London Calling » about all things social & digital

January 2012
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031

Fresh

Porter Gale Joins Kred

Former Virgin America VP Marketing to Advise on Kred Stars and Kred Leaders Programs SAN FRANCISCO, CA (Jan 26, 2012) - Kred, a leader in influence measurement, announced today that Porter Gale has been named Lead Advisor of its Kred Stars and Kred Leaders programs. Gale will be Kred’s chief evangelist to marketing executives and influence marketing [...]

January 26, 2012 ♦ 3 Comments

Featured

featured: mobile broadband: roaming

How to avoid paying data roaming charges on your next overseas trip part 1 – before you go [UPDATED]

[UPDATED November 2011 with E587 details] These tips were featured in the Wired UK September magazine on page 82. Click the image for a larger view. I’ve heard so many horror stories about high data roaming charges from friends and colleagues over the years. This has always surprised me because I’ve managed to keep my [...]

January 1, 2011 ♦ 29 Comments

Recent

social media

Textbook example of blogger engagement – courtesy of HM the Queen

As I travel around the UK and the US speaking to agencies about PeopleBrowsr and Kred, it is usually towards the end of my presentation when a familiar question is posed. “…so once you have identified these influential bloggers, what do you do with them?” The question comes up a lot, and I am very [...]

December 27, 2011 ♦ 6 Comments

social media

Google UK online education program is spot on

Over the last few months in the UK, Google has been running what I believe is an excellent campaign to educate users on the finer points of web security, and how websites use your data – and what you can do to control this access. Google have the money and the reach to pull this [...]

December 14, 2011 ♦ Comment?

mobile

“when is my bus due?” a brilliant use of public data and probably the best use of mobile ever

Some months ago, I was speaking to Paul Clarke (@paul_clarke) about his role on the Mayor’s Digital Advisory Board and what they were doing with public transport data. Specifically I asked “when will I be able to see how long it is until my bus turns up via my mobile?”. What I was after was [...]

December 14, 2011 ♦ 6 Comments

NFC

So NFC yet so far

There is a Clear Channel bus shelter on Kensington High Street (an upmarket suburb in London) that proudly shows a large NFC icon. As I have one of the few commercially available NFC handsets in the UK (a Blackberry 9900), I decided to turn on the NFC function and tap my phone on the big [...]

December 11, 2011 ♦ Comment?

social media

using social media for business development – the art of the eTap on the shoulder

Like many London calling readers, part of my role involves business development where you are trying to drum up new business from people you have not yet met. I remember my first “sales” call back in 2001 when I had just taken the position of CEO of PropertyLook, an online commercial property marketplace. Having held [...]

December 11, 2011 ♦ Comment?

mifi

The global road warrior’s new BFF the Huawei E587 mobile hotspot

As many London Calling readers know, I travel a lot for work. I used to travel within Europe extensively, and have done the London-Sydney-London route more times than I care to remember. Lately, my role with PeopleBrowsr has seen me in San Francisco on a regular basis. One of the most popular posts on this [...]

November 23, 2011 ♦ 4 Comments

mobile

Mobile to the rescue for Black Friday online sales

I am in San Francisco at the moment, meeting with the PeopleBrowsr crew and some other key clients and partners. I arrived over the weekend, so had a chance to indulge in some retail therapy on a wet Sunday afternoon. What struck me is that everywhere I went, people were talking about or promoting Black [...]

November 21, 2011 ♦ Comment?

venture capital

Just because you are VC funded does not mean you have unlimited funds

I was at an event recently when I heard the following during a presentation: “we are VC funded so don’t have to worry much about hosting costs…” Having worked for about 6 startups over the last 10 years (none of them VC funded incidentally), this was probably the most arresting thing I have heard all [...]

November 16, 2011 ♦ Comment?

mobile, olympics

London 2012 Olympics O2 sponsor deal is no different from previous games

I read with interest the piece in the Telegraph by Katherine Rushton titled London 2012 Olympics: chaos for mobile phones and the comments underneath the piece from outraged Londoners. For those of us for which this is our first taste of an Olympics in our home town or country, some of the antics such as [...]

November 14, 2011 ♦ 1 Comment