MM Blog

Harnessing the power of social media

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:19:04 +0000

Social media have become intrinsic to our social and business lives. The figures speak for themselves; 700 million people are now on Facebook, almost half a million new Twitter user accounts are opened every day (source:Precise) and 1200 tweets are posted every second (source: Freshnetworks.com), and 48 hours worth of film is uploaded to You Tube every minute!

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations defines social media as involving “the building of communities or networks and encouraging participation and engagement”.

So are you maximizing the opportunities that social media presents by building networks and increasing engagement with your customers?

Here are ten tips on how to make the most of social media:

Listen more, talk less - develop a comprehensive understanding of your target customer, understand how and why they use the social media space and use that to inform your social media activity
Create a presence on the most popular channels for reaching your customers and target customers - Facebook is a great place to start if you are a business to consumer company, focus on LinkedIn if you are business to business
Ensure your page looks professional, is branded consistently with all your other marketing channels, and promotes your company in the best possible light
Be clear about your objective for using social media and tailor your page and content accordingly
Proactively seek out connections with people and companies relevant to your business
Coherent messaging is vitally important – define your business clearly and concisely, and include simple call to actions to encourage further engagement with your brand
Create a ‘pull’ effect – drive people to your page, become an information station, share content that genuinely adds value to people’s lives
Don’t spam! Your fans/followers will be put off by pushy sales messages – keep content conversational, personal and authentic at all times
Encourage feedback and always respond to negative comments – use it as an opportunity to improve your business
Keep your page up to date, update it often and monitor it regularly

Social media is a great tool for developing your business. Good luck and keep me informed with your progress!

Want to reach journalists? Get on Twitter!

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 12:01:02 +0000

Recently published research by Cision into journalist’s uses and perception of social media has highlighted an interesting trend which will no doubt be of interest to any businesses seeking to get their company’s news into the media.

While the traditional means of communicating with journalists – the press release and face to face meetings – remain important and are among some of the most effective ways of sharing news, social media’s value is clearly on the rise.

Of the sample of journalists who took part in the survey, which was carried out in conjunction with Canterbury Christ Church University, 97 per cent of those reported to use social media regularly, compared with 74 per cent last year. Twitter in particular has become a key communication channel for UK-based journalists.

So, are you and your company represented on Twitter? Marketing Matters can help if you would like to use this channel as a means of reaching journalists and potential customers. Contact us to find out more – email me zoe@marketing-matters.co.uk or call 01202 777111.

Cision Europe and Canterbury Christ Church University conducted a survey about the uses and perceptions of social media among journalists in four European countries: UK, Germany, Sweden and Finland. The total number of completed surveys across all four countries is 1,560 with the following country distribution: UK (667); Germany (189); Finland (448) and Sweden (256). Overall, the response rate was 5.3 per cent. The statistical analysis, based on a 95 per cent confidence interval, examined the differences and similarities between sub-populations of respondents. Respondents were taken from Cision’s media database of more than 1.5 million influencers globally. A detailed summary of the UK results is here.

Making money through Facebook advertising

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 12:09:35 +0000

Facebook advertising is still in its infancy, yet thousands of companies are reaping the benefits of this incredibly powerful tool, and for a relatively small advertising spend. So, what are the pros and cons of Facebook advertising, and should you try it out to promote your B2C business?

The Pros

1. Reach

Facebook now has 500 million users, so one in every 13 people in the world are registered on the site! This means that it is highly likely that a reasonable proportion of your target customers are active users of Facebook.

2. Targeting

Perhaps the single most important benefit of using Facebook advertising is that it can be highly targeted. Thanks to the detailed information that Facebook has about its users, it is able to offer advertisers the ability to specify criteria such as age range, gender, demographics, likes, and geographical location of the people you wish your add to appear in front of. A key point here is that you are in control - your advert will only appear before your specified target audience, and not in front of those who don’t fit your specific demographic. You can also add keywords to further define your target audience. Does online targeting currently get any better than this?

3. Low cost

Like Google Ads, Facebook advertising is based on a cost-per click (meaning you pay a fee each time your ad is clicked on), or a cost-per-impression (the number of times your advert is featured on a user’s profile). You specify your available budget (which needn’t be extensive) and go from there! When compared with Google Ads, Facebook is still in its infancy and therefore there is less competition for keywords and also for visibility – reportedly 1/20^th less competition! It can also be incredibly cheap, so for a relatively small advertising spend, you can reach many highly relevant targets.

The Cons

1. Strict guidelines

Facebook adverts have to adhere to relatively strict guidelines, which can be discouraging to some.

2. Standout

People use Facebook to socialise with others and are not necessarily going to be looking for, or even notice, your adverts. It may sound obvious, but you need to have an advert that stands out from the crowd, and you will also need to constantly review and refine the messaging in your advert to ensure that it is working as hard for you as possible. All this takes time and effort, so don’t underestimate the input you’ll need to give to making this happen.

3. A new kid on the (advertising) block

As a new advertising platform, Facebook is continually enhancing its features to make the site easier to use, and enhancements to the functionality and effectiveness of Facebook adverts is just one area that is continually being looked at. From your, the advertiser’s, point of view this could mean that constant changes to the site are confusing and complicated, and that advert performance is not what it may be in the future.

Conclusion

Like anything, there are both upsides and downsides. But if you have a business which is targeting people represented on Facebook and are wishing to target those within a specific, perhaps local, geographic area you may find that Facebook advertising could be of potentially huge benefit to you. For relatively little cost it could become the next tool in your marketing armoury. If you try it, let me know how you get on!

Cracking the QR Code

Fri, 20 May 2011 10:32:53 +0000

The use of QR codes in marketing and advertising has become a bit of a hot topic just lately with big names like Starbucks and Lady Gaga launching code-based campaigns. For the uninitiated it may all look a bit crazy, but used properly QR codes can be a fun and useful tool.

Most of us are familiar with barcode technology in some form. Barcodes appear everywhere from cars to cereal boxes and contain basic information which can be read automatically by computers and mobile scanners.   The QR, (or Quick Reference) Code is essentially a more complex version of the barcode.   A subsidiary of the Japanese giant Toyota corporation developed the original QR code system back in 1994 with a view to being able to encode much larger amounts of information that the traditional 'one-dimensional' barcode. The QR code system stores data on both the vertical and horizontal axis, giving a lot more scope.

QR codes are now in widespread use, especially in commercial and industrial sectors. Postal carriers use them for tracking and routing information, warehouses and logistics operations keep track of goods and equipment and a number of variations on the QR code system have been developed.

Now this is all very salutary, but how does it help us with a marketing campaign ?    The answer is quite simple. Pretty much anyone with a 'smartphone' has the technology in their pocket to read and decode QR codes. Apps are widely available through iTunes and Android market which let you point your phone camera at a code and reveal its hidden data.

With QR codes being 'cool' at the moment, people are naturally drawn to them. Curiosity compells them to scan the code, just so they can find out what it says.   Being able to engage people in such a direct way is obviously a very powerful thing and with a little thought and some careful planning, encoded data can form a central part of an integrated marketing campaign.

The types of data which can be stored in a QR code are quite varied, and a surprisingly large amount of information can be held in these little monochromatic boxes. The apps are intelligent enough to recognise not only the content itself, but also the type of content allowing web addresses, vCards and simple text to be stored and correctly interpreted by your audience.

A few examples are shown below. If you have a smart phone, you should be able to read these straight from the screen.

Hopefully, if all worked the way it should, you were presented with a web link, a vCard and a plain message.

The Marketing Matters team are using QR codes for client campaigns right now. If you would like to chat about how we can help you with an integrated marketing campaign, why not get in touch.

Learning the lingo of the web

Fri, 13 May 2011 09:16:12 +0000

When you use terminology every day, it can be easy to become complacent and assume that everyone else knows what you are talking about. It most areas of computing, acronyms are king; the more you know, the more technical you sound. But in the real world, what do they all mean ? This back-to-basics post explores some of the most common acronyms in web development and tries to explain what they can do for you.

HTML
The first on our list is arguably the most important. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, and is the foundation on which the web is built. HTML is a simple language which describes the structure and content of a document. (A web page, email, etc.) Pretty much every web page you look at is built using HTML It is designed to be very simple and logical. Despite being full of various codes and tags, it is surprisingly human-readable, using simple typographical rules to deliver the content of a page. A set of standard tags are included in the HTML language which provide the browser not only with content but also with context. Next time you visit a web page, take a look at the source code (there's usually an option in your browser's 'view' menu). In the code you will probably find things like this : <h1>Welcome to the site</h1>. Your web browser will see this and know that the words 'Welcome to the site' are a page heading and will try to display them as such. There are other tags like <p> denoting a paragraph, <img> to display an image, etc.

Good HTML doesn't contain any styling information, so *how* your web browser displays a page heading is up for interpretation but there is plenty of control over that too as we'll see later on.

XML
XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language (yes, I know... but EML doesn't sound quite as cool) It is another language, similar to HTML. XML is often used as a 'common' language to allow different systems to exchange information using a standardised framework. It provides content and structure for interpretation by its recipient in the same way that HTML does, but it also allows for a great deal of flexibility in the structure, letting the author add as many tags and sections as required (hence the extensible bit).

RSS
Really Simple Syndication (or sometimes Rich Site Summary) is a common way to provide a 'news feed' from a website.   An RSS feed usually contains basic information such as story headlines and summaries along with links to view the complete article online. RSS is a great way to keep people up-to-date with the latest happenings from your site. RSS feed readers (the programs which display the feed information) come in all shapes and sizes from desktop applications which pop the latest headlines up on your computer to mobile apps which deliver content directly to your phone.

CSS
Cascading Style Sheets go hand-in-hand with the HTML code described at the start of this post.   Whilst the content of your web page is delivered in the HTML document, instructions of *how* to display that content are contained in the associated CSS. A simple CSS snippet looks like this :

h1 {
color: red;
font-weight: bold;
font-size: 20px;
}

This would tell our web browser that whenever it found some text in the document that was denoted as a level 1 page heading (i.e. text contained in <h1> tags), that it should display it in bold red text, 20 pixels high.   Separating the content and presentation in this way is good practice. If, for example, you wanted to change all of the page titles on your site to blue, you only have one thing to change (the CSS document) rather than having to go through the entire site and change every page.   it also means that different media (e.g. on-screen, printed, mobile, screen-readers, etc.) can use exactly the same content, but can be styled differently by applying a different style sheet to the document.

JS
JavaScript is a language which is used in web pages usually to perform some kind of dynamic task. It allows web pages to become far more interactive by triggering events based on user input, time, etc.   If you've ever been told off by a website because you didn't fill in all the information on a contact form, it was probably javascript.   Menus and navigation that pops out or slides across the page is often controlled by Javascript.

CMS
Content Management Systems provide a simple interface to add, edit and manage the content of a website. A good CMS will allow a non-technical person to run their own website without the need for constant work by a web developer.   CMS systems should be able to control all aspects of a website's content, including image galleries, page content, e-commerce shop contents, etc.

So that's that. The next time someone tries to bamboozle you with a list of web acronyms, hopefully you'll have some idea what they are talking about !    If you need any help or advice about your next online project, contact the Marketing Matters online marketing team.

Social Commerce

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:09:15 +0000

‘Social commerce’ is the use of social media channels to generate revenue online. It’s a growing phenomenon and media experts are going so far as to predict a ‘social commerce revolution’.

Yet, from speaking with clients and potential clients, it becomes apparent that although nearly everyone has heard of social media, they don’t fully understand how to use it to benefit business, nor how to use it effectively to generate additional revenue. And measuring the impact of social media marketing is another sticking point – “you can’t measure RoI of social media can you?” is a question we are often asked.

Examples of the social media activity of some big, as well as not-so-big, brands does prove that social media can be used to create significant additional revenue for a company, brand or retailer, and that it can be measured.

The following link is to a presentation my colleague and I recently gave at a business event in Dorset. It includes a video (courtesy of Erik Qualman / www.socialnomics.com) which brilliantly captures the power of social media, and which features case studies of companies which have generated remarkable results from their social media activity. Enjoy!

Click here to view the presentation

How real can CGI become ?

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:34:35 +0000

If you've explored the MM website, you'll have probably seen that we've used 3D rendering / CGI for a number of projects, particularly in the property development industry. (If you haven't, click here for a couple of examples)

Now, CGI isn't an especially new technology (relatively speaking) and companies like ILM, Pixar and Dreamworks have changed the face of film-making with everything from stunning visual effects through to full ground-up character creation. It seems that CGI is everywhere these days appearing in gaming, video production, advertising, TV and of course marketing campaigns.

I've always been a fan of animation and computer modelling and I often wonder how far the boundaries of CGI can be pushed. With the current level of technology it's becoming difficult to distinguish the real and virtual worlds, but the human mind is exceptionally good at recognising when things aren't 'quite right' with the tiniest detail of movement, texture, light or colour making us notice the artificially created environment.

Whilst browsing around YouTube recently, I came across a couple of short films which really caught my eye. They demonstrate just how advanced computer modelling has become, and how far our ability to translate our understanding of the physical world into mathmatical models has come. As the technology is refined and developed, and commercial opportunities present themselves, we can expect to see increasingly realistic renderings appearing in the most commonplace situations. Personally, I can't wait !

Time to let the videos speak for themselves...

The first comes out of the Georgia Institue of Technology and shows some startlingly accurate modelling of the interactions between liquids and solids...

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The second film is a montage of work using the Lagoa Multiphysics engine, and once again shows in jaw-dropping detail how accurately physical interactions can be recreated.

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Facebook - Best practice for business

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:06:58 +0000

Facebook is a great platform for business. It’s simple and easy to use, and makes posting and sharing news, images and video content about your business a doddle. But, are you guilty of having established a Facebook page for your business without really understanding how it can be developed to maximise the benefits to your business? If yes, read on for a few simple and quick-to-implement suggestions. It’s easy if you know how!

A microsite for your business
A Facebook page for your business or charity is effectively a microsite for your brand, and it speaks volumes about who you are and what you offer. Because of this it is crucial to ensure that the page is showing the company in the best possible light. It must look professional and be consistent with your brand and corporate website. This is also important since often people may discover your brand for the first time on Facebook, having not been to your corporate site.

However, there are limitations to Facebook of course, since a brand can not control completely the look and feel of the page as it is subject to the design template and functionality of Facebook. But there are lots of customisable areas on Facebook and if you are not using these to best effect, you are wasting opportunities to create impact.

The wall image is a good place to start – Facebook offers a space of up to 180 x 540 pixels in which you can display a graphic. Many pages simply feature a company logo, but there is room for adding something here which is more creative and professional looking - something which makes use of images and words to quickly communicate to someone who lands on the page, what the page is all about. Use the entire available space to really make a great first impression!
There are areas in which you can display a host of information about your company, including a description, your location, opening hours, contact information and much more. Ensure that you are fully utilising these to share information about your business.
The customisable tabs are also a great way of promote specific campaigns or events. Facebook has a number of default tabs but additional tabs can be easily setup. We’ve used them to great effect when promoting our clients campaigns, to draw attention to special offers and competitions, and to host photos and video content.
Via the Settings button you can also control which of these tabs new visitors to the page arrive at. This means that you can control what content new visitors to the page see, presenting an opportunity to tailor your landing page content according to your individual preferences. For example you may wish new visitors to come to a landing page which features an explanation of what the company does and about the benefits that fans of the page can enjoy (to encourage sign ups), whereas you may wish to direct existing fans straight to the Facebook page Wall where they can view the company’s latest news updates.
Finally, don’t forget that the purpose of Facebook is to engage with your fan base. Invest time and effort into developing the page to truly realise the benefit of having a Facebook presence. Give your fans a reason to return – post regular updates and provide valuable content such as special offers and behind-the-scenes photos. But, most importantly keep listening to comments and feedback and learn from this, ask questions, respond to queries and comments (both good and bad!), stimulate conversation and be part of the conversation yourself. Be human, approachable and likeable, and watch the Facebook following grow and your customer engagement improve!

The return of the suit

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:58:34 +0000

As Sarah Golding. a managing partner at CHI & Partners, remarked in a recent article in Campaign, ‘the role of impresario gets more exciting and important when the production being staged gets more complicated’.

She was referring to the role of account management which, on current industry trends, is experiencing a bit of a meltdown as those who previously worked agency-side leave to go client-side. Why? Because in their new companies, they enjoy some much-needed respect and recognition (often of the financial kind).

While we’ve been buffeted by the winds of recession like any other agency, we’ve yet to experience that kind of drain on our account teams, which hopefully says something about the way we treat our staff. What we have seen though, is a mix of other skills making that migration.

While we wish them well, we’re obviously keen to protect the relationships we enjoy with our clients and would like to emphasise how, while sole operators might be able to offer considerable cost reductions, they cannot offer the benefits of an entire agency team – of which the account man or woman is pivotal. Particularly when, as Sarah Golding’s quote above implies, the job in hand is complex.

We’re now delivering truly integrated campaigns which involve a whole range of skills, including planning, strategy, digital, film and creative. Such a wide mix of talent demands an experienced captain at the helm. Without him or her, there’s every chance the ship can hit the rocks. Or to further Golding’s metaphor, it’s a little like imagining Cats or Les Miserables coming to the West End without the guidance and control of producer Cameron Mackintosh.

In fact these days account staff do a lot more than assembling and shepherding resources. Suits make it their business to know their client’s business back-to-front. They then use this understanding to shape marketing and communication strategies to solve clearly-defined problems. The suit then logically becomes the heart of good creative work – the person who informs it, tests its efficacy and then, just as crucially, presents it with utter confidence to the client.

The suit we’re describing here doesn’t emerge, fully formed, from the womb. They are nurtured, trained, coaxed, encouraged. It’s a long-term process but one which we believe delivers dividends. If only others shared our viewpoint.

Do charities need new communications models ?

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:49:11 +0000

In a recent meeting with one of our major charity clients the discussion turned to a segment of supporters and how to attract them. The swift conclusion that was reached was that times are a-changing and charities will need to adapt – or die.

No longer can major charities rely on the unquestioning support of loyal supporters. Sadly this generation of ‘duty supporters’ is departing – no doubt leaving significant legacy donations behind them. The following generation, however, is no less passionate about charitable causes – indeed possibly more so – but are more questioning, critical and informed.

Choice is the overriding theme for these silver surfers – however much they lament the apparent simplicities of previous generations. This generation is locked into technology; the freedoms and stresses that it brings. They may not have adopted iPad or the joys of apps… yet. But Facebook is replacing e-mail as the main communication medium and multi-channel retail has been adopted with glee.

What are the implications for charity marketing and in particular communications? Firstly, tried-and-trusted formats will no longer be the certainties they once were. The classic DM pack that could be guaranteed to deliver 3:1 return will no longer be a certainty. Supporters can no longer be expected to listen and absorb all communications from the charities they support. They want to be engaged in a conversation – one in which they expect to be listened to. Charities will have to work harder with more interesting and rewarding schemes, projects and events to justify support and donation. New charities like Help For Heroes and innovative models such as Kiva have caught the attention and are setting the agenda.

Equally, as the ‘Age of Austerity’ bites and the notion of Big Society takes root (possibly), big business will look to deepen its links into communities. Corporate social responsibility will evolve from empty PR into more meaningful actions, and actions that charities must seek to exploit. Tesco’s support of Race for Life has had huge mutual benefit to both the retailer and Cancer Research UK; as well as the fantastic competitors who take part.

In short, it is all to play for. But if you’re standing still, you will be left behind. So action is the name of the game – getting genuinely involved with supporters and not expecting or assuming loyalty or support, but justifying it every day on Facebook, Twitter, with every fundraising pack and brave marathon entrant.

Seeking validation on the web

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 21:36:50 +0000

The digital marketing team at MM get called all sorts of things by their co-workers, some polite and some less-so. This friendly banter is usually motivated by our obsession with the latest 'cool thing' in technology. It's not uncommon for excited chatter whenever the latest Android release is announced or the next 'must-have' gadget hits the markets.

This constant hunger for 'newness' is tempered by a more traditional approach when it comes to online developments. In such a fast-moving world it is easy to forget about the basics, and one thing that was always drummed into me during my development career is the importance of coding standards and of ensuring compliance with them.

To the casual bystander it may seem like an extraordinarily dull thing to worry about, but all too often the simplest errors at a basic level can cause havoc later further down the line. Code which works on one web browser may fail on another, a broken enquiry form may not work for vital visitors... the list goes on.

Now, web standards are a funny beast; They are the subject of constant debate across the world, ever-changing and evolving with user and vendor pressures and as strange as it may sound, there are a number of standards to choose from when it comes to developing a website. The important thing though, is to choose the most appropriate one, and stick to it.

Many simple tools exist to check the validity of web code, be it produced manually or created automatically by a content management system. One of the best examples is the W3 validator, provided by the consortium tasked with managing the current web standards. Code validation is a simple process which should be undertaken regularly in any development process. Quality, compliant web code forms the basis of cross-platform compatibility, SEO performance, accessibility and reliability. It's the foundation on which dependable sites are built, and you know what they say about wise men and house-building !

If you'd like to know how our online marketing team can help with your next project, please get in touch.

Social Media - what's all the fuss about ?

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 13:52:59 +0000

At Marketing Matters we have been using social media as an integral part of the PR work we do for our clients for years now and I’m pleased to report, to great effect. However, while some companies we work with have been early adopters, keen to embrace the opportunities that social media presents, others have been more reluctant.

But who can blame them? Social media is, to the initiated, perhaps a scary prospect. Several years ago it was common for businesses to take the view of “social media – it’s for kids, isn’t it? What’s all the fuss about?”, likening it to the latest teen craze that would soon die out and which would have no lasting value for business. Nowadays though, thankfully, this attitude is dying out fast, and more and more companies are realising the value of online networking and social media marketing.

Having said that, social media marketing is no quick-fix. In fact, getting involved in social media – reviewing the appropriate channels for your business, then establishing a social media presence, maintaining that and also promoting it on a regular basis - involves a lot of hard work and commitment.

It isn’t something that you can afford to abandon when other things become more important. It needs to be constantly nurtured, monitored and analysed in order to become effective and worthwhile for your business. Nor is it something that can be left to the office junior (although he/she should certainly be encouraged to contribute to it) – rather, it should become an integral part of a company’s external communications strategy, something that is given the respect it deserves, since the potential benefits and well as implications for a business are significant.

The adage of “content is king” is also so true when it comes to social media. Effort must be spent on creating truly engaging content which will be of genuine benefit or interest to those you are trying to reach, otherwise you’ll find that no-one wants to like your Facebook page or follow you on Twitter. And who would blame them?

Getting involved in social media also offers no guarantee to online success. There are risks associated with taking the plunge and opening up your organisation to the scrutiny of an online audience which is active, interested and increasingly willing to engage with your company online.

I’ll be using this blog to tell you more about what’s great about social media and about the important things that you must consider before venturing into this exciting new world. I’ll also be recommending websites and information resources which I hope you’ll find useful.

First off, here are some interesting facts about Facebook, one of the most popular social media tools for business:

1. There are more than 500 million active users on Facebook

2. The average user on Facebook is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events

3. There are more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.

4. 50% of Facebook users log on to Facebook in any given day

5. More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) are shared on Facebook each month

Source: Facebook Press Office

First off, here are some interesting facts about Facebook, one of the most popular social media tools for business:

1. There are more than 500 million active users on Facebook
2. The average user on Facebook is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
3. There are more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
4. 50% of Facebook users log on to Facebook in any given day
5. More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) are shared on Facebook each month

Source: Facebook Press Office

Lose electricity and gain faith

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:20:44 +0000

We were rudely awoken out of a particularly blissful sleep at 3am on Saturday morning by our young daughters. They were terrified because the landing light had gone out and were frightened of the dark, it was a particularly dark night in darkest Dorset.

After some fumbling around trying to locate torches and checking the fuse boxes we discovered our electricity was out. This lasted over 12 hours and was caused by the high winds affecting a nearby cable.

It was frustrating and fascinating in equal measure. The weekend wasn’t easy to get going and the leisurely cup of tea first thing became a test of my boy scout resourcefulness. However the camping gas stove saved the day along with a neighbour’s offer of their Aga and a trip to the local bakery. I had two over-riding impressions of the experience:

1.Our children’s generation have no concept of how to operate without electricity. It took my youngest, a very streetwise five year old, about six explanations why she couldn’t watch TV. She just couldn’t grasp the idea that we had no power so the TV wouldn’t work. How could this be, the TV always works? There were also multiple requests to use the computer and to go online – obviously both these options were out too.

Now this reaction may be more of a comment on my parenting skills and approach – the TV being a great surrogate nanny – but it is remarkable just how vital electrical power is to the functioning of our modern lives. It shows in this insignificant incident just how critical energy security is to our nation. The outage highlighted to me that we must redouble our efforts behind renewables and local generating capacity, not just for climate and environmental reasons but to minimise the threat of being completely beholden to other nations or organisations for our power. (I also need to stop my children watching so much TV.)

2.As soon as it was clear the power was off for a while the community started coming together. We are particularly lucky living in a lovely, friendly little hamlet, hidden away down an idyllic Dorset farm lane and so have a good sense of community.

Even so, the reaction to our little crisis was heart-warming. Instead of existing in our own little myopic weekend worlds, we started thinking and helping one another. Hot soup was delivered to the very independent 80 year old who lives up the lane, and orders were taken from all for the bakery run and super busy, rarely seen neighbours popped in for tea and chats. Information about the outage was eagerly awaited and happily shared and the human spirit was lifted a little.

Well done to Southern Electric for their text information update service and power was happily restored for us all to enjoy The Six Nations rugby.

What will I take away from it, apart from a potential scolding from Super Nanny? It is that we cannot leave our energy resources to chance and investment in renewable sources of supply has to be given key priority even in these austere times. Also that the relationships with people, and the positive support of one another, has to be the most rewarding element of life, far greater than any possession or object – and why does it take a crisis to make us realise both?

1. Our children’s generation have no concept of how to operate without electricity. It took my youngest, a very streetwise five year old, about six explanations why she couldn’t watch TV. She just couldn’t grasp the idea that we had no power so the TV wouldn’t work. How could this be, the TV always works? There were also multiple requests to use the computer and to go online – obviously both these options were out too.

2. As soon as it was clear the power was off for a while the community started coming together. We are particularly lucky living in a lovely, friendly little hamlet, hidden away down an idyllic Dorset farm lane and so have a good sense of community.

Well done to Southern Electric for their text information update service and power was happily restored for us all to enjoy The Six Nations rugby.