In my younger years I didn’t expect to be living within a mile of my childhood home, far from it, I actually thought I would be living in another time zone or at least a different county. Fate however is a funny thing and it is likely that my son will now attend the same primary as I did while I work alongside a few people I have known since my school days.

It doesn’t take a lot of common sense to work out that if you are a Head Teacher you should probably not post risqué photos of yourself (http://www.thelocal.se/20148/20090618/ – don’t worry the link is to the story not the photos) on Facebook. And whilst this may be an extreme example it highlights the fact that you shouldn’t post information online that you wouldn’t want strangers, friends or work colleagues to read.

…. if you simply have to post everything about your life please check your privacy settings, it may keep you in a job.

It is rather minimalist to say the least and to keep it so I have removed the images from my pages.

As I have previously mentioned finding the time to create regular, lengthy, considered blog posts at present is nigh impossible and as such I feel this design suits the short, imageless posts that I am currently submitting. Any thoughts?

I have however been keeping up with my tweets – microblogging suits me at  present; it lets me keep people up to date with what I am up to whilst still allowing me to voice my thoughts when I feel the need to (albeit they have to be small thoughts).

I hope to post more to the blog at some point, maybe when Boy is 16

I am looking forward to the presentation itself but have a lot of work to do beforehand to ensure I pitch it at the right level – as the attendees are likely to have a wide raging understanding of the subject matter.

Over the last year there has been an explosion in businesses wanting to jump on board the Social Networking band wagon. Very few of these businesses however appreciate the time and effort required to create and maintain a set of fulfilling online profiles. Unfortunately for these businesses (but fortunately for me and my work) there is no short cut, no software solution and it is only regularly maintained profiles which help to generate new business.

This is the reason much of my work these days involves being a Social Media PA to clients who either don’t have the time nor the inclination to maintain profiles. They do however appreciate that these forms of promotion are likely to drive more traffic and business in forthcoming years.

Take a recent trip to my wife’s parents as an example. They stay in Portlethen, just south of Aberdeen and within 10 minutes drive of Stonehaven. On a previous trip we visited ‘The Bay Fish & Chips’ shop after it had been recommended to Kerry’s mum by a friend, it was some of the best Fish & Chips either of us had ever had. My wife, who appreciates good Fish & Chips, had no hesitation in posting her excitement about returning to ‘The Bay Fish & Chips’ shop and subsequently how much we enjoyed our meal and how good the service had been. This was instantly relayed to her network of friends and followers via twitter and in turn she received replies thanking her for her recommendation. So from a simple one to one word of mouth recommendation ‘The Bay Fish & Chips’ shop was advertised to near enough 500 individuals.

Conversely however on the same trip we were looking for a new car. I had been looking at Skodas (the brand name had given me lots to think about but I am a Dad now so practicality is now king) but had not had an opportunity to test drive one so I phoned the dealership to ask if I could pop in for a drive. ‘No problem’, I was informed, ‘just don’t make it to near to 5pm’, so 1hr later Kerry and I walked into the dealership and asked for a test drive. After being berated with a number of questions such as whether I was trading a car in, was it a company car and when would I be making the purchase I was finally asked as to whether I would be making the purchase from that dealership. I explained that as I stayed in Edinburgh it would be likely that I would buy the car from the Edinburgh dealership. I also explained how hard it was for me to find a convenient time to have a test drive in Edinburgh and therefore the need to test drive at the Aberdeen dealership. After mentioning this I was told that as I would not be purchasing the car from that dealership they would not be able to give me test drive. None to impressed I insisted that as I had phoned up to arrange a test drive they should feel obliged to do so.

Begrudginly they agreed to take us round the block, during which the salesman made no effort whatsoever in ’selling’ the car to us and instead barely answered the questions I put to him with regards warrenty, etc.

Once we returned to the garage forecourt we exchanged goodbyes and headed for our own car. By the time we had even reached our car Kerry had already posted via twitter how terrible the Skoda customer service had been. This in turn was followed to me posting much the same thoughts to my smaller network of followers and then finally writing this blog post. Another consideration for retailers is that not only can word of mouth reach a larger audience these days it also has the power of longevity – there maybe someone in 2010, for example, who after a searching for “Skoda Aberdeen” comes across this post. It may be enough to put them off visiting the dealership and ultimately cost Skoda a sale.

In this new age of ‘Word Of Mouth’, retailers need to treat every customer as if they have the buying power of thousands, as potentially, they do!