Peer Lawther

No wonder email is seen as a debased form of communication when the "good guys" don't even have a clue on standards, trying to befuddle the poor consumer into submission with double negatives, double standards and double crosses."...please untick if you don’t want..."“...please untick if you do want...""...please tick if you don't want..." If you're having to resort to tricking people to get them

Google Alerts are an integral part of a marketer's life nowadays - why wait for the morning papers when Google can let you know the world is falling apart within an hour?However tonight it brought forth a fabulous bounty, care of Heckmondwike-based digital marketing agency Keyclicks, who decided to blog about me ("a fellow called Peer Lawther") in their Social Media Marketing post. Must be a very

I'm a relieved man; this evening saw the launch of the National Media Museum's collection in The Commons on Flickr, the culmination of five months work behind the scenes to make sure that the museum was the first in Britain to appear on the site, alongside such luminaries as the Library of Congress, The Powerhouse, The Smithsonian and the Brooklyn Museum.We've got some wonderful images on there

In a recent presentation to one of the museums's staff I related the story of the Comcast guy, and how one employee can cause untold damage to a brand and to their customers, even though - superficially at least - it has nothing to do with senior management.I went for Comcast because while it's a well-known story, I couldn't think of, or find, any museum-related PR faux-pas. I've covered other

fav.or.it has released stats on blogosphere commenting statistics and while they don't reach a conclusion it's plain from the distribution analysis that people tend to post comments infrequently as they ping around the blogosphere.It's not a surprising result - for most active users of blogs what one post talks about today might elicit a comment, however what another post tomorrow talks about

Despite my social media credentials I still remain slightly unconvinced by Twitter in its efforts to gain mass appeal. I could never see some of my old school friends on there, simply because Twitter gives an aura of the web-savvy which they would probably not abide. Such the life of a niche web application.But why? Two line Facebook updates are fine for them; SMS is fine for them; but 140

Excellent article on Community Management on Chris Brogan's site - what essential skills a forum CM requires.After nearly five years as the CM I've got a knowledge of communities that probably borders on the fanatical - it's probably best that I'm not involved in them day-to-day currently...However, this knowledge helps underpin my community management reply:From my years as a community manager I

I downloaded an excellent CAN-SPAM Compliance white paper from Exact Target this week (although I can't remember who recommended the link in the first place, sorry whoever that was). It's well worth reading for those of you who may use permission-based emailing to speak to US of A customers/users and who need to be updated on the latest developments from the FTC.However, "props" go to Joshua

Addendum: further to the big Knol v Wikipedia face-off, I did think it was quite amusing that Wikipedia ranks above Knol for the search term "Knol".

Today saw Google launch Knol, its answer to Wikipedia (with an added soupçon of Squidoo). And while there's little to talk about at present (as it's still in early beta), one obvious divergence from the world's most famous encyclopaedia is the fact that each article's author is named throughout in Knol, something that Wikipedia has not done previously.My reaction to this idea? Personally I think

I am disappointed. While in London last week I was impressed to see Orange advertise the weblink for their new multi-million pound global campaign as "search online for I am" - no web address, no URL, nary an AOL keyword to be seen.I am amazed. I was under the impression that to appear at the top the natural search results for "I am" would need some amazing, nay incredible search engine

We all talk "web 2.0" nowadays - social networks, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn (yeah, I know I'm as bad as anyone). But what about web 1.0, those heady days in 1998-2000 when a website idea was worth millions and everyone was going to be rich from the new economy?Well I certainly didn't get rich. I was at ZOOfootball (witness the ZOOfootball 404 error) at the time (a quintessential web

I've talked about the Facebook adverts recently, but what about the advertising situation at LinkedIn? After all, as ReadWriteWeb mention, "LinkedIn may not be a huge social network, but its user demographics are some of the most financially desirable in the world." LinkedIn [Peer Lawther's profile] is the smooth corporate car to Facebook's souped-up boyracer.But it costs to talk to these people.

No sooner did I post up yesterday about Facebook's redesign and what that means for us advertisers than said social network sends me an email...Hi,Thanks for advertising with Facebook. You may have already heard that Facebook is about to get a new look aimed at making user profiles simpler and more relevant. You can read more overall about the new design here http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/

Back after a nice long holiday, to see that Facebook is finally rolling out its new redesign this week.As an evil advertising type on Facebook, I wonder what new advertising opportunities will be available to reach profiles, and whether the current options (which, truth be told, are poor, as are the clickthrough rates) will be jiggled around a bit. I hope so.

Need advice or a second opinion on social media, online marketing or search engine optimisation? Not sure on the route your advertising agency is pushing you down, or the way forward with your online campaign, or what social network to start using in your first foray into web 2.0?Get in touch and I'll be happy to chat through your concerns, ideas or opinions for free. Yes, you get nearly a decade

I attended the NLabs Social Network Conference this week; on the whole the lectures were immensely interesting, but the overriding feeling that came out was one of optimism for the future (if rooted in pragmatism) in social networks being the answer to business' needs over the next 10 years. And that's a relief to hear.A majority of the presentations gave complementary theories behind web 2.0

SEO is a boring topic of conversation; try and explain it and you can see people losing the will to live. I'm not surprised. It's a behind-the-scenes strategy (rather than front-and-centre) that helps convince the casual, rather than the already committed - the people that don't really care either way. Why bother with it?This article, from US left-leaning political website Daily Kos, is a good

I recently needed a hotel room in Birmingham; like every other trip I make I went straight to TripAdvisor to investigate what accommodation was highly rated in the city. Perhaps surprisingly, the Norwood Hotel, a small, independent guest house set out in the suburbs, was top dog, so I thought I'd give it a try. For £60 I thought it was worth seeing what a Tripadvisor 'number one' looked and felt

[This post follows two earlier missives on Facebook adverts' CPM model, and online advertising in general.]Ultra-targeting with Facebook adverts got a good press at the start of the year, but we have to think, who is filling in their profiles with their interests? And do these people tie in with the users a. will click on adverts, and b. you want clicking on your adverts? It sounds

I spent an hour or so this afternoon photographing my business card as I thought it might make a nice background to my Twitter profile - I think it works quite well. It's great when I get Sunday afternoons to "potter":Peer Lawther - TwitterDon't forget you can also contact me via my LinkedIn profile:Peer Lawther - LinkedIn

Getting buy-in from fellow staff members over online strategy can be a hard job, and one that shouldn't be underestimated. You may think that you have seen the light and know the future direction for the company's social media endeavours, but if the rest of the company don't understand why you're doing this work then it's a lonely furrow to plough, and one that's more likely to fail.And that

Aaron Wall is rarely off the mark. And today is no exception.Witness his recent article "Strategic Content as Marketing for Link Building":I think my recent how much is a #1 ranking in Google worth article was poorly received compared to many of my other features, and it still got over 100 links...at $100 each that is $10,000 in links for 2 days work. Thousands of people saw that article and it

At the recent Internet World 2008 event at Earls Court I noticed that three Leeds-based online advertising agencies (Sense, Coolpink and Cheeze) were next to each other at the back of the room.And rather than that being the worst place to have a stall it was actually the best areas to have a pitch, as they were placed outside the main Keynote Theatre and could appeal directly the crowds waiting