Er.....

OK so the Big Contacts experiment is interesting. Spin offs include a Refgrunt blog. FoI and DPA go a little mental. Keeps me on top of some task management. Not certain that makes me more productive but does seem to be more systematic. Sales Pipeline? Need to think how that makes sense.

Wiki stuff goes on.

Progress on the mission to provide intelligent booklists. I ring Softlink, speak to the ever helpful Hannah, send some files down and she purges our Main Subject database allowing us to build a lighter more practical version. Time spent an hour or so. Difficulty, none, just a bit of FTP'ing. Why didn't I do it sooner? Aaaargh!

VLE, LDB, VD.....

There are times I feel like the Dario Gradi of the local library world. Makes a change from being old man Steptoe I suppose. Today's challenge comes from one of Davey B's boys, Tom. Can't help liking them because Dave B is the happiest man I know, Tom is just plainly pleasant and a human techie and Sean the other element of the triumvirate is also deeply pleasant. Must be a nice office to be in. Why the Gradi bit? Tom needs coaching through the how the hell do we market the VLE with no money and precious little time. Just like Crewe then, no money etc. Share some ideas and agree to call in tomorrow when I'm at Mossley or catch up with him on the phone.

Mind you the stoopid buggers think I have it sussed.....suckers!

Djamolidine

Latest e-mail marketing metrics. Some interesting phenomena beginning to emerge, there is a good forwarding rate where we have established a personal relationship and it seems to be the forwarded mails that are opened most. Conforms to viral marketing patterns then. Key thing seems to be the value placed on the sender not the content.

I concede defeat in trying to map a blog template to the design in Helen's head. Nearest compromise I can come up with is promoting the archives in the sidebar and renaming them 'Articles' which is probably a bit more user friendly. Might need to tart up the header but it's getting there. Leave fuller instructions for Helen on Zookoda. Of course I continue to rave about it as a tool. Let Alison from the LDB know about it today (Tracy I've left some marketing books for Alison - not as yet issued - she's dropping the laptop and projector back some time tomorrow and I've asked her to check the data cable is with the projector).

Discuss the printable CEO with Tracy, as ever I'm only a tool away from solving my problems (I know though that I am the basic problem!) Point her at the Rough Underbelly Task Manager. Fetch the train ticket for tomorrow's Land of Manc gig and pass Hammy House which is really being knocked about by the developers. I'd have been easier to knock the bugger down.

Of a less work related nature I listen to 'Heads and How to Read Them' (thanks to whoever left it on my desk for me) and instantly I get transported back in time to my year in the Smoke at Library School at UCL, to a time in Oxford which Bob's excellent Gigography (at the Dentist's homepage) tells me was the 17th October 1991 when I lost myself in the music while moving at around 1000 mph away from the place I wanted to be while standing about 8ft away from it at the Jericho (don't worry if that don't make sense to you it does to me!) I also get transported to moving in to Nursing Home South at Napsbury, only to find the next day I had to move to a gaff above the laundry because I wasn't a nursing student! Strange how music is a trip in itself. Other listens for the day include the very excellent Nikki Sudden and Abdoujaparov (who prompt me to pic up the phone to call Christina - she was in the car when I first listened to 'Air, Odeon, Disco, Pub', oddly enough easy enough to date that if I ask Tracy because it was the day of her wedding!).

Mic rings with good news on a job, I send the reference today so it should be sorted for him. So the sidies are off to live in Chesterfield, hope they don't cause the twisted spire to straighten up. Made up for him, sounds like a good job.

Home, cook, hoover, play with blogs. Off to the Land of Manc again tomorrow.

Footsteps

The river was rough, the wind was roaring and the roads all led away from Reggie today. Some quick FoI work, a section 21 and chasing up somebody else and the usual MP type request. tPCT have a bunch of orange crates delivered, they're on the move out of Reggie.

Update my marketing data and begin preparing for the next set of it. By and large the plan is to hit the AHPs first and then move through the segments.

Morning medline sesh with Helen and Nicola, hope it was OK for them. PM VLE stuff, not particularly focussed and my mind is elsewhere - stoopid bugger.

Oh dear I'm falling towards family history....need to watch that one. Still could be worse.....

More Marketing Bits and Bobs

So to the Zookoda experiment, there nestling in my inbox today was a kind message giving me broadcast permissions for the account I set up the other day. In the interim I'd created a mailing list for our Modern Matrons, and established the mail I wanted to send out.

The advantage as far as I can see is a pretty looking mail that asks to be paid attention to (it appealed to my inner-Paul)

As opposed to earlier efforts when I adopted the DIY approach.

The other advantage is though the metrics, I can see what's happening to the thing as it goes out (of course I get stoopidly excited about this).

I guess though the key thing about it is the fact that as a tool it's made me think about segmentation, headline benefits and all of the stuff that I should be thinking about. That and the metrics are important in that we've never really had a concrete way of measuring things. See the reading pays off.