Kev Charlton - Journal

My thoughts on Google Buzz

So Google have well and truly entered the world
of social media.

It was to be expected. It’s a bold strategic move to compete directly with newly designed Facebook, who have reworked their user interface to look and act much more like an email inbox. But who is Buzz targeted at?

Obviously, gmail users will be quick to adopt as it will be added automatically to their account. But the masses are much less likely to change their webmail provider than they are to adopt a new independent social network, so is it ever going to achieve widespread usage?

I’ve watched the above video from Google, and to be honest my instant reaction was…well…meh. It simply looks a lot like Friendfeed/Facebook, so how is it going to differentiate itself? what’s the big deal?

Well, to state the obvious, Google’s strength is in search. It’s search results pages are also going social, we know that for sure (enter link). So this raises some interesting questions. Will content aggregated by Buzz be given any form of priority? Will users profiles be highlighted in any way?

I can personally foresee a future where when searching a topic on Google it will return not only site listings, but a list of the key influencers around your search term.

For that reason, I’m going to dip my toes in and keep on top of any future developments.

I’d never be stupid enough to underestimate the power of search.

Crush it – Gary Vaynerchuk – book review

This book came to my attention via a colleague of mine (@mspownall) who sent a link to a competition on the e-consultancy website. I’d never heard of the book, or the author, but e-consultancy is a trusted resource of mine so I entered it. All I had to do was explain what my passion was.

I sent an email:

My passion is…divided. Work/life balance is very important to me, so family always comes first. Parenting is a hugely rewarding challenge, especially when you have 3 children at the age of 28! Professionally I thrive collaborating on exciting, innovative products and campaigns for a variety of clients.

Anyway, a few days later I received an email with the subject line WINNER. Bonus! Another few days went by and the book landed on my desk. A signed version no less. Queue the questions from everyone in the office asking who the hell Gary Vaynerchuk was.

“No idea” was my reply.

But hey, what better way to find out than stick my nose in on my daily travels to and from work!

It turns out Gary is a the epitome of the American dream. And was recently listed in the top 10 internet entrepreneurs of the moment.

Born in Bosnia (or Serbia, I can’t remember) he moved over to America when he was a young lad, and eventually ended up working at his fathers liquor store. He’d always had an entrepreneurial instinct but working day in day out in a liquor store has it’s limits.

Then the spark happened.

Gary discovered the Internet.

There are lots of similar stories out there, granted, but Gary’s sheer enthusiasm for the power of the Internet, and belief in following and promoting the one thing you are truly passionate about really struck a chord with me. He also stresses the importance of personal branding, and delivers some great insight into how to promote yourself whilst remaining true to your personality. He is a family man, like myself, and it is refreshing to hear that you can put family first, but still ‘crush it’.

Anyway, this lad Gary really knew his stuff when it came to wine, so he set up a video blog, pimped himself all over forums and the social web, and Winelibrary.tv was born.

The hard work didn’t stop there though. His straight forward language and abrasive style really caught on, and his sheer determination and effort to engage fully with customers and prospective viewers/ customers very quickly made him his fortune.

He now runs a consultancy firm that guides businesses on how to reap rewards from the Internet.

It’s a really easy to read book. Gary’s personality really comes across and his advice is spot on.

Passion + hard work + good use of online tools = success

Simple as.

You can buy the book from Amazon or if you want further views email me at mail@kevcharlton.com – (tip from Gary, include your email address as often as you can )

btween09

So a few days after getting back from btween09 and on reflection it was an amazing experience. For those who don’t know btween is an Interactive Digital Media Forum set up by Just.b Productions in Sheffield. It was sponsored by the likes of The Guardian, The Big British Castle, Ogilvy and NewMediaAge and attracts some of the brightest minds from the worlds of Advertising, Creative Technology, Film, Games, Mobile, TV and Web.

It was spread over two days so there was a lot to take in, but it was an extremely inspiring few days. I loved the twitterfall feed screen, and the way that opened up the debates to the audience, and the venue itself (Fact in Liverpool) was a great place.

As well as the great talks and debates I did pick up on a few sites/projects that I hadn’t come across before! As ever, I’ve bookmarked these under a specific tag in delicious. Check them out here: http://delicious.com/kev_charlton/btween.

Below is a short video created by Ogilvy at the end of the first day. Looking forward to btween10 already!