The gift of sharing

I would like to begin with a thank-you. Thanks to you the reader for just being here. Thanks to all the other bloggers, the web developers, designers and content producers who have made the internet the amazing thing it is. Thanks to the coders for developing a host of languages and keep making them better, more powerful easier or more dynamic. Even thanks to the hackers who force us to take security seriously. (Though if you could find better things to do that would be great )

My primary purpose in writing a blog is to give back. The internet has been a gift and a nightmare at times as I have delved and worked to discover its secrets - Coding, Resources, Marketing Ideas and Design Inspiration over the years. It has been thanks to the thousand and thousand of other websites and blogs that I have learned the skills and techniques to develop web sites - When i got stuck you have been there to help me out.

The web is a sharing mechanism and we live in a sharing economy. Some people have gotten extremely wealthy because of it but most of us haven’t so we share because we all benefit in the long run and occasionally we discover a pay off.

My goal is to share experience, the wisdom gleaned from hours discovering new and better ways of crafting communication. I want this blog to reflect me, Timm McVaigh and my business Brand Ideas but most of all I want it to be something that helps people along the way.

Primarily the blog will cover Social media, marketing, branding, design and tips and tricks on coding- but like all things internet related I expect it to evolve and grow as my passion for simply blogging evolves - but for a start I’m happy with how its started to shape up.

Winston Churchill once said:

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. ― Winston S. Churchill

I appreciate the web for what it has given a me and for the many mostly unknown people who have contributed to my skill-set and understanding and so I would like to give back and hopefully this blog will be one more link in the chain to a random stranger who discovers something I have shared is something worth keeping- and so we make a life.

A blogging platform

I have spent a bundle of time looking at different platforms from the ever popular Joomla or Wordpress CMS goliaths to simple flat file systems - If my site was already Joomla I would have continued down that path as it is the base tool for my clients sites but my site has been an exercise in getting deep into the code and building from there so I found a flat file system that looked pretty cool.

If your wondering what platform I am using for my blogging - Its a app called Dropplets which promotes itself as a fresh platform dedicated to making blogging simple again. With no database, you can install Dropplets in seconds on any server, compose offline using markdown, then simply upload to publish."

It’s a flat file blogging tool that uses markdown as the primary text build editor built around a php engine without database intergration.

It was a simple install out of the box - but hard work to shape it into something I felt looked good and fit well within my web site. While it only has free template to choose from and you have to buy anything that looked slightly well designed it gave me a blogging engine that was relatively simple to adapt to my own style. If your thinking of using this to develop your own blog its easy out of the box but gets more complex if you want to ad your own styles or tools good lesson in PHP markup plus CSS anf javascript tools integration.

STYLE

I used a lot of Codyhouse HTML nuggets to style the blog to my preference. Codyhouse is a great resource and teaching tool and is well worh exploring for great looking and performing snippets.

COMMENTING

The commenting uses a simple install of the Disqus commenting tool which was simple to place into the POST section of droppletts.

SORTING

Perhaps the trickiest part is an Isotope sorting mechanism to be able to sort through blog categories it creates nice animations as it reduces options by the category buttons- I think its Kinda cool but was a challenge to wire in.

EDITING

Because it’s using markdown as the text editor you don’t edit within the blog but use an external document editor - I’m using Markdown Pro (available on the mac app store) on my mac though you can use any text editor. Markdown pro gives you a Preview of what the styling will look like which can be helpful.

If anyone knows a better Markdown editor am happy for recommendations.

I thank these good people of the web for giving me a great tools as a starting point and I thank you for taking the time to follow along, after all is’nt that the gift of sharing.

I hope you continue to look me up.

If you have any suggestions or thoughts would love to read your comments.

Do you think “flat-file” is the new CMS?

Anybody that knows me, knows how passionate I am about social media and encouraging brands to adopt social practices. This means you will often find me involved in “Tweet-Chats” or “Twitter chats". Where people with a common interest gather around a common hashtag as a link and discus questions and ideas presented by a chat moderator or guest with a specialist knowledge on a topic.

#PowerofPrecisionChat

One such Tweet-Chat I attend is #PowerofPrecisionChat. This chat is hosted by Brian Moran and runs monthly.

It is attended by an amazing group of people from within Pitney Bowes organisation from across the globe and a gathering of other twitter people interested in global connection and sharing thoughts and ideas that are raised in the discussion. They Discuss concepts “like Making Big Data work” and global marketing and connectivity.

Having been apart of the chat for a couple great sessions I was approached by Brian to write a guest blog post covering the topic of “How language needs to be managed in a connected world."

You can find it on the Pitney Bowes site here How language needs to be managed in a connected world

If you haven’t experienced a Twitter chat I can recommend them for an exciting learning experience and a great way to meet new people. Here’s a Twitter Chat Schedule that might be helpful: Twubs Twitterchat Scedule

Twubs.com

Twubs is actually a great tool for engaging in twitter chats or hosting them and the interface is intuitive.

I can mention Twubs without mentioning another great tweet chat

tool Tweetchat.com it is also a useful chatting tool to have up your sleeve.

Tweetchat.com

I hope you have fun joining the the chat communities on Twitter.

You never know you might end up with an organisation like Pitney Bowes sharing your writing.

I would love your feedback on my guest blogpost for Pitney Bowes- You can leave a comment on the Pitney Bowes page or here.

"Dear, (insert your name here for the moment. You know who you are)

"Oh nice they know who I am. That makes it a personal letter". Sometimes in the marketing and world the expression “everything old is new again applies" Can you remember the last time you received something in your letterbox that wasn’t a bill or some junky flyer?

It may be a simple piece of communication compared to our digital equivalent the email and may it take a few days before you can measure the result but there is a special feeling about a real letter. It boasts of quality when its printed on clean crisp paper, friendly open type and takes real interaction with the reader.

Think about it?

The client had to wonder for a moment “Who is it from?", “Is it a bill?", “It doesn’t look like a bill!", “I wonder who is writing to me?.” Then he or she has to open the crisp envelope. Slip out the letter, unfold it and begin to read...

"Dear, (insert your name here for the moment. You know who you are) “Oh nice they know who I am. That makes it a personal letter".

I think you get the point. Letters are interactive and involving. Especially well written ones that tell a story that involves the reader. Letters are not scanned by the heading and deleted before they are opened. Real letters seem more important noways.

They are physical.

Now imagine for a moment this is a letter of introduction for your business. It’s like the first time you make eye-contact with that special person across a crowded room with whom you just have to start something magic.

.

It should feel exciting, fresh and new.

Perhaps in this scenario a sweet note passed across the room by the waiter on your behalf might just captivate in a creative way and get you attention. Its simple and to the point but makes a memorable impression and Yes it is a lot cheaper than buying a drink.

How would you write that letter to captivate you prospect and get yourself noticed?

Does your letterhead reflect the value of your brand or does it need a revamp?

Is your business stationary inviting and fresh?

We all face the challenge of communicating with our clients in a fresh way perhaps and getting noticed perhaps its time you went “old-school".

PS. Never underestimate the power of a hand written note - real words and thoughts resonate a long time when its truly a personal thought suggestion or compliment.