Lest we forget

We have mentioned in this blog before how proud both myself and Diane are to be Community Governors at the John O'Gaunt Community Technology College in Hungerford, and none more so than today when the staff, governors and pupils laid wreaths at the war memorial in the town.

Rock solid techniques for using Google from Rock IT at the Newbury Business Group

As ubiquitous as Google has become, who among us has not been left frustrated at the search engine’s inability to read our minds and only interprets what we type in?

Well if you have been at Newbury Business Group earlier today there is a good chance you will no longer be drumming your fingers while humming U2’s ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ – all thanks to the insight offered by Paul Cowie from Rock IT.

In a 10 Minute Masterclass that was stylishly delivered in considerably less, for the thoroughly positive reason of having lots of guests attending West Berkshire’s foremost networking organisation’s weekly meeting at Donnington Valley Golf Club.

“It’s all about how you ask!” he told us and gave the example that: “How many calories does an apple have” and “An apple has * calories” will produce very different results, with the latter being more precise.

We discovered that singular is different from plural – apple is not the same as apples! Also that Google plain ignores lots of little words – I, where, how, of, is, in. We should enclose them in quotes if we want them included.

The order of words is important – example Brown Bear and Bear Brown return different results and punctuation is generally ignored except apostrophes, hyphen and quote marks.
One other exception is two dots, which is ideal for finding something in a range. Like this "office chair" £50..£75. Or for dates: Newbury 1850..1899

Most people know that using “quotes” narrow searches, but searching within the results can refine these even further.

Paul told us: “If you put three words in your search, all three must be on the page for it to be returned. However, you can use OR to find pages with any of the words and use parentheses to group terms. For instance if you were trying to remember the name of a certain movie with monkeys, you could search for: chimps (“Ben Affleck” OR “Mark Wahlberg”). You will find yourself landing on the 'Planet of the Apes'

“Google does not understand ‘NOT’ however you can use – to exclude a term from you search example: “Ben Affleck” –”Jennifer Lopez”, only returns pages with Ben not Jen.

“Just as a minus sign says no a + sign says yes. For example: +the omen will find references to the film, although you could use quotes to the same end!”

bY tHE wAY – Google is not case sensitive!

A wild card allows an * to replace one word. For example: “Three * * mice” leads to “three blind fat mice” or “three very tough mice”. Wild cards are useful to get around the 10 word limit on searching because they don’t count and miss out stop words (a the if) because they do!

He concluded urging us to visit the Google help page which has all this and more.

Once again a stalwart member of the Newbury Business Group has proven not only their expertise, but been abundantly generous with it and added enormous value to the group.

I did have a Google tip! Use telephone STD codes like 01635 for Newbury and 0118 for Reading when you are looking for geographic specific businesses!

Press release for worthy medial recipient

Morgan PR is proud to work with a number of local charities, one of which is the Royal Merchant Navy School Foundation, and we were delighted to help when its hard working secretary was award a very prestigious medal, and provide the photography for the release:

A Ramsbury man who has devoted his life to the Royal Merchant Navy has been awarded the The Merchant Navy Medal, a prestigious honour which reward meritorious service and acts of courage afloat by British registered merchant seafarers

Commander Charles Heron-Watson is the secretary of the Royal Merchant Navy School Foundation which helps the needy children of those who have been in the service of the Merchant Navy.

“I am delighted of course,” said Commander Heron-Watson. “However, it would not be possible without the Foundation, which for 180 years has been carrying out essential work for the needy children of merchant seafarers.

“I have been Secretary for two years, although before that I was a caseworker which means I certainly understand the problems, but not just because of eight years of casework, but also because of I was chairman of the Education Trusts Forum for three years, which impacts on the lives of some 3,000 children; indeed the Foundation is part of the Forum.”

The chairman of the Foundation, John Adey, said: “The Trustees of the Royal Merchant Navy School Foundation are delighted to note the decision of the Merchant Navy Medal Committee to award the Merchant Navy Medal 2008 to the Foundation’s Secretary, Commander Charles Heron-Watson, in recognition of his services to the education and welfare of the needy children of British Merchant Navy seafarers.

Commander Heron-Watson says the recession will make the work of the Foundation even more essential: “There is no question the economic downturn is going to have a serious impact on the parents of many of our benefactors and more children will become needy.

“To qualify a child must have a parent who has served at sea in the Merchant Navy for longer than five years and they have to been needy; we are able to offer in their personal development provided it is ‘education for employment’ from the start of their education up to the age of about 25.

“Every time we help someone fulfil their potential it is a success, although sometime the help we give can also have a dramatic impact on the lives of others. We helped Emily Maw finish her law degree and now she is a director of The Innocence Project in New Orleans carrying out human rights work which has seen as many as a dozen conviction overturned.

“Our biggest challenge has always been making sure that people are aware of the Foundation and the work that we do; now that is going to become even more important.”

British seafarers are employed by companies, not the State; they had never had a decoration of their own to reward meritorious service or acts of courage until the recent introduction of The Merchant Navy Medal, which is awarded annually on Trafalgar Day.

Wine Rack's offer hard to swallow

The Law of Attraction as defined by Michael Losier explains how you effectively get more of what you give, so it was reassuring to see Wine Rack operating a classy piece of permission marketing to coincide with the opening of a new store in Hungerford.

Or rather we were reassured until we read the small print, when it suddenly became a clumsy effort indeed. And all this the very day after Morgan PR gave a seminar on permission marketing

In theory it was a sound offer - 'Save £5 when you spend £25 or more on wine and champagne' and in return you submitted your details that would allow them to market directly to you - with your permission.

Leaving aside that they probably meant 'wine or champagne', its modest offer of a diminishing 20% off with each £1 more than £25 you spend, it was the small print that disappoints.

The offer was severly time limited and in fact only lasted for a week, having expired some days previously.

So were we inspired to shop there? Of course not! Does it incline us to in the future? No, actually it probably disinclines us from using them in the future having had our hopes raises and then dashed.

Morgan PR gives Permission Marketing Seminar

Morgan PR's relationship with many if its clients is understandably confidential; while they deserve to be applauded for addressing the issues we can help with, their competitors might clap for a different reason.

We were in Birmingham today to address the assembled team from a national company on the intricacies of Permission Marketing as we see them, through our experience and not least through the wise words of Seth Godin, author of the PM bible appropriately named 'Permission Marketing'.

Essentially Permission Marketing is the antidote to the garish interruption marketing that we are all exposed to while so few actually respond to; it is about getting people to put up their hands to say they are interested in what you have to offer, and then building a relationship that helps them.

According to Godin:

"Consumers will grant a company permission to communicate only if they know what's in it for them. A company has to reward consumers, explicitly or implicitly, for paying attention to its messages."

Paraphrasing him it means that you should provide something that your customers will want to learn more about, and may be unable to find elsewhere. Some examples include regular e-newsletters with timely news or tips related to your product or service, links to and/or reviews of new and updated Web sites, and problem/solution case studies.

Gather contact information for as many potential customer contacts as you think will be interested in being part of your permission marketing list and then start building the relationship, always respecting them and in effect courting them.

The seminar was delivered to a group who were keen to participate and offer up example of how they work now and they could quickly see how a different approach could deliver better results.