I was having quite a long chat with a prospoective client last week about how their website wasn’t performing and how using blogging and other social media ideas would work well for them. The company spends a lot of time with their clients, they’re a motorsport company, but they’re in the ‘people’ business and they’re good at what they do. The owners and main staff are all professional and really nice people. So why did they talk to me about this social media thing?

Because their existing site just doesn’t say any of those things. And even if it did, would you believe it or just think it’s marketing spin?

We talked about the concepts of social media and as we talked I realised that they were genuinely scared of the prospect of blogging and other ideas, despite the fact that there were so many good things they could be saying.

I realised then that the concepts I’ve become so familiar with and that have worked so well for me over the last 12 months are still very new, complex and just plain scary to others.

Their website was a straight forward, ‘traditional’ one. By that I mean a home page, a header graphic, an enquiry form and some pages about who they are what they do etc, etc. Most of it ,of course, was straight out of the company brochure. So basically what they had was an online version of a printed A4 brochure. Which was OK, I guess, but meant that the website wasn’t ever going to work on several levels:

1. The kind of copy that reads well in a brochure doesn’t help the search engines. People won’t type in the same words. They’ll type not whole sentences or irrelevant headlines that work in print, but two or three keywords. That means we needed to rethink the text.

2. Google and other big search engines love fresh content. This site was unchanged since launch. In an age when information is flowing at us all day long, your website needs to try far harder than just having a load of generic text and pictures. The ability to QUICKLY and EASILY add brief notes, thoughts and topical information just wasn’t there. If you’re not a techie geek, why should you need to know so much just to write something on your website? And why should you have to wait several days for your website guys to add it? By then, you’ve missed your moment.
3. The whole raft of exciting new techologies just hadn’t been implemented. Video, great photographs and the ability to interact with your audience just weren’t possible.

So did they hire me? Not yet. And sadly for us both, there’s a good chance they won’t. Why? Because for some people, it’s just too big a leap, too far outside of the comfort zone. Visions of Gerald Ratner style gaffes and other bloopers right up there with photocopies of your backside from the Christmas party were going through their minds, I could tell. They were terrified of destroying their brand.

But it need not be like that. Social media is actually just plain, simple common sense. You don’t need to be anyone you’re not. You don’t need to be an artificial, high-five, group-hug kind of person, just be yourself. It’s what your existing clients liked about you, remember? Don’t try and be all things to all people, because that’s where it goes wrong. Write about the things you think your audience would like to read. Comment on things you care about in ways that you know will be understood, but without being openly outspoken or controversial. Unless or course your ambition is to be a Simon Cowell.

I’ve been working with several other companies, mainly involved in motoring and motorsport, to help them establish their social media presence,
so if you think I can help, drop me a line via email using the contact form, or pick up the old fashioned telephone and call me for a chat on +44 (0)7812 766760.

Having got all excited in early June about starting the first of several new websites about cars, photography and driving, I paused for a moment to re-assess exactly what I was trying to do. This ‘moment’ turned out to be several weeks long, as I re-thought my whole plan about these sites and decided to totally re-write one of them, so apologies for the lack of forthcoming info.

So, here’s the first site I’ve been working on. Driving Images is designed to be a growing resource for car photography enthusiasts. Talking to performance car fans, it’s pretty clear that many of them are also into shooting photographs and video, or at the very least enjoy looking at great car photography and reading about how the shots were created, so D.I will build over time into just that resource. The concept was well received by everyone I flew the idea past, including other car photographers, so I’ll be covering everything we can think of between us to showcase car photography.

Car Photography 101 will be a section for people wanting to know more about how to get into car photography. Step by step, I’ll break down the different aspects of shooting cars, from choosing cameras, lenses and gear to techniques and tips on shooting action, motorsport and location photography and become a permanent resource for learning more about car photography.

I want to interview some of the great car photographers out there and show how they work, what inspires them and get their views on the world of professional car photography.

There’ll also be other features about cars, driving and some of the road trips we get involved in, plus behind the scenes at some of the big car events and photo shoots we’re involved in. So head over, take a look and sign up for email updartes as the freshest content is added.

Above all, send me your feedback. Leave a comment and tell me what you want to see on Driving Images and give me your views on the site, the design and what we can do to make the site the killer place for car photo enthusiasts worldwide.

My quest for global domination starts today. Well, no not really. But the websites I’ve been tinkering with for a while now are going to get vastly more attention starting right now. More and more people, both close freinds, clients, Twitter followers and others have been telling me to basically stop poncing around and just get on with it. “We like your stuff” they say, “Write more of it, shoot more stuff, get it online”, so here goes.
Previously on this blog, I’ve been writing about how I believed that many, but not all, car magazines were missing a trick with video and also how the exciting new technologies are changing the publishing industry, bringing great oportunities to those who embrace them. Well, time for me to do some embracing of my own and start publishing my own work, on my own websites and try and build up both an audiance, but rather importantly, an income, all by publishing online.

You’ve no doubt read about how there are legendary bloggers out there who derive an income of $10,000 per week working just a few hours per day. Snake oil? I certainly think the few hours a day bit is utter bollocks, but I want to see if those vast gold seams of internet riches they promise can be tapped into…..

I’ll be steadily building content on these websites over the coming months and I’ll introduce you to each site as I write about how I came up with the idea, what motivates me to create content for it and, as time passes, the successes and failures of each one as I try and create the content people like to read, source new features and try and make the whole thing pay at least some of the bills each month. So if you’re a budding blogger or internet entrepreneur (I hate that word) sign up for some email updates and follow my story. In six months, I might be saying “Do you want fries with that?” On the other hand, it just might work..

Thanks for encouragement so far are due to freinds like racing driver coach Andy McKenna, Graham Fox at The Flash Centre, David Fidler at Canon UK and of course, my family who put up with me suddenly grabbing a notebook or a laptop and scribbling as something comes to mind. They’re spending far too long talking to the back of my head as I’m engrossed with my PowerBook screen. Words of encouragement from Twitter followers like MikeCJ and reading bloggers like Yaro Starek and Chris G have also been massively helpful.

You’ll read here exactly how I get on in the coming months. Starting this week, I’ll tell you about the first site I’m creating, what, why and who it’s aimed at.