Look over here instead

Well, it’s fair to say that my new role is time consuming – fantastic and I love it – but definitely time consuming.

If you’re interested in what I’m up to (and I assume that by being here you are!), then I suggest you re-point your browser to www.inphi.net or go direct to www.inphi.net/news… or go crazy and read both of those, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Speak soon,
RB

Ross the spammer… er no.

Hi – if you’ve come to this site to complain about a piece of spam I’ve sent you, I didn’t. I haven’t and I wouldn’t.

For the past few days my Spam items on Gmail has been filled with bouncebacks generated by ISPs around the world, returning emails I’ve supposedly sent promoting everything from college degrees to pills to enlarge the male member.

Nope. Not me.

I’m sorry if one of these emails has reached your Inbox but I didn’t send them. Someone’s appropriated my email address. If you look at the web sites these emails direct you to, you’ll notice they’re nothing to do with me or rossbrown.co.uk

Things to do before I’m 40ish…

Completely and utterly inspired by my friend Caroline’s blog post on the same theme but with a twist that I can’t really avoid.

Unlike Caroline who’s only 34, I’m 40 in less than four months and there’s simply no way I could achieve everything on this list in such a short period of time.

The night before Christmas

If you’re anything like me – which, for your sake, I hope you’re not – you’re a little bit giddy right now.

It’s like being an eight year old the night before Christmas: you’re fairly sure there’s going to be a shiny new bike under the tree but you don’t know the precise details. The bike’s enough to get you excited but you’re still going to get giddy when you discover the bike’s colour, number of gears and wheel diameter.

Tomorrow at 6pm, those lovely people at Apple will announce… well, nobody’s quite sure.

Noel Gallagher, me and the music industry

I play the guitar. Not very well, I may add. But it keeps me amused.

I’m completely self-taught (something which is evident to all who have had the ‘pleasure’ of hearing me) and, whilst I know what sounds wrong, it takes me time to find the right notes and chords to find what’s right for a particular song I want to play.

So I do what every bedroom guitarist does – and hit The Google ™

It doesn’t matter what musical genre is your preference, the chances are high that you’ll discover a web site somewhere where someone with more talent than you has worked out that that tricky chord before the chorus in “Don’t look back in anger” is an A flat over an E7 (which is tricky to play, let me tell you).

Anyway…

I’ve noticed more and more recently that the web sites I visit for my instruction are shutting down or their catalogues are getting deleted. I presume this as a consequence of legal action because, after all, the musical notation of a song is as much copyright as the song itself.

But… well, there’s always a but. And, yes, I’m going to rail against the music industry again.

I have form after all.

Social media’s nothing new

It’s about engagement.

Talking to people, encouraging them to think and say positive things about your company, your product, your brand.

It’s about monitoring.

Listening to what is being said, deciding whether it’s positive, negative or neutral. Watching the trends, recording the patterns, preparing answers and responding appropriately.

It’s about crafting a message, steering opinion. Promoting, but subtly. Recognising the individual voices the audience you’re influencing has and working with them, as opposed to attempting to bulldoze them with propaganda.

Is that social media? Or is it public relations?

1001 apologies

Hello faithful readers.

I’ve not been meeting your every need recently have I? And, for that, I’m truly sorry. Call it pressure of work. Call it pressure of commitments. Call it pressure of life in general.

The truth is, well… it’s not you, it’s me.

Lord knows I’ve got things I want to say. I’ve got more than a dozen draft blog posts written, all waiting for me to spend some quality time with – and get them finished off.

But that time never comes. And the blogs never get finished. I don’t like throwing things up that are half-formed, half-hearted and half-finished.

So… with a promise that I *will* get some new content up and onto this site within the next week – can I recommend you scan my tag archive to find something that tickles your fancy. There’s some interesting stuff here. And I hope to add to it very, very soon.

Yours, apologetically,
Ross

“I wear t-shirts now; t-shirts are cool…”

Dr Who t-shirtI’m repeatedly told that I’m getting too old for ‘comedy t-shirts’ but, well, I’m close to begging for an exception with this one.

Oh come on… all I’d need would be the curly wig and booming voice – and my transformation into Tom “Fourth Doctor” Baker would be complete.

No? Still not ‘allowed’ it. Oh well.

Further information on this Doctor Who t-shirt can be found here.

Doctor Who Series 6b trailer

It can’t all be in-depth insights into the world of digital marketing you know.

A boy has to have some diversions.

And, come on, after watching this – aren’t you a even a little bit excited about the next half of the series?

August 27, so I hear, is when the adventure starts again. Yours setting the Sky+…

Let the cool kids play with the new toys first

After a gestation period equal to that of a baby elephant, Spotify has finally launched in the US. The excitement that’s greeted the arrival of the streaming music service has reached epic proportions, with the amount of press coverage far exceeding its likely short-term impact.

With competitor services like Pandora well-entrenched in the US already – and, of course, the colossus that is iTunes generally-considered to be the flick of a switch away from launching a streaming service of its own – Spotify had to find a way of gaining immediate cachet.

And, hats off to whoever came up with the idea, they hit the marketing nail on its social media head.