Putting this blog on the list would be conceited and I left Facebook off because I think that it lacks quality. Jedward and the Cheeky Girls are proof that just because something is popular doesn’t make it good - I could spend a whole blog post writing about why I dislike Facebook but will leave it unsaid for another day.

Accuweather just missed the cut, but I find their service particularly the ‘Real Feel’ number invaluable. I even ponyed up for the premium mobile application.

The list is no particular order of merit:

• Bloglines - I have an eclectic and wide range of online reading material that I like to keep up with. Whilst I have a Google Reader account, it is set up as insurance against IAC shutting down Bloglines. I find Google Reader intrusive and not as productive as Bloglines. In addition, Bloglines works better on a mobile phone and power my blogroll
• Delicious - is my memory. I am a web pack rat and it comes in handy for research or pulling together case studies for presentations. I keep a minimal amount of bookmarks on my computer, mostly bookmarklets to take advantage of Google Translate, subscribe to a blog and pull up the local weather
• Google - as well as it being my default search engine, Google is also my currency converter, calculator, spell checker and timezone checker. The site has a surprising amount of shortcuts that make my life a lot easier. They don’t require any technical skill, more details here
• Teoma - one of the best kept secrets of the web, Teoma is my back-up search engine if Google isn’t giving me the kind of results that I want. If anything Teoma is more relevant than Google is on its search responses. It naturally doesn’t trawl as much of the web as Google and it isn’t as good for real-time or semi real-time content like the latest blog posts. But it does have a clean interface reminiscent of Google previously. If you hit the ‘Google found approximately 150,000 results’ and you can’t find what you are looking for in the first page (which you should have set to 100 results per page) then give Teoma a go
• Email - my primary personal email account is an Apple IMAP account (now sold as MobileMe), but I’m old school so I have a .mac address. I also have a couple of other IMAP accounts with a more limited circulation. IMAP is great as it allows you to sync your account across multiple devices and not pay a fortune for Microsoft Exchange
• iDisk - I know lots of people swear that Dropbox is the best, but I still like to use iDisk for large file transfers like presentations. Apple has progressively improved the product and I know it inside out
• Flickr - if Delicious is my memory of facts and figures then Flickr is my visual memory I use it as an aide memoire, image storage for my blog and as a kind of photo scrapbook
• Twitter - is the new IM. Instant messaging on my iPhone and on corporate networks can be a bit haphazard. Twitter gives you the direct message capability of IM but also allows for broadcast messages and syndication of content
• Skype - whilst all the fuss is happening in the iPhone world about Facetime I am more interested in Skype. Its combination of reasonably-priced VoIP calls and free Skype calling together with robust file transfer and chat messaging has made it ideal for business communications and keeping in touch with friends in far flung places
• LinkedIn - I’ve got business out of LinkedIn, polled opinions on the best content management system for a particular purpose and received recommendations on a web hosting company in Hong Kong. LinkedIn is an invaluable business tool

This is cross-posted from my personal blog.

This is cross-posted from my personal blog.

BAA has had to abandon plans for expansion after spending £220 million on their proposals. The aviation industry argue that Heathrow will now continue to operate at 99% of its capacity and as a result they will face problems including delays, which will encourage passengers to turn to other European hubs, such as Paris, Frankfurt or Amsterdam who will reap the financial benefits.

There is a public consultation due to take place later this year on a ‘per plane tax’ which aviation insiders are concerned will seriously affect both air freight business in the UK and transfer passengers who will avoid UK hub airports to avoid extra taxation. Add to this the huge disruption and lack of revenue because of adverse weather in the UK at the start of the year, the closure of airspace following the volcanic ash incident, 22 days of strikes by British Airways staff with the threat of more to come, the recent decision by BAA workers to strike, which has the potential to close Heathrow and five other airports and it is clear to see that the aviation industry is having a particularly difficult year which doesn’t look like it is set to improve.

227 new MPs have been elected in 2010, the biggest influx since 1997. Most MPs will admit that they do not possess a complex knowledge of aviation issues - there is no reason why they should!
For the aviation industry, this is a crucial time and a significant opportunity to inform the new intake of the plight of UK aviation and the important role it plays in the UK economy.

One of the things that came up was how less-experienced practitioners often didn’t build relationships properly or say please and thank you when doing outreach via social media channels. I’ve been pretty fortunate in this regard mainly because I am quite big, have a northern accent and a shaven head which tends to give away my no-nonsense approach, so I suspect that people move on to easier pickings elsewhere.

The conversation reminded me of a set of rules that Dave Packard presented at HP’s second annual management conference some 52 years ago which demonstrated the kind of smarts social media practitioners should have. Politeness and respect are central to Packard’s approach:

Think first of the other fellow. This is THE foundation — the first requisite — for getting along with others. And it is the one truly difficult accomplishment you must make. Gaining this, the rest will be “a breeze.”

Build up the other person’s sense of importance. When we make the other person seem less important, we frustrate one of his deepest urges. Allow him to feel equality or superiority, and we can easily get along with him.

Respect the other man’s personality rights. Respect as something sacred the other fellow’s right to be different from you. No two personalities are ever molded by precisely the same forces.

Give sincere appreciation. If we think someone has done a thing well, we should never hesitate to let him know it. WARNING: This does not mean promiscuous use of obvious flattery. Flattery with most intelligent people gets exactly the reaction it deserves — contempt for the egotistical “phony” who stoops to it.

Eliminate the negative. Criticism seldom does what its user intends, for it invariably causes resentment. The tiniest bit of disapproval can sometimes cause a resentment which will rankle — to your disadvantage — for years.

Avoid openly trying to reform people. Every man knows he is imperfect, but he doesn’t want someone else trying to correct his faults. If you want to improve a person, help him to embrace a higher working goal — a standard, an ideal — and he will do his own “making over” far more effectively than you can do it for him.

Try to understand the other person. How would you react to similar circumstances? When you begin to see the “whys” of him you can’t help but get along better with him.

Check first impressions. We are especially prone to dislike some people on first sight because of some vague resemblance (of which we are usually unaware) to someone else whom we have had reason to dislike. Follow Abraham Lincoln’s famous self-instruction: “I do not like that man; therefore I shall get to know him better.”

Take care with the little details. Watch your smile, your tone of voice, how you use your eyes, the way you greet people, the use of nicknames and remembering faces, names and dates. Little things add polish to your skill in dealing with people. Constantly, deliberately think of them until they become a natural part of your personality.

Develop genuine interest in people. You cannot successfully apply the foregoing suggestions unless you have a sincere desire to like, respect and be helpful to others. Conversely, you cannot build genuine interest in people until you have experienced the pleasure of working with them in an atmosphere characterized by mutual liking and respect.

Keep it up. That’s all — just keep it up!

This isn’t about social media, although Shel Israel or Brian Solis would say much the same things with a sprinkling of digital pixie dust, these practitioners need to conduct themselves as mature adults and pick up a copy of Dale Carnegie’s How to win friends and influence people. This is cross-posted from my personal blog.

…the source of information is also a publisher, but also works together with traditional media to make secret data public for society’s benefit.

Cross-posted from my personal blog.

• Information that I can’t get anywhere else (easily). With the exception of the Telegraph’s MPs expenses scandal or the Washington Post’s Top Secret America projects most newspapers sell a commoditised product. Their sources are similar: global television news networks or wire services such as the Press Association, Agence Presse France and Reuters have filled in the gaps as newspapers cut back on having their own on-the-ground people
• Aesthetic pleasure - some publications are beautifully laid out and printed on nice paper or on a well designed website. There is a real tactile pleasure to reading a nice book or magazine
• Part of a ritual - having the media has become part of my behaviour, this is trickier to create because it is personal in a lot of contexts

I have split the media into two sections, first media that I consume on a regular basis as I subscribe to them, then the titles that I consume on a irregular basis, much of this is down to context - where I am usually, or where I am traveling to:

• Wired (US edition) magazine - Wired used to be at the forefront of typographic design when it launched with neon and metallic inks and text that spiraled on the page. Now it is a bit more prosaic-looking generally. What it still is, however, is a good zeitgeist measure of technology and innovation moving forward. Reading the print edition of the magazine with a white chocolate mocca on a weekend morning in Roastars is a monthly indulgence
• South China Morning Post (SCMP online) - Despite the best efforts of the international business press such as the Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and The Economist; they are still woefully poor at covering the Asia Pacific region. Part of this I think as to do with an old order editorial mindset. This isn’t likely to change soon so I pay my annual subscription to get access to the SCMP online
• STRATFOR - produce current affairs insight for the likes of mining or oil companies and military contractors. It is staffed by a mix of bright young things and ex-spooks. Subscribing to their service is like having your own think tank in your back pocket and makes The Economist look like a dessicated version of a Time Out guide
• PR Week (UK) - I don’t pay for this directly, but instead it comes as part of my CIPR membership. Whilst it is often given short shrift within the industry, it is the closest thing we have to a publication of record. It is said that when Lord Chatsworth was thinking about how to deal with the forthcoming recession, he sent in a recession to comb the PR Week archives looking for answers in terms of what action agencies had previously taken during downturns and who had been the most successful. That may be all conjecture, but it proves the value of the publication if its true
• Monocle - an entertaining read that covers current issues as well as The Economist, Monocle has a definite opinion and tone-of-voice. I also like that they don’t print on cheap paper and keep the design standard of the magazine strong
• Econsultancy - for the cost effective market and tools reports. The compendium of internet statistics come in handy for client presentations. Subscriptions to the likes of Emarketer or Forrester aren’t affordable to an individual

The irregulars

• The Irish Times - Ireland being a neutral Euro-centric country has more of an open worldview than portrayed by the UK media, combine this with gaelic games sports results and you have the prefect short haul flight paper for me to read
• The New York Times - I have a particular soft spot for the weekend edition. The paper has a particular charm in the way it rigidly sticks to its outmoded print design. Alongside breakfasts (which is the height of American cuisine), The New York Times print edition is something I enjoy leafing through when I stop over in the US
• MILK magazine - Hong Kong’s MILK is a source of constant amazement to me. Not only is it a good resource for shopping tips in both Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, but I am also stunned by some of the blatant commercial things they pull off like the issue celebrating the fact that McDonalds restaurants are open around the clock. I get friends to bring me a copy when they are coming from Hong Kong and I like to pick it up at the newsstand when I am there
• Financial Times - I occasionally like to leaf through the weekend edition of the Financial Times and find the product pr0n in How to Spend It quite fascinating because it is so ridiculous. How to Spend It should only be enjoyed in print as the online edition has the most appalling user experience and a technology | gadget section that tries to pretend that Apple doesn’t exist
• DJ mag - I have been picking the occasional copy of DJ magazine up since it when it was called Jocks. Alongside Update its still a great resource for finding out about records that should be on my shopping list

This is cross-posted from my personal blog.

Gruen Tranfer is named after Victor Gruen who invented the modern shopping complex: the Southdale Mall in Edina, Minnesota. The delicious irony of it all is that the Austrian was a committed socialist in his younger days. This is cross-posted from my personal blog.

This threw up a number of related questions that I decided to attempt and start to answer here.

So what is a brand? Even answering this simple question incorporated a number of different facets. It is not only about physical items and customer experience, but also about the perceived origins of the brand from Häagen-Dazs faux European name, to the precision engineering of German car-makers, Swiss watch manufacturers and the fine tailoring of Italian men’s suits.

The brand is also affected by context. Audi is a luxury car brand, but for many years in China it has been associated instead as the vehicle of choice for government officials rather than dynamic entrepreneurs or the rich and famous.

I remember going to a mobile phone exhibition a number of years ago and was shocked to see a Japanese lady decked out in a well-tailored suit of Burberry check. In Japan, Burberry was seen as a sophisticated luxury brand, however my perception from experience in the UK was the Burberry is passé through its association with football casuals and copycat ‘townies’.

It could even be the absence of something. A good example of this is the absence of modern farming chemicals in organic food has created an artificial perception of improved health benefits for these products.

So what parts of a brand does a brand manager manage? The design and delivery of their product or service and elements of the marketing mix, such as promotion, distribution and reputation management. But many of those items are in some ways out of the brand manager’s control. You can distribute a product but the way it is presented and sold is often outside your control, you can create advertising but the way stakeholders interact and interpret it is out of your control.

The are things that a brand can do:

• Coach - providing help and advice to get the most out of a service and celebrate success
• Pathfinder: a great example of pathfinding is Innocent Drinks and the way that they handled their involvement with McDonalds
• Curator - highlighting community knowledge and ensuring that it is organised and accessible to all. I was involved in working with colleagues in a former role doing this for HTC through a wiki for their smartphones
• Community leader - creating partner alliances (for instance Apple’s app store for the iPhone), investor in products to meet the community’s need, facilitate co-creation with consumers (MyStarbucksIdea) and crowdsourcing tasks with the community (TfL flickr pool)

This has an effect on strategy moving it from a traditional western command and control style business strategy to an emergent strategy based on company thinking, consumer dialogue and behaviour combined with the dynamics of the market.

So a brand manager no longer manages but influences ‘a brand wrangler’ who tries to steer the direction of the consumers, but can’t necessarily stop stampedes in different directions. It is often easier to steer the company than steer the brand. This was originally posted over at my personal blog.

Some companies have been very smart in product design and process engineering so have managed to nearsource rather than outsource, a great example of this is the shoe company New Balance and hi-fi company Schiit.

Whether this will become a real trend though is a bigger question, many post-industrial countries like the UK have their manufacturing eco-system so hollowed out that they couldn’t take advantage of nearsourcing if they wanted to as they no longer have the knowhow, staff, plant, electrical grid, railways and base industries to take advantage of it.

If one thinks about the UK, the government had to give 50m GBP to INEOS in 2003 in order to keep chlorine manufacturing going in the UK. Chlorine is one of the basic chemical building blocks required for modern industry and very hard to transport due to its aggressive chemical nature. Could the UK become a shadow of what it used to be from an industrial point-of-view? I don’t think so.

This was cross-posted from my personal blog.

The staff at The Times seem very confident – at a recent PR Newswire Meet the Media event Tom Whitwell, Assistant Editor of The Times with responsibility for online, saw no reason why the paywall would turn people away from the site. Tom suggested that peoples’ attitudes towards paying for content have changed drastically in recent years; people no longer have qualms about paying £9.99 for The Times iPad app or spending a cheeky 59p on the latest version of Angry Birds for their iPhone. What will attract paying readers to the site, according to Tom, is its wealth of specialised content and the feeling of being part of a closer relationship between the reader and writer. I particularly liked his comparison of paying for content to watching live music – would you rather see your favourite band for free at Wembley, or pay a small price to see them in a smaller, intimate venue?

But not everyone agrees with Tom. The Guardian recently published the result of two surveys into reader attitudes towards print and digital media, The first, from Ipsos, saw a meagre 11% of online adults stating they would choose to access their news digitally and only 3% saying they would opt for a monthly online subscription. An overwhelming 77% said they had no interest whatsoever in paying for news content online. The second survey, compiled by YouGov, had similar results with 83% of respondents saying they would refuse to pay for online content.

Quite contrasting views I’m sure you’ll agree, and as The Times is the first non-specialist UK newspaper to head behind the paywall, we have no real comparison to show who is right. I feel that there will need to be something pretty spectacular on the site to encourage me to pay – what about you?