Follow Follow (or not)

I said at the beginning of the month that I'd like to get to 25 followers by the end of the month. Well, it's 3.30 on February 28, and the total is standing at 18. So unless there's a late rush I've failed to reach my target. Nevertheless, I'll be sending £18 (or more if that rush comes) to the Disaster Emergencies Committee so thank you to all of you who signed up to make that happen.

My good friend Lies, in any case, pointed out to me that followers isn't really a meaningful metric for a blog. If this was a twitter feed (mine is here, although it runs into melvtopia anyway) then followers would be the name of the game, but for a blog it's more about attracting and retaining visitors.

For the online marketers amongst you, melvtopia has had 629 visits 120 unique visitors) in the last month - mostly from the UK but also the United States, Spain, New Zealand, Costa Rica and Italy (Sweden, funnily enough Nigel, isn't on the list). 18% of you are new to melvtopia this month. The average visit lasted 2 minutes and 40 seconds with 1.85 page views making a total of 1,163 total page views this month. The peak day was Monday February 16 with 38 visits, which followed my Facebook mailout.

At the end of the day, though, melvtopia is a bit of fun and one more way for me to keep connected with old friends. So if you have any suggestions for improvements please let me know in a comment or email me.

Ryanair and social media

I'm indebted to Dan for posting this on Twitter. Web developer Jason Roe thought he'd discovered a flaw in Ryanair's website while booking a flight, and blogged about how it seemed that users could book a flight for a charge of '0.00'.

The response from one of Ryanair's developers is classic, and the official corporate response is just as bad - both showing a complete lack of understanding of social media.

It's hilarious in its own right, but as I read it I couldn't help but think the attitude was very reminiscent of one of our ex-zavvi colleagues. I wonder if you can guess who? Answers on a postcard or feel free to drop some clues into comments (no names please...).

Oh, and yes, the Ryanair calendar girl photo is entirely gratuitous since you mention it.

Night out

Met with The Arch and Marc tonight, at the Roundhouse in Covent Garden. I've been going there for years and it's a pretty good place to meet in the area. We went along the road to Taste of India for a bite to eat, which was decent but nothing special.

The Arch has recently bought a holiday cottage in Sussex, and we're all planning to go up there for a weekend sometime when he can get around to suggesting some dates. It'll be just like an episode of Cold Feet, though hopefully without the fallouts.

Incidentally if anyone is interested in a holiday in a beautiful part of the East coast, just email the Arch quoting the code melvtopia and I'm sure he'll give you a special deal.

The weekend

I had a really good weekend. On Friday evening Wenge and I went to one of our regular haunts - Pradera in Hornsey, for some excellent tapas. On Saturday we walked down to Crouch End to pick up some ingredients for an Indian chicken recipe that Wenge saw on TV. Apart from that it was a catch-up day although I did have a lengthy transatlantic phone call with Steven about all things Mac. I still don't get spaces...

I managed to stay injury free at footie, where we had a good 5 v 6 game.

James arrived home on Saturday night, understandably tired from partying all through the previous night then playing football for the university team. Those were the days...

Actually, one of the highlights of the weekend was James showing us some photos from uni. A large proportion of them seemed to involve him surrounded by assorted babes, which drew interesting and differing reactions from Wenge and me.

The mother's reaction was: "That's it. You're not going back to university with all those girls"

Mine, by contrast, went more like: "Get back to Surrey and make sure you send pictures".

Today has been tough, as most Mondays are. Negotiating the terms of my new contract; meeting with the development team; fleshing out requirements with the e-Commerce team. I even had time to talk to a headhunter about an interesting role (which would, however, require me to be an expert in SEO). I've got a feeling that it's going to be pretty intense from now on as I try to manage stuff at Ministry of Sound while keeping active in the job market. But I'm thankful that I do have some work, so I'm not complaining.

Meanwhile, Lee emailed to say that all zavvi head office staff were made redundant today. Good luck to everyone.

Happy Friday

I just got this email;

Hi guys,Just to let you know there will be a casting in the product area today
from 3.30pm - 5.30pm. Hope this won’t cause too much inconvenience.Many
thanks,Gareth.

Bother - all those models taking over the place again. What a pain.

zavvi reunion 2

Had a mini-reunion last night at The Endurance pub on Berwick Street (not, as Steve texted me, the Endurance on Beak Street nor, as Stephen texted me, the Endance on Berwick Street). Fortunately I'm a resourceful chap so I got there to be greeted by:

Steve - dapper in black after an interview.

Cathy - who I found out was Welsh.

Stephen - also suited after what sounded like an overly tactile meeting with a recruiter.

Zoe - I can't believe I called her Laura again!

Mel - getting very close to finding out whether she'll be able to stay in the UK or not; my offer of marriage wouldn't solve things apparently (oh, and someone told me that bigamy is still illegal in the UK).

During the course of the evening we were also joined by:

Laura - I didn't get to speak to her but she's obviously got a good new job as she was dressed for business and I overheard talk of City Airport, security and the likes.

Dave - Looking very suave and sophisticated in his black coat and new hair.

And of course Suzanne - straight from work, and managing a couple of drinks before going back home to continue working. Ah the joys of a new job (or in SJ's case, more like two new jobs).

Anyway, a good night was had by all, I believe. I bailed out about 10.00 but even though I didn't have much to drink I still felt pretty rough this morning. I blame poor bar stewardship.

Today I spent pretty much all day with our new development team. Notwithstanding the dilemma I spoke about a couple of days ago, this has the makings of a significant project and it would be good to manage it through. Good experience, lots of learnings and probably good for the CV.

Footie tonight, then more of the same tomorrow - if I can get out of bed in the morning. I'm absolutely knackered...

Since we all need cheering up today, a joke; although it may not be understood outside Scotland:

While being interviewed for a job as a bus driver, a guy is asked: 'What would you do if you had a rowdy passenger?' 'I'd put him off at the next stop,' he says. 'Good. And what would you do if you couldn't get the fare?' 'I'd take the first two weeks in August,' he replies.

Or if you didn't get that...

After announcing he's getting married, a boy tells his pal he'll be wearing the kilt. 'And what's the tartan?' asks his mate. 'Oh, she'll be wearing a white dress,'

Lights out

I see from Lee's facebook status that it's officially all over at zavvi. Such a shame for all concerned, but without trying to sound trite, at least there's a chance for closure and for everyone to move on. That's better than it sounds.

The news here isn't so great either. As a result of Trinity Street (Ministry's eCommerce & fulfilment partner) going into Administration on Friday, they've decided to hire a development team and build a new platform. That, coupled with the loss of a substantial amount of money owed for sales, means the P&L has been shot and basically I've been told they can't keep me for longer than a few more weeks at my current rate. So I need to decide:

(a) Do I work as long as I can and then get back to full time jobhunting?
(b) Do I accept an offer to be a full time contractor for a fixed period (maybe 6 months) but at a significantly lower rate (month's notice would allow me to move if a job came along...)
(c) Is there a plan C that would work better?

...and it was looking so good... Ho hum.

Are we human?

So I got a call from the headhunter that had put me forward for the Ann Summers job. They don't want me back for a second interview. It seems that what they really want is someone with in- depth technical knowledge, and I was too marketing and strategy focused for them. That's fine.


They also thought that my energy levels were quite low, and that I seemed a little laid back about the whole thing. I can't help thinking that that was probably due to (a) the stinking cold I had that day, (b) the two hour journey there and (c) the fact that I'd pretty much decided I didn't want the job by the time I met them. Still, it's something for me to watch out for next time just in case that's not the reason. Maybe I should have taken one of their Golden Root capsules - that would have got the energy levels up...



I was driving back from a weekend with Wenge's family in Leek this morning, and heard that 800 mini workers are to be made redundant. Isn't that illegal, laying someone off just because of their height?


Finally - and beware before you read this last bit, because once you do you'll never be able to listen to the Killers 'Are We Human?' again in the same light - have you noticed how incredibly similar it sounds to Chris de Burgh?


Next time you listen, just imagine Chris De Burgh singing and you'll know what I mean...

The week that was

This is the first post on my new MacBook.  I'm in Leek , in Staffordshire, visiting Wenge's family. I watched the Old Firm game in a pub nearby - I'll take 0-0 although we could have won it in the 2nd half - and now I'm sitting at Wenge's mum's house with the MacBook on my lap, hacked into the next door neighbour's unsecured wireless network.

First thoughts on the MacBook...  The hardware, of course, is stunningly beautiful, built from one piece of solid aluminium and with an illuminated keyboard that is a real joy.  The display is sharp and bright, and it's fast. It's just a gorgeous piece of kit.

I haven't got to grips yet with the differences between Mac and Windows.  For example, as I write this browser seems to zoom in and out without me knowing what I'm doing to cause it.  I can't find a delete key, nor any 'home' or 'end' keys, and when you click on a url in the browser window to copy it, it doesn't select the whole thing so you have to manually select it.  And where are the 'page up' and 'page down' keys?  Basically, after the first few hours I haven't a clue how Macs work.  But I'm prepared to believe that I'll love it in a few months, and I have enough friends with Macs that I can go to for help if I need it.

The more serious issue is that the trackpad isn't responding as it should - it sticks sometimes when I move the cursor.  For the money I've spent I want it to work perfectly, so it's definitely a call to Apple Customer Services next week. 

On Wednesday I went to an interview for a Head of eCommerce position at Ann Summers.  For anyone who doesn't know Ann Summers - for example my new Scandinavian follower(s), they provide goods, mainly for women, of a risque nature (assuming you consider Rampant rabbits risque of course).  I've heard good things about them as an employer; the interview went reasonably well, and there is so much wrong with their web presence that it would be a great opportunity to make an impact.  However, two hours each way by bus, tube and train to a warehouse on a dual carriageway in a small town near Redhill isn't my dream job. I'd like to be asked back before I tell them though...

Then on Friday a sadly familiar story at Ministry of Sound, where I'm doing some consultancy. At around 5.00 we got a call from our eCommerce partner to say they'd gone into administration - just a day after trying to sell us a new platform they were building. So, website down, redirects up to an external site to continue selling tickets for the weekend, and my job here looks like it could be bigger than it was supposed to be.  Glass half full.

If you saw my twitter feed earlier in the week, you'd have seen that I tweaked a muscle in my side after football on Saturday.  It was a stupid thing, caused by leaning over awkwardly to lift up my bag.  Since then I've been amazed at how many things can aggravate it - picking up a cold midweek added a couple to the list.  Anyway, here's a list of things that hurt when you pull a muscle in your side:

• Taking a casserole dish out of the cupboard
• Reaching for anything on my right
• Opening the bathroom window (which requires reaching over the bath)
• Getting up from lying on the sofa
• Turning off the bedside lamp
• Coughing
• Sneezing
• Running

Thankfully it seems to be settling down now so I should get back to footie this week.

It's good to see visitor numbers reach an all time high over the last couple of days, and followers increasing to a massive 15 signed up - but remember we're aiming for 25 by the end of the month. Welcome one and all. And finally, congratulations to Ana, who is joining blinkbox as Managing Editor - exciting stuff and well deserved.

Project for this week: watch more of The Wire - it's been a week since I last had a fix...

Follow Follow

The expression Follow Follow means something different where I come from, but I'm talking about following melvtopia here, not Rangers.

I said some time ago that I'd like to reach 25 followers by the end of February, and right now I don't think it's looking very likely. I have 11 at the moment, so a bit of a way to go. All you have to do, by the way, is click the 'Follow this Blog' link to the right.

In marketing terms you 11 followers are the Trendsters; you don't follow brands, you like to discover them. You are the people who drive the brand (I acknowledge that I'm taking some license here with the use of the term 'brand') but you are selfish - it's all about me, me, me...

The rest of you are Restless. You're early followers. You like to use brands to define yourselves. If I launched a range of melvtopia clothing you'd be my target market. And yes, you aspire to be one of the trendsters.

There's a third group; the Trailers. This is the mass market, who haven't yet discovered melvtopia. And, frankly, never will. Unless I can get a celebrity on board then they'll come flocking.

So you restless ones, this is all on you. I need you to commit to melvtopia. And to give you an added incentive, I'll give £1 to the Disasters Emergency Committee for every follower signed up by the end of this month. I'll even double that for every one over 25.

It's a win-win-win. I get my followers; DEC gets some money and you make sure you become a part of the fastest-growing media property since Facebook. Or maybe Twitter. Or maybe 'Girls and Corpses'.

In the immortal words of the Blessed Delia. Let's be having you!

A new dawn

I'll start by saying congratulations and good luck to Suzanne and Amy, who are both starting new jobs on Monday. It's great to see team zavvi doing well.

I need to react to a comment left recently by my good friend and fiercest critic Lies. "Enough zavvi", he said. "Time to let it go". I confess that there have been quite a lot of zavvi related posts on this blog, which of course is inevitable since I started it just around the time that it was all starting to go pear-shaped. In fact, it was one of the triggers for starting to write melvtopia: if I could keep looking for the positive, and stay optimistic, it would stand me in good stead when the lights went out.

The first readers of melvtopia were in the office, and I'd guess that more than 50% of readers now are zavvi people - so, again, it's understandable that this major thing that happened to us is something that I write about.

But is Lies right? Is it time to move on? Have I said everything of interest that needs to be said about zavvi, and are you tired of emotional rants about how great everyone was? What happened, happened, and it's a chapter of our lives. In a year from now we may hardly talk about zavvi.

Or is it a glue that binds a number of us and, let's face it, is still pretty fresh and is still affecting our working lives. As a 'publisher' is it my job to provide content that strikes a chord with my readership - like, for example, the Daily Mail does every time it puts an article on its front page about immigrants taking British jobs or the failure of the education system?

Actually that's a pretty poor analogy. I'm not a proper publisher. I'm not even a proper writer. So I'm not kidding myself that this is anything more than me doing something that I'm having fun with. But I do try to make it interesting enough for others to want to read it. So what do you think I should do about the whole zavvi/moving on thing? Let me know by voting in the new poll.

And Lies, go easy with those cynical pills...

You, The People

The votes have been counted, and I'm pleased to announce that the inhabitants of melvtopia are veering towards optimism, as they surely should.

I asked how full your glass was and the results looked like this:

Overflowing - life couldn't be better - 6%
Half full - hey, I'm doing fine - 53%
Half empty - it's tough out there - 33%
You kidding me - what glass? - 6%

So a mix of responses, with one lucky person reaching their own utopia which is great. As for the rest of us, good to see most responses in the upper half of the glass rather than the bottom.

Since melvtopia is a democracy where everyone's voice is heard, I'll have a new poll up soon. Thank you to everyone who responded.

I am a PC. Or am I?

Now that I'm using it every day, it's become clear that my laptop is no longer fit for purpose. So I need to replace it.

I've started looking in stores, and online, to decide what I want. I'm looking for a highly portable laptop with great performance, and I've been looking at the usual suspects such as Dell, Acer, Toshiba, Sony etc.

But for the first time I'm considering moving over to Apple. Someone at work showed me the new MacBook yesterday, and it ticks all the boxes for performance, portability, security and of course fantastic usability. It's also very cool, built as it is from one solid piece of aluminium.

So I need to decide. Should I go ahead and move to Mac, or should I stay with Windows? If I go with the Mac should I go for the new aluminium MacBook or the white one that's £400 cheaper? If I go with the aluminium one should I go for the higher spec. or the lower spec. that's £200 cheaper. Is it worth spending money on additional RAM and/or any software?

And how would I continue to use my favourite mind mapping software that's Windows only?

I'm open to advice....

Glass half full thinking at zavvi

The word from zavvi is that something is going to happen today, and I take that to mean there will be a buyer for the business. The only realistic type of buyer is one already in the business, which suggests that opportunities for zavvi head office personnel are going to be limited. I guess the main thing is that everyone needs closure, and however painful it is being told it's all over, ultimately it allows you to get on with your life and in the longer term it's better than plodding along in a dying company.

Easy for me to say though - whatever happens I wish everyone well.

On a more positive note, I received this email from someone within zavvi towers (who must remain nameless to protect the innocent). I quote verbatim:

If you're looking for a glass half full example of working at zavvi at the moment it is this; One of the Administrators is quite fabulously attractive. A six foot Mauritian beauty in 4 inch heels. And she sits in my eye line. Awlright.

Let it snow!

Here's an example of glass half empty thinking. The radio this morning was full of comments about it being the worst snow for 15 years, etc. Now for the majority of people, whether you're a kid or a grown-up, this kind of snow is magical, so that's just nonsense-speak.

It's not the worst snow for 15 years - it's the best snow!