Posted in Meetup on 21. Jul, 2010
It’s always interesting to see the blog posts and tweets after an LBM, none more so that Ill and Ancient’s posts. Who else would have thought to evaluate a social evening with a graph depicting his engagement with fellow bloggers over the course of the evening.. an example of why I always say the bloggers meetup is full of phenomenally interesting people.
Anyway, it was once again a pleasure to host the London Bloggers Meetup, particularly as we were being hosted by Talk Talk in their snazzy new Customer Experience Centre and Rob from the Real Cycling blog was giving a presentation on how to add podcasting to your online world.
I have to thank Rob for what was a detailed and well thought out talk, which, if I’d thought about it, I would have recorded with audioboo and made available on the blog. But never mind, if you want to get the gist of his talk, head to the Real Cycling blog which has all the info he presented on the night. It’s the first time we’ve had a presenter heckled / corrected during their presentation (thanks @radiokate) which thankfully didn’t throw Rob too much.
TalkTalk were as generous a host as we could have hoped for, providing a good array of beers and some wonderful canapés. At one point the venue manager tapped me on the shoulder and said:
“we’ve already got through most fo the beers, do you think I should order more, or will everyone be happy with the wine.”
I think she knew the answer before she’d finished the question and organised a few more cases. I was surprised just how good a venue the Talk Talk centre is and if you didn’t get the chance, do pop back and check out the lounge and business incubator spaces on the 1st floor and above. A great little centre and I must applaud Talk Talk for finding a creative use for the space they acquired on buying Tiscali. A huge thanks to Maggie, Leanne and team for hosting us so well. We’ll be back (if for nothing else but to use the free internet).
So who did I speak to on the evening. Well, a lot of people, new faces and old and I’m not going to name check the lot of you. But a few notable peeps as ever:
Lolly – a pleasure as always, let me know on the LBM paternity cover
Matt – good to see you being one of the last to leave as usual. Drop me a line on that potential sponsor
Peter – you’ll have to wear a health warning with the number of times I saw your flash going off, but the usual great pics online already I see
Proactive Paul – the paperless office, interesting read and let’s chat about how you could shape into a talk for a future LBM
Pete – now you’re selling ads, perhaps you can teach the rest of us how to do that on our blogs…?
Mehrdad – there’s no way you are that old, just no way.
Heading back to Ill and Ancient for a second, he asked the question…
“would Andy the LBM organiser consider hosting a special, where all the regular bloggery meetuppery people had to do a 60 second talk. Some deal with twenty slides in a minutes or something. Would that entertain?”
The answer is absolutely. If we have enough people interested in doing a 60 second talk, then I’m well up for that. Volunteers please.
Well, enough from me. A fantastic evening had by all I hope and look forward to the August edition (more details coming soon).
This might perhaps be the most belated blog posts I’ve written in some time, but what the hell, it’s worth the effort. If for nothing else than to thank the guys at Best Buy again for bringing their show to the last London Bloggers Meetup.
For some reason I wasn’t entirely sure how everyone would take to me bringing an electronics retailer to the meetup, but it seemed like everyone was genuinely interested in what Paul (Best Buy UK boss) had to say. Maybe it’s because they’re taking a very customer focussed approach to retailing, which if you think about Curry’s, PC world etc, it’s fairly clear they don’t. Or maybe because they actually know what they’re talking about.
I was once talking to a salesman in Curry’s when trying to buy a camera. I was comparing two brands and asked him for his opinion on the two cameras, the answer went something like:
it’s just down personal brand preference. Like with cars, some poeple prefer BMW, others Mercedes, they’re both the same really.
Needless to say I didn’t buy the camera. I’m pretty confident I wouldn’t get the same experience at Best Buy.
Over the years I’ve been running LBM, we’ve had some pretty cool prizes given away: big screen TVs, trips over London in an airship, weekends away in Amsterdam. But this was the first time we’ve had something signed by Dr Dre. And it has to be said, Mauricio looked like the cat that got the cream when he drew the winning prize – a set of Monster Beats headphones. Presumably you’ve road tested those headphones by now Mauricio..? Any good?
Now I think about it, perhaps people were pleased with Best Buy too because of the seemingly endless supply of Bon Jovi tickets given away. I think I was one of the few people to have not walked away with a pair of tickets, but then I guess I was drawing the lucky winners.
Of course, the night wouldn’t have been the same without Tom Tired of London Tired of Life and his cracking presentation on politics and blogging. Who else would have shared the fact that John Prescot’s manhood is the size of a chipolata was first broken as a story on a blog. Can I say that now he is a Baron..?
In case you want to catch-up on any of the polticial blogs Tom talked about, here’s a link to them all.
Guido Fawkes – http://www.order-order.com/
Iain Dale – http://www.iaindale.blogspot.com/
Conservative Home - http://conservativehome.blogs.com/
Spectator Coffee House – http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/
Paul Waugh - http://waugh.standard.co.uk/
Tom, thanks again for a hugely entertaining presentation. I always like to have regular LBM’ers as speakers and if anyone else fancies taking the stage, please drop me a line. It’s not as daunting as you might think and it’s pretty much always a friendly crowd – unless you are a brand coming to sell something.
The other news that night was that regular LBM’er and entrepreneur Navin found out his Love@Tube iPhone app was approved by Apple that very night. Congrats Navin.
If you are single and looking for love, check out his app in the App store now.
Well that’s it. Look forward to seeing you all again on July 14th for the next edition of the London Bloggers Meetup.
LBM’ers, if you are interested in attending Marketing Week Live? If yes, you might also be interested in the open invitation below from immediate future to attend their tea party on Tues 29th for a session specifically on social media.
If you’d like to attend, drop a note to Stephanie, referencing LBM, to stephanie.kelly ‘at’ immediatefuture.co.uk.
I’ll see you there.
Cheers,
Andy
From: Stephanie Kelly
Sent: 09 June 2010 14:21
To: andybargery
Subject: Marketing Week Live – invitation to tea party
Hi Andy,
Hope you don’t mind me emailing you out of the blue. My name is Stephanie and I am contacting you from the social media and online PR agency immediate future.
We’d like to invite you to a special event taking place at Marketing Week Live at Olympia on Tues 29th June. We’re hosting an exclusive tea party for people interested in social media and technology, offering the chance to network with peers and hear the thoughts of our panel of big brand experts.
As well as linking in with likeminded peers over tea and cupcakes, there will be a panel discussion on the subject of ‘innovation through social media channels.’ The big brand experts are being finalised as we speak, but will come from major multinational corporations.
Also, as a thank you for attending our event, you’ll receive free entry to the show. If you’re attending already, you’ll get access to the VIP Lounge. We’ll also be running a prize draw to win an immediate future hamper so you can re-enact your own tea party at home!
This invitation extends to all members of London Bloggers Meetup and I wondered whether you would be kind enough to let them know about this event through your meet-up group page or website?
Please RSVP to this email to book your place, full details will be sent nearer the time. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions.
Kind Regards,
Stephanie Kelly
immediate future.
London Blogger’s Meetup SEO expert Jo Turnbull of seojoblogs fame writes the basics of how to setup your blog. A nice intro and I would certainly agree on some of the points like getting your domain name right, the All in One SEO pack and of course loving y our blog..!
Anyway, over to Jo.
Setting up a Blog
Once you have decided to set up a blog you might ask yourself “where do I start?” Here are a few tips to help you on your way:
1. Decide on a domain name
I recommend going to godaddy.com and seeing if your domain name is free. If it is free, I would register the domain name for at least two years. Choose the domain name with keywords you want to rank for. For example if you want to be known for seo and blogs, make sure that is in the domain name.
2. Choose your content management system (CMS)
There are a lot of CMS’ out there such as Drupal, WordPress, Magento and it is important you choose the right one. I strongly suggest WordPress as it is really easy to use. There are a number of themes you can choose from.
3. Host your site
Once you have a domain name and CMS, you should host your site with a company you trust. Normally, people host their sites at the same company where they purchased the domain name from. Godaddy.com offer some great rates, from as little as five pounds a month and there is 24/7 support charged at a local rate.
4. Plugins
Once you have chosen the CMS, you can then download plugins to help your site rank better in the search engines. I have used the All in One SEO Pack for WordPress which allows you to add different page titles, meta descriptions and keywords to each post. This means you can optimise individual posts.
Ultimate Google Analytics allows you to track the visits to your site. This is the first plugin I would download as you can track the number of visits to your site from when it is live.
The akismet plugin identifies and blocks comment and trackback spam on blogs. It has saved my blog from hundreds of spammy comments. I can’t believe people have so much time to send such rubbish.
You can also make a mobile version of your site through the WordPress Mobile Pack. Everything is going mobile and you certainly want your blog to be too.
5. Finally – love your blog
Update your blog regularly. There is no point setting up a blog if you leave it and only write posts once a month. It needs to be updated regularly with interesting content about your site. If you have a site about cakes, you could write about simple recipies for domestically challenged people. I would certainly find that post interesting as I am not the best in the kitchen.
So there you have it, a few steps to help you set up your first blog. If you have any other tips, let me know.
It’s always interesting to see the blog posts and tweets after an LBM, none more so that Ill and Ancient’s posts. Who else would have thought to evaluate a social evening with a graph depicting his engagement with fellow bloggers over the course of the evening.. an example of why I always say the bloggers meetup is full of phenomenally interesting people.
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