Author: Gavin Heaton

Why Serious Marketers Aren’t Taking Snapchat Seriously, Yet

Why Serious Marketers Aren’t Taking Snapchat Seriously, Yet

Feb 1, 2017 | , |

In my first “official” marketing job, I dealt a lot with branding. And print. We did brochures and collateral. There were events to host, conferences to attend and exhibition booths to use for conversion. And there was this largely irrelevant thing called “the website”. But I had an inkling that there might be something to this internet lark, so I kept at it. I created campaigns that would start with an envelope delivered to a desk, would follow it up with an email message, exclusive code, some marketing information and an invitation to an exclusive event. Then the event...

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Wordfence Launches Cyber Attack Activity Report

Wordfence Launches Cyber Attack Activity Report

Jan 20, 2017 | ,

No matter whether you run a personal blog or a professional website, you will find yourself at some stage, the victim of a cyber attack. These cyber attacks, often referred to incorrectly in the mainstream media as “hacking” can take a variety of forms including: DDOS – distributed denial of service attacks engage networks of computers to bombard your server with requests Brute force attacks – where the attacker attempts to guess your login details usually using an automated system that can send hundreds if not thousands of requests very quickly Malware / spyware – where a piece of...

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Sleeping Giants Take on Fake News and Brands – Is Your Brand Ready?

Sleeping Giants Take on Fake News and Brands – Is Your Brand Ready?

Jan 11, 2017 | , , , , , , |

We have all heard about the vast network of fake news sites that spread disinformation during the recent US Presidential Campaign. These sites use the same clickbait strategies that propelled sites like Upworthy to the top of the digital media scrapheap – inflammatory headlines, sensationalist stories and catchy hooks that tempt you to click just once more. What Upworthy’s content strategy revealed was a unique combination of skilled teams, data and insights would help the organisation create content that was “viral ready”. As Joseph Lichterman explained in this Nieman Lab article: Using the user data it’s collected, Upworthy found...

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Mapping the Internet – 1973 to Now

Mapping the Internet – 1973 to Now

Dec 11, 2016 | , , , |

Believe it or not, there was a time that the Internet was knowable. There were defined limits. Connections. Points of reference. When going through some of his father’s papers, David Newbury, lead developer with Carnegie Museum of Art, found a map of the Internet from 1973. Back then, it wasn’t even called “the internet” (with or without a capital “I”). Going through old papers my dad gave me, I found his map of the internet as of May 1973. The entire internet. pic.twitter.com/0krvYoRGav — David Newbury (@workergnome) December 10, 2016 Fast forward forty-odd years and the online landscape has...

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Peddling Influence in the Digital Age

Peddling Influence in the Digital Age

Dec 5, 2016 | |

There once was a time when we knew who to trust. We knew the organisations and people. We knew the media and channels. And we even knew the professionals. I can remember the awe and esteem my Nan bestowed on her slightly dodgy and doddery GP. His word was gold. So was media personality, John Laws. But times change and so too does our sense of trust. In a matter of a few decades, we have seen trust in our institutions, professions and media dissipate. We are more distrustful and even fearful of those people and institutions we once...

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