Archived entries for expression

Linked In Connecting

[This was comment I added to a discussion on Linked In regarding connecting etiquette]

I always suggest people get one like one follow and one connect at a time, that way rather than shoehorning your email list into that little box you will manually and personally invite people to be connected to you.  Also the number of people I meet who are here but don’t know how or why, are those just accepting the mailing list invite from a contact.

I built a MySpace profile to 18,000 friends and all invited manually, it’s the only human. Similarly as suggested Facebook is on the up for business whether they like it or not and the best fun you can have is to watch social media and marketing businesses try to get that into their package of training. Sorry but it does make me laugh people with RSS feeds of Mashable for a FB page suggesting they train you, as well as trainers who are not active on FB telling you how to be active.

Personally I only connect with people I have physically met and so have their business card, those who I find insightful and interesting through discussions and groups I am a member of, those who find me insightful and interesting from discussions and groups I am in and so on. It goes without saying being active on linked In will get these invites rather.

Yes there are people I don’t know and will never meet and that’s good, I am not necessarily getting their business, but getting involved in an engaging relationship where both parties can share and learn from each other. Like any networking, if you’re looking to constantly add your sales pitch you aren’t engaging but come across as disengaged.

I have been doing this for 28 years now [social networking] all the internet has changed is quicker response, through the 80′s I had a postal mailing list of over 2000 artists that I wrote to regularly.  Most I never met some I did meet many I shared and learned from.  Those not being engaging always disappeared, like the person in Yorkshire I met who couldn’t understand my interest in talking to someone on Linked In who lives in New York.

We’ve all more or less worked out physical networking and the fact you never know who knows who and how simply engaging and starting a conversation can lead anywhere.  It’s just the same here.

I am wary of people who connect with me who say they are my friend and aren’t, my etiquette to accept them after a simple check on who they are.  Then to message them and suggest they may like to approach the next person with a more personal and engaging message.

My final point, discussions like this [on Linked In] are invaluable for everyone looking for help and advice and a little guidance. It’s always good to ask questions, some people may not want you to know the answers but those engaging in the discussion will broaden the perspective from the initial view point and add value.

We wouldn’t get those answers by just sticking our head in the sand. So who is out there?  We don’t know and that’s the exciting bit not thinking what financial gain could be made from them.

Social media and customer after life

Social media and customer after life

What happens to your customers or clients after they have bought your product or paid for your services, are they part of your network or community? The afterlife we are considering is seen as after sales when many businesses relinquish connections with the customer or client.

This after life is becoming more and more influential for businesses.  Effective use of the internet and social media chanels by customers means a happy customer is more likely to be talking about your product or service online, even if that is by simply liking your Facebook page .

Most businesses will tell you they get business through word of mouth, by keeping connected with your  customers and clients online with an active after service this creates trust and loyalty as well as developing an ongoing  relationship with the customer.  With most people active online, [ 60% of web users visit social network sites ,  Social Networking Watch has more posts in this field] all day everyday people are connecting with friends locally and globally sharing information, links, likes, fans, friends and followers.

As a business your product or service will be shared online, you can check this through Google Alerts and other services delivered through Google as well as at sites like www.socialmention.com .  This whole aspect of customer service and after life is excellently discussed and written about by Josh Bernoff in his latest book ‘Empowered’ .

It would seem only logical that a business not only delivers a service but also trys to sustain lasting relationships with its customers or clients. This could be seen as a premium customer service, not at all it should be the default customer service. In the long term this customer base will connect you with their network and then thier friends networks, people in these networks are not only active but experienced in the way they use technology to deliver information.

Sharing information in this way with people we trust has far more reliability, there is no need to do anything other than be you.  People want personal service and by providing this you can develop a long term relationship to benefit  your business rather than losing contact with your most valued asset a customer/client who is happy with your product or service.

If you have any thoughts on this subject, or if you know any examples businesses and relevant information that may help other readers please leave a comment below.

Thanks
Mark Longbottom

Pecha Kucha – Huddersfield 23.09.10

Pecha Kucha – Huddersfield 23.09.10
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This slideshow was first seen at a Pecha Kucha night in Huddersfield 23 September 2010, to find out more about Pecha Kucha visit www.pecha-kucha.org . The basic guidelines are for presentations with 20 slides each lasting 20 seconds, 6 minutes 40 seconds in total for each presenter.

This is just an insight to some of the people I have connected and shared time, experiences and inspiration with from 1983 to 2010.  Some of the slides share direct contact through art and performance others indirect contact to the people seen in each slide.

Slide Details:
1.  Social networking connections through shared interests

2.  1983 Living in Middlesbrough, UK  and my introduction to fanzines, fluxus and the  mail art world.

3.  Receiving mail art from war zones, prisons, friendly Soviet KGB officers to everyday artists and people all around the globe building relationships some of which continue today.

4.  I published a fanzine distributing it globally; the Rough trade shop was one of my most important outlets though.  Where I met someone who too it further around the area an actor with my mother’s maiden name Allen, and also known as the father of a London singer.

5.  ‘Grass one blade or more’ was to be my mail art exhibition;   all i requested was people sent me their interpretation of the request.  I received 327 samples from46 countries over three years and again made more amazing connections and relationships through their participation.

6.  Through a random meeting in New York came the inspiration to exhibit in my own home from someone who became a lifelong friend with factory connections.

7.  Whilst in Brighton, Uk shared time with a former assistant of this Spanish artist and had many insights to a wonderful life.

8.  Performing and dancing in nightclubs around the country and then at the Slut Club, organised by this Glaswegian singer.  Followed by an all day Creation Records day at the Town and Country Club London audience 5000.

9.  Dancing referrals were made about many but often to the artist and poet centre stage in this image again from the Factory in New York.

10.  Image making as a photographer I did a shot with the band in the background of this image and they inspired the Seattle singing sensation in the foreground.

11.  The Church of the Subgenius was never far away especially Bob, memorably performing  as him in a Sinclair C5 car at The Zap Club Brighton, UK.

12.  A Texan actor part of an audience during a surrealist banquet at Brighton Pavilion, UK.

13.  World champion boxing champion often an active audience participant when I performed as a living sculpture in Brighton, UK.

14.  This actor was a member of a street audience who only made himself known to me.

15.  A young model excited to tell friends of her first shoot in The Face magazine unknown in a busy London station.

16.  Electro hip hop brought from LA to a rural English village by MySpace as part of an art fair.

17.  Platform58 is always searching for more creativity whether known or unknown and to find through contacts old and new to help spread the word of everyones creativity as simple as that.

18.  Relationships have come from inside a wall to a life time of art, sound and film and carry on being made.

19.  Mattia Fagnoni and his family truly deserving of anything I can do by sharing what they do in rasing funds to research  and help families affected by Tay Sachs or Sandhoff disease.  For more visit them on Facebook .

20.  It will never be my message that is important but the conversation that follows. Thank you from everyone at design58

Mark Longbottom

  • June 19, 2010
  • In Creative
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How would you like your 15 minutes?

Today, the internet can provide numerous opportunities to create and express whenever, wherever and however you like! Whether you work with image, text or sound, experimentation is a key to changing the world as we know it.

By turning a camera on the audience or filming ‘celebrities’ in real-time is often seen as manufactured. The anonymity that follows for those involved was also predicted by Andy Warhol.

Whether anti-art or art, Dada [1916-23 and onwards] can be used as an example that inspired many more instances of creativity like Warhol’s.

Active creative expression can often provide a tangible cultural shift. Teddy Boys in the 1950’s reinvented the Edwardian Drainpipe trouser, to the style we know well as Skinny Jeans today. At the time, the high street witnessed a change in its youth culture.

Dada has also been alive and kicking since the explosion of Punk in the mid-1970’s. Thanks to the self belief in creative expression with a ‘do-it-yourself’ attitude from concept to completion, many of these bands are still performing today – taking a little more than the 15 minutes manufactured bands receive.

Being a creative often brings with it the pressures of listening to many opinions, different needs that can pull you in opposite directions, and above all, the final input and decision of your client. According to the ‘Andy Warhol’s People Factory’ documentary, Warhol’s decision to become an artist and filmmaker was influenced by a lack of criteria and a space to create.

Andy Warhol Elvis - www.design58.com

As important as our many demands appear, Warhol demonstrated that being true to your self can bring with it a creative and cultural influence to last another 40 years.

Maybe you’re reading this with unfulfilled aspirations which come to mind. Could your work be the next Andy Warhol? Or is your iPhone App [10 Experimental Art Apps on the iPhone] the next new innovation to emerge? Maybe you’re looking for people to collaborate with to make it happen? Whatever you think, feel free to share below.

Any thoughts please comment below