Author: admin

Hello civilisation! We’ve been away on a wonderful mini-break at home and are now back in the Wi-Fi infused world of multi-media. From 6pm Friday to 8am Monday we’ve had a weekend of digital darkness – with no Wi-Fi, no TV, no smartphones, no laptops, no tablets and no games machines. Zilch! All locked away, to prevent ‘accidental’ surfing or emailing. I did however allow music, which backfired when the children insisted on playing their Cats musical CD at full blast for an hour, this being their payback for the removal of gadgets, as they know it drives me crazy. So, with round one to me and round two to them we declared an honourable draw and settled into the weekend…

Was the weekend a success? Yes. And yes again.

The children have been noticeably less over-stimulated and have slept more, read more books and played happily with their toys.

The adults have also been noticeably less over-stimulated and have slept more, read more books and played happily with the children.

We’ve been to a pottery café and spent a happy morning painting mugs each, had delicious fish and chips at Cromer, played Dungeons & Dragons (with real ‘gold’ coins to find), had fun making cyanotype prints and let the children run the kitchen for the day – resulting in crepes and tartiflette for supper. Yum! All great fun and good to see us all relaxing away from the pressure to stay in touch with the world.

What we’ve learned is that:

1) The days are longer and more relaxed without gadgets to mark time.

2) Children do not implode when Wi-Fi is removed from their orbit.

3) Digital darkness costs nothing and makes for a great weekend!

I think we will be doing it again and have realised that even a single Sunday without Wi-Fi would give us a relaxing micro-break.

So, this week have a think about what you could do over a weekend of digital darkness? Will you rediscover the CD player, as I did?

Next week: Break State!

Recently I ran an online workshop on this subject and it was both great fun and a useful reminder of how Twitter can support our business success.

I have seven twitter accounts, one for me and six for my books and have been using Twitter since the early days of 2009 when a handful of Norfolk folk would gather in the evening and chat amiably. I like Twitter and it’s a great route to market, so here are my top five Rich-rules about leveraging it for business…

1. Start with your brand. What are you trying to say to the world? Does your bio make you look unique and interesting and value-adding?

2. Make friends first. Too many people over-sell and then they ‘buy it back’ as a consequence. Take time to talk to people and to be friendly first….selling should be a slow and steady activity and not a panicky rush.

3. Have a process. Use Twitter to drive people to your website, or blog or Ebay/Amazon page. Post links and make it easy for people to find out more about your products and services.

4. Take it seriously. Instead of a few token tweets on a Friday, make Twitter part of your marketing plan and set targets for follower levels and tweet activity.

5. Beware of brand bashing. Don’t ruin your own brand by drunk tweeting, uploading curious pictures, airing bigoted views, swearing viciously or spending your time grumbling about life. People are often conservative and won’t tell you if you’ve offended them…but they will tell their friends.

So, this week take a fresh look at your Twitter account and ask yourself what else you could do to help leverage it for business?

Next week: Digital Darkness