs quality (e.g. poor value) which hasn't helped them, but at the end of the day - the cheap option has swayed the masses (unsurprisingly).

Perhaps the underlying problem is more fundamental. Companies fail. Sometimes it's even a good thing for the surrounding economy when they do - if we propped them all up we'd be in a terrible mess (just image what would happen if a bank went to the wall and we.. oh.. wait..!), but to presume that it's because everybody who is in business is greedy is.. just.. well.. crusty!

Re: QR Codes – a Passing Fad?

Matt Chatterley — Sat, 03 Aug 2013 03:01:29 -0000

I think QR codes can be quite powerful - when used in an appropriate fashion. There has been a bit of a tendency (as there is with so many things) for clever-clogs to go "Quick! Stick a QR code on it! That's the answer to 'marketing'!" - which has led to a load of rubbish uses and implementations and generally tarred opinions of them.

All the other comments here so far make valid observations (particularly that if you redirect to a site, it must be mobile friendly). As an example, we have a client who prints a magazine - they use QR codes to tie particular articles in to their website where further content is available - the magazine is distributed in airports, etc, so readers are typically on the move when they pick it up.

So I certainly don't think they will vanish - if anything we'll see better thought out, more meaningful uses popping up over the coming months.

Re: Facebook Advertising Sucks

Matt Chatterley — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 03:00:12 -0000

To some extent I think "effectiveness" depends on what you're trying to do - I'd agree with your assertion that Facebook isn't somewhere people go to be sold to (although, where is?) - or rather the inference that there is a barrier to selling. However, if your 'goal' is a social conversion (e.g. getting them to like a page, or interact with you), then I think you're more likely to succeed (haven't measured this personally).

I definitely concur that trying to sell a subscription, your money is probably best used elsewhere, though!

Re: Stop going around saying “I’m an Entrepreneur!”

Matt Chatterley — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:03:38 -0000

I'm with you there, Duane - I always tell people what I (and we) do - rather than just "titling" myself. I used to find it really hard and shy away from it, but over time have gotten comfortable with it - "what I do" isn't as simple as a word or two in a job title - and it's fun to explain!

Re: Distrust Recommendations from Social Networkers and BNI members

Matt Chatterley — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 04:43:25 -0000

Well said. I always try to be cautious when making recommendations - as I feel that a bad recommendation is going to reflect badly on me and damage my reputation too!

Re: Should you add your blog to Kindle?

Matt Chatterley — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 05:09:42 -0000

I think the main reason why people *would* pay for a "blog" via subscription on kindle is the fact that new posts are seamlessly delivered to your device - without you doing anything. If we extend what we consider as a 'blog' to be any kind of feed, e.g news, announcements, etc, I actually wonder if it has more value for business-ish topics where being able to access up-to-date information even when you don't have a 'standard' connection is important.

It certainly won't work well for blogs that are image heavy, though! :)

Re: http://tumblr.webreality.co.uk/post/4604479434

Matt Chatterley — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 05:27:15 -0000

I couldn't agree more. "Fulfilment" is a silly label - and given the marketing expertise available within the island, it's a little surprising that noone has (to my knowledge) tried to rebrand this part of our economy before. "eCommerce centre of excellence", etc.

Re: Which day is best for blogging?

Matt Chatterley — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:01:41 -0000

Interesting to see the results so far - according to our stats, tuesday gets the most hits on a new blog (or seems to) - and I've always been advised to send email out on Tues/Thurs as they tend to get more attention.

Personally I'm more inclined to read and comment on things mid-week as Monday and Friday can be a bit fraught!

Re: Where has my Facebook Business Page gone?

Matt Chatterley — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 05:19:54 -0000

All of ours seem unaffected, which is good, but thanks for the heads up!

As you say - this just re-inforces that you always need to think "what if?" with your marketing - especially online. What if Facebook kick you out? What if you lost your great google ranking? What if Twitter wasn't "hip" any more?

If any one of these would shut you down before you have time to address the damage - you need to make some changes! :)

Re: Are you liable for a fine by Facebook?

Matt Chatterley — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 06:05:36 -0000

For quite some time we've warned clients and contacts alike that Facebook DO sometimes close down accounts if you create a "personal" account for a business - after all, they've gone to all the effort of implementing Pages for the purpose, so they want people to use them!

But I've never heard of anyone being fined (have heard some rumours, but they always seem shady) - sounds like a dodgy pressure sales tactic to me.

Re: 7 Top Tips For Becoming Self-Employed

Matt Chatterley — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 02:10:55 -0000

8. Avoid burning yourself out

Plan your work - and how you will try to manage your work/life balance - otherwise within a few months you might find all that enthusiam has drained away and you've got a huge work-and-stress hangover!

Re: How long should a blog be?

Matt Chatterley — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:57:37 -0000

We often struggle with making posts "the right length" - sometimes, if it's a contentious topic we've had trouble keeping under 1000 words, which I feel is too long - but not all posts lend themselves well to being split into 2/3 bits.

Typically we aim for 400-600 as a guideline and do attempt to split longer ones!

Re: Write Better Blog Posts Today

Matt Chatterley — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 04:25:16 -0000

Great post, Chris. Particularly, knowing what you want to achieve by blogging is key - far too many simply blog "because they should" or "because they were told it would help" - it's part of a solid, rounded marketing/PR strategy if used properly - otherwise it can simply be another way to while away your precious minutes.

We try to mix advice, recommendations and discussion with our posts - although lately we've leant towards the latter, but with the intention of opening dialogues which could fuel future posts and ultimately start building relationships.

Re: Beyond Google part two, for marketing

Matt Chatterley — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:23:26 -0000

One of the key things here is that 'recommendations' carry much more weight than search results (in theory) - as they are more likely to be from a trusted source, carry less risk (at least psychologically) and so forth - so absolutely, these social mediums are powerful ways to drive traffic (or have it driven).

I suppose - back to Duane's original post (which also inspired my latest Blog @ http://www.mattchedit.com/B... - even if it's a bit of a different angle) - that the key thing here is that a very narrow strategy is seldom going to be a good idea - even if you believe that the "narrow area" is itself huge..!

Re: Perl programmers are the happiest programmers !

Matt Chatterley — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:37:59 -0000

A bit strange, but still interesting - thanks for sharing!

Re: Producer Claims That He Created LOST 32 Years Ago

Matt Chatterley — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:51:46 -0000

Definitely marketing - albeit clever marketing!

Re: Importance of Website Design In your SEO campaign

Matt Chatterley — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:59:16 -0000

And just remember - content is king!

Re: How to Get the Most Value out of Twitter Links

Matt Chatterley — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:49:57 -0000

Great idea and spec - I'd love to see something like this available..