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Good idea, stupid implementation

By ciaran on February 20, 2012 in ,

I was watching the excellent AXA QR advert, which is slightly flawed as it relies on you having to get off the sofa to scan the TV…I think it’s fun enough for me to do it. Anyway, Youtube being Youtube it eventually led me to a chap doing something a bit clever – he uses a QR code to sell himself. See for yourself – Digital resume.

2 mistakes though:

  1. How many bullshit bingo terms can you fit into a 30 second piece?
  2. How do you then scan the QR code at the end?
One to remember for my next CV though.
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The great divide – web vs print

By ciaran on February 18, 2012 in ,

When I graduated as a wet behind the ears PR there was, in my eyes, a divide between those who pushed their marketing online and those who pushed on print. There’s now a good link up between the two but always little mistakes made.

The issues

3 simple issues I commonly see:

1. Social media

Social media has thrown the cat amongst the pigeons. In the past you wrote a press release and threw it out to the World. Now you throw the press release out and people throw questions back at you. So what’s the problem? The problem is that a lot of marketing people aren’t prepared for this. They just write the release, they don’t know the ins and outs. But one-way communication is a thing of the past and people need to accept this. You’re part of the conversation and need to be ready for it.

2. Print promoting online

I see this done incorrectly all the time. I’ve blogged in the past about how not to do QR codes and why leaflets don’t go online. This still happens though. Marketing staff need to work with whoever looks after their website to ensure mistakes aren’t made.

3. Ignoring the print materials

I work for a local authority and local authority websites are big. There’s lots of services and lots of information. I always think of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Arthur Dent trying to view a major planning application for a bypass – you can put information on your website but that doesn’t mean people will find it! You can pull out the big stories and push them out through your social media channels but some people simply don’t visit Council website or use social media. Some people don’t even use the internet! If it’s big then you still need that leaflet through the door…hopefully with a mention of how to find out more online!

The solution

This is incredibly simple. So simple that it’s often overlooked. Print people, web people, social media innovators, Joe the tech buff…these people all need to work together. People need to accept that print people may not be up to speed on social media, the social media innovators may not be up to speed on web promotion, and the web people may not be up to speed on how to use print. Joe the tech is probably sat with an amazing online solution that he simply wants promoted. I know, I’m stereotyping somewhat but the simple fact is that people need to work to each others strengths.

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What’s upside down and difficult to read…a scanned PDF map

By ciaran on February 9, 2012 in
PDF logo with cross through it

Say no to PDFs

I love my mobile phone. It has one flaw though and it’s the same flaw that annoys me about tablets – I can’t flick between to applications easily.  It annoys the hell out of me, which is why I hate it when someone links to a PDF.

Okay, there is a need for PDFs. I’m not expecting people to publish 40 page legal documents as web pages! (so long as they’ve been made accessible) What I would like would be if people would stop publishing simple PDFs that could just be text on a web page.  Why are you causing me this inconvenience AND using up my data allowance unneccessarily?  Do you want your customers to hate you?  No? Then stop it!

I realise this may seem slightly harsh, and I know that a designer spent hours creating that beautiful flyer, but that flyer is meant to come through my door, not my mobile phone browser!  I can’t appreciate your flyer as it takes me out of my browser and makes me pinch and zoom in an attempt at finding the information.

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QRs (again)

By ciaran on January 19, 2012 in

After my last moan about QRs I’ve been doing some basic research. I picked up the Metro and went about scanning some codes. 6 codes in total in the Metro:

  • 1 so small it wouldn’t scan
  • 1 that took me almost a minute to scan (black on blue) then to non-mobile site.
  • 3 that took me to non-mobile websites
  • 1 that worked perfectly but didn’t explain what it was for. It used KimTag so not too bad.
I’m willing to accept that not everyone wants a mobile site when using a mobile browser, but surely it should be the default? And what is a company like Dell doing putting black on blue? Surely their marketing team should be tech savvy…saying that, my last Dell fell to bits so clearly their engineers aren’t too good either!
Anyway, it’s all well and good moaning that people are doing it wrong so hopefully I’ll have some good examples of my own soon.  We can but hope.
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The QR code question

By ciaran on January 12, 2012 in

Driven by the rise in people rocking smart phones, QR code scanning has exploded.  Unfortunately, the rise in scanning hasn’t been matched by a rise in understanding of how to use QR codes correctly in campaigns.

There’s been plenty of articles written on issues with QR codes but the most common mistakes by QR code creators seem to be:

  1. No explanation of what you get from scanning the code (malware perhaps?)
  2. No “reward” for scanning the code
  3. Linking to non-mobile content

Yesterday I received a leaflet that did all 3 but went the extra mile of giving me LESS information when I scanned the code than I got from the leaflet. Why are people getting it so wrong? Are QRs still so new* that marketeers still don’t get them? Are they seen as a passing fad meaning people can’t see value in learning to use them properly?

I’m going to leave it at that and avoid the whole “Do people even use them?” debate.

New Years resolution will be to get a theme that formats properly and fix that feed —>

*I realise they’re not new but the mass usage is new…ish.

Pointless code

Dare you scan me?

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Going off the grid

By ciaran on December 31, 2011 in

Last week I deleted my Facebook. Well, I “deactivated” my Facebook. This means that if I want to I can come back. It’s been quite liberating not feeling the need to check Facebook for messages.

Why did I “deactivate” Facebook

I’ll start by highlighting that this isn’t because I think Facebook is a waste of time. There’s a lot of value in Facebook – It’s a great tool for building communities and marketing things you’re working on, and hearing about what others are doing. However, it really does have a sinister side.

In the beginning it was great being able to keep in touch. Ace! Most of my mates in the one place making organising a night out easy peasy. But then Facebook evolved. We got check ins and tagging. Why do I need to know someone’s at X pub? I don’t, but I can take that. Then Facebook decided I’d like to know what Guardian articles my friends are reading. This was very disturbing in some cases but thankfully this could be blocked. But then they started with the Telegraph too. It was becoming like some kind of Hanna Barbera cartoon with someone trying to block the holes in a sinking ship. Why feel the need to bombard me with all this information? Continually security settings required changed to prevent Facebook selling my information to the CIA who desperately want to hear whether or not I like the new Arcade Fire album.

Basically, it was just too much information. I’d compare it to my garden hedge. It looks great but you need to constantly trim it to keep it tidy. In the same way I found myself continue blocking certain types of updates and changing settings. I’ll leave you to guess the state of my garden hedge.

So I deactivated it.

I do have a problem though. I CAN’T ignore Facebook. Despite it’s faults it is a tool we need to use, especially in Local Government. So many people use it and EXPECT to get news from it. So I’ve still got my work account for professional purposes…not quite off the grid yet, and it probably means more time on twitter!

Why my twitter feed isn’t working

Like Facebook, twitter enjoys messing with processes to make things more complicated by trying to simplify.  Hopefully I’ll sort this shortly.

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Why the iPad is rubbish (in my opinion)

By ciaran on November 13, 2011 in

I’ve had this iPad2 for 2 weeks now. Kindly loaned to me by my dad for my holiday it’s lovely and shiny and it does all manner of things, but I don’t like it. I’ll explain why:

It’s terrible to type on

Now, this isn’t a direct criticism of the iPad – all tablets a crap to type on. It’s not comfortable and I’m sure we’ll prove it causes RSI (my shoulder really hurts!). The autocorrect is also terrible and trying to edit back is a constant tapping nightmare.

It’s not comfortable to hold

It’s too heavy

It’s not comfortable holding this thing. Maybe if I got a little stand it would be better but it’s not like it’s suitable for pulling out on the go and holding in front of you.

It’s too big

It’s just not portable enough. Okay, it’s thinner than my netbook, but my netbook doesn’t need a case and special screen protector. My netbook can also do a lot more useful things (inc. running Flash!)

It’s too slippy

It really, really needs a case as without one it’s slipping in your hand far too easily.

Features are poor

No SD

My dad bought the add on for SD and USB. USB won’t accept a memory stick as apparently is draws too much power. It also wouldn’t accept my phone in portable device mode. Basically, the adaptor is a waste of money.

Terrible cameras

Cameras are very low quality (no real details on the Apple website!). Wired have written an article on the quality of the iPad2 cameras.

It’s slow

Dual core 1GHz CPU should cope with most tasks but I found the iPad2 a bit slow. Perhaps this was caused by attempting to run too many pieces of software at the same time. Either way, it shouldn’t really happen. Also annoying that Apple rebrand what is essentially an ARM CPU. Give ARM some kudos!

Lack of apps

Yep, not too many iPad specific ones. Most iPhone apps work but this is fairly pointless for the majority of apps unless you enjoy using only 3.5″ of your 10″ tablet.  You can double the size but then you just get an out-of-focus version of the app. Tweetdeck is woeful on the iPad (Twitter’s fault, not Apple’s).

Conclusion

I’m pretty disappointed. Difficult to use, rubbish cameras, low number of apps, slow CPU…I’m sure these issues are fairly similar for all tablets on the market so it’s probably a bit unfair to single out the iPad2. However, it’s the market leader so I don’t feel much guilt.

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It’s 11.17am and welcome to the 10 o’clock news

By ciaran on October 21, 2011 in

I remember when there was only 4 channels.  Even when BSB and Sky came along most people didn’t have it and the 4 channels were still the main focus for the majority.  Life was simple – Neighbours was on at 5:35pm followed by the 6 o’clock news and then Eastenders was on at 8pm.

Things developed and we ended up with hundreds of channels. But even all these channels weren’t especially interesting.  They still insisted that we watch the news at 6 or 10 and that Thursday was “good tv night”.

Now we’ve got fast internet and on-demand TV meaning we can watch whatever we want whenever we want. A blessing and a curse.  I can now spend hours watching Ghostwriter on Youtube (if you’ve never seen it, you MUST watch it).  I can also watch shows that maybe never made it to the UK, or were shown on C5 at 3am (I’m talking about you, Red Show Diaries).  This is great but it means I get a lot less sleep.  I watched the first episode of Brookside on 4OD last week…gripping stuff.

What’s interesting is that even though I don’t have to watch TV at a certain time, I often still do. We still get offered “Comedy Tuesday” or “Sitcom Sunday”.  Is watching programmes when we’re told to ingrained in us?  Are young people in their early teens still watching programmes as their scheduled or whenever they feel like it?

Anyway, I’m off to work the first episode of Round the Twist.

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