Category Archives: General

Please help #Malawi

Southern Malawi was hit by Cyclone Freddy. My home city, Blantyre, was hit badly. Many parts of the city experienced flash floods and mud slides. Soche, Manja, Ndirande, Chilomoni, Machinjiri. Other parts of southern Malawi are suffering. Mulanje, Thuchila, Phalombe, the lower Shire, Zomba. The equivalent of 6 months of rain fell within a fewContinue reading “Please help #Malawi”

My robotic future

I chatted* Facebook support to get an issue at the day job fixed. The Facebook support person decides to call me. I answer the phone and don’t understand a single word. Another call. The same experience. Having spoken to a lot of support hotlines, I know the company wants my consent to record the call.Continue reading “My robotic future”

Less is more: Creating display ads in different sizes

The challenge:For 6Sense display and Google Display networks, I encounter ad sizes which are incredibly small (for mobile use). Display ad sizes vary immensely. There are very wide banners. Skinny and tall skyscraper ads. Squares. Oblongs. For use on desktop and mobile. At work, I pick a mix of sizes for desktop and mobile. Unfortunately,Continue reading “Less is more: Creating display ads in different sizes”

The CMS of the day

WordPress dominates the CMS market. A statistic floated by this week, citing over 60% market share. WordPress continues to dominate the content management systems (CMS) market and is currently used by 64.2% of websites that have a CMS, according to data from W3Techs. https://t.co/wBWoIbgQKi#WordPress #cms #websitedevelopment #seo #digitalmarketing pic.twitter.com/lyTpxRfo40 — SearchEngineJournal® (@sejournal) July 15, 2022Continue reading “The CMS of the day”

Memory Corrosion

Besides demand generation, being invested in brand activities to be “top of mind” when clients move into the buying phase is super important. Here’s a recent piece that I bookmarked on LinkedIn. “95% of B2B buyers are not in-market for your products right now.” This LinkedIn Marketing article describes a concept called memory corrosion. “WhenContinue reading “Memory Corrosion”

Coffee from Chipunga, near Mzuzu

I finished drinking my souvenir of Malawi coffee last week. I like the strong, rich flavour of Malawi coffee. It’s strong, it’s chocolatey, it’s earthy. Each time I wonder how I could help to promote Malawi coffee and its unique taste in Europe. Rather than importing green beans, could we import roasted beans? Rather thanContinue reading “Coffee from Chipunga, near Mzuzu”

Why do I use LinkedIn – and other questions

I’ve been asked to talk about LinkedIn. This isn’t the first time. Most of the talks, I’ve given were about how to use LinkedIn “technically”. Given that LinkedIn has been available for over 15 years and there are many excellent online courses and webinars on how to use LinkedIn features, I suggested a session onContinue reading “Why do I use LinkedIn – and other questions”

Favourite podcasts

The Hidden Brain by NPR:https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510308/hidden-brain?t=1594925472583 I listened to this one all about debt:https://www.npr.org/2020/06/15/877401074/buy-borrow-steal-how-debt-became-the-sugar-rush-solution-to-our-economic-woes This episode all about scarcity was particularly impressive: https://www.npr.org/2019/08/05/748207152/you-2-0-tunnel-vision Ted Radio Hour by NPR:https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510298/ted-radio-hour About loneliness: https://www.npr.org/2020/07/01/886292087/listen-again-meditations-on-loneliness How I built this by NPR:https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this How Ben and Jerry Ice Cream was founded: https://www.npr.org/2020/03/20/818918341/ben-jerrys-ben-cohen-and-jerry-greenfield The Story behind Recaptcha: https://www.npr.org/2020/05/22/860884062/recaptcha-and-duolingo-luis-von-ahn ARD Radio Tatort (crime fictionContinue reading “Favourite podcasts”

Social Objects and how they help me to connect

In a recent offline conversation, I dropped a comment: That’s my common social object with so-and-so. Me in an informal conversation I realized how much this old blog post from the beginnings of blogging has influenced me. My observation: If I find a common social object, it helps me re-connect. If I find a commonContinue reading “Social Objects and how they help me to connect”

Keyword research in 2020: a brief answer

I received this question recently: If I create content for our company (articles for magazines, social media posts, etc), do I need to try to use KEYWORDS within the text as much as possible? And if yes, is there an online tool / website to check how well I did my job before I publishContinue reading “Keyword research in 2020: a brief answer”

When you have over 20 thousand photos on Flickr…

I’ve been on Flickr for over a decade. And I have over 20 thousand photos. Imagine. I didn’t think this is possible. Memories. Snapshots. Visual notes. The primary beneficiary is… me. I love browsing thru my photos. I love seeing old snapshots emerge in the Flickr stats or in old links or chats. I realizeContinue reading “When you have over 20 thousand photos on Flickr…”

Cyclists, beware of tram tracks. Dangerous spot on Elisabethenstrasse in Basel

I witnessed a motorbike crash this morning while cycling to work. I was cycling up Elisabethenstrasse when I heard a loud crash. A motorbiker had crashed on the other side of the street. At a place where the tram tracks and street don’t leave much space for cyclists and motorbikes. At exactly the same spotContinue reading “Cyclists, beware of tram tracks. Dangerous spot on Elisabethenstrasse in Basel”