An almost unique web presence!

Over at our WeDoAdventure blogspot I’m blogging about life as we find it in Bosnia and Herzegovina. To my knowledge there is only one other English blogger, blogging in English, from this country. The Fraught Mummy from Brits in Bosnia also blogs on the joys and challenges of motherhood – something I know nothing about! It’s strange to think that we’re the only two English voices representing life in an entire nation. Strange it may be but it does lend a uniqueness unattainable if I were to, say, be blogging about life in Liverpool. That’s why I wasn’t particularly surprised when a co-worker told me today they’d been introduced to another English person living in Mostar who’d heard of us. I’ve noticed our blog content (and YouTube videos) show up well in relevant searches, but when they said they had mentioned ‘WeDoAdventure’ – asking if that was our slogan – I had to smile. Not only does the mighty Google machine recognise we’re here but incidents like this are an encouragement our content is captivating enough to be remembered by real people!

Why is this important to you? If you’re doing something you believe people will want to support, or buy into, blogging and online video is on way to start a conversation with them that costs you nothing more than your time and a little ingenuity. As far as making you ‘searchable’ platforms like Blogger or YouTube may well prove more effective than your current dot-com, they will certainly provide a greater chance of interested people stumbling across your web presence.

Welcome to 'The Battenberg Effect'!

A friend Facebooked me recently to suggest I revived “thebattenbergeffect”. This could, tenuously, be described as a back-handed compliment for my oft-neglected tech-blog. While choosing not to read anything into his substitution of a classic English tea-time cake for, arguably, the inventor of modern mass media, I am going to revive ‘thegutenbergeffect’ with immediate effect.

My situation has changed since I last posted. I was a cog in the wheel of the media/marketing/communications machine of a mid-sized UK-based church/charity. Some of my posts where definitely informed by the experiences and insights of that environment. Now I am a self-supporting charity worker with a UK-based organisation, living and working in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It brings a fresh set of perspective to the challenges facing charities in using new media.

The continuity between the two is my personal engagement in new media, particularly online video. As I post this I have 325 video on my talk74 YouTube channel – the most active of the four channels I post on. I’ve lost count of how many videos I’ve actually made for these and a number of other channels. While I am by no means e-famous I was amused, and perhaps a little flattered, that when UK YouTube spotlighted just one video about St George’s Day just over a week ago it was the one I made last year.

Living overseas means a greater reliance on digital media to stay connected with friends, family and financial supporters. So getting it right is not an academic exercise, it really matters. As corporate old media muscles in on the new media party and people become increasingly cynical about the authenticity of online communication there a need to keep communicating with honesty and integrity, along with generous helping of ingenuity...and perhaps a slice of Battenberg!

Feeder - free but frustrating!

I've ranted about giving away free music before. If you want a good example of how not to do it look no further than this recent attempt by UK rock band Feeder.

Now I own several Feeder albums, have seen them in concert several times and have their posters on my living room wall - I guess that qualifies me as a sort of fan. But this annoyed me. Perhaps I'm the only one, and maybe all the positive feedback on their blog confirms that, but here is a message I sent them last night.

this stupid free download doesn't want to work! if you'd really like me to hear your cool new music why not just put it as a download from myspace? oh, cos you won't harvest my details for FeederSpam! yeah, I get it - except I never did get to hear this track cos it won't extract properly.i think you get my point ;)

This morning I got this reply...

You are the first person to say there is a problem ... please can you try again ?If it doesn't work still, please can you describe the problem ?I should add, we never send out spam via our mailing list, it's always important news which we think our fans would like to know!

I did try again. I got it to work. It's playing as I type - but I stand by my request for simplicity.

Blowing bubbles

Everyone, it seems, in the tech-blog world is posting on this today. My choices were to ignore the trend or go with it. As 'it' was essentially a sideways glance at bandwagon jumping and things getting inflated out of all proportion I have to jump in.

Quite why this video made Robert Scoble snort Diet Coke through his nose I don't know. Yes, it's amusing but...well, you decide for yourself!

Start blogging

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