Ally Simpson

Chef and social media

Posted by Ally Simpson | Nov 16, 2015 |

We recently watched the movie Chef. Chef is written, produced, directed by and starring Jon Favreau. Favreau plays a professional chef who, gets into a very public war of words with a food critic/blogger…. we won’t spoil the rest of the movie but, here’s the official trailer which gives away most of the story. Chef and social media This movie is great if you love food, some of the scenes where food is being prepared will make you drool. But this film also does a really wonderful job of displaying the power of social media for good and for bad. We loved how Twitter plays such a huge part in the storyline. We loved that it is most effective in the story when in the hands of the films youngest character. We loved Chef, we think you will...

Handling choice in a new way

Posted by Ally Simpson | Nov 6, 2015 |

Is choice always a good thing? More shops, more menu options, more colours of shoes… Handling choice is something everyone encounters now. The luxury of choice is a value, a priority, a right. Or is it? …increase in choice and change leads to a decrease in commitment and continuity — to everyone and everything. Thus obligation melts into option and giveness into choice. But other effects are terribly obvious — above all the way in which choice and change lead quickly to a sense of fragmentation, saturation and overload. In the modern world there are simply too many choices, too many people to relate to, too much to do, too much to see, too much to read, too much to catch up with and follow, too much to buy. [Os Guinness | The Call | p.165–166] People like to blame the Internet when talking about declining retail in our towns. It might well be cheaper and easier but, at Ballymena Today we believe the array of options you and I are now exposed to is a far greater issue than price and delivery options. Why would you go to the shop around the corner and choose from their small range of products when you can buy everything on the Internet without even having to put your shoes on. Why oh why!! And if the black Nikes are heavily discounted in town but you...

In-the-moment updates

Posted by Ally Simpson | Oct 16, 2015 |

Ballymena Today loves the super informative and helpful site, Social Media Today. Not only can you get useful advice there about the bigger picture of social media but, you will also be able to keep up with trends and try out new methods. Bookmark that site. At the weekend we read their really helpful article 7 Big Trends that Will Change your Social Media Marketing Strategy – You can read the full article here. The very first trend they mention is one we want to zoom in on quickly. 1. In-the-moment updates. Just as Instagram made it so pictures went up on a social platform moments after they were taken, platforms like Periscope allow you to live broadcast video. No more will you need to video something and then upload it later. “Periscope users collectively watch 40 years of live video each and every day,” writes Jayson DeMers. “Instagram and Snapchat also support on-the-go, in-the-moment updates as opposed to late-game retrospectives, and could collectively herald in a new era of immediacy in social media.” What could this mean for you? If you schedule your Twitter posts to go out, that could be a thing of the past. In August we wrote a post called Don’t Automate, Find Patterns – read that here. We think the linked post above highlights and emphasises the same mindset we were driving at, one that is in-the-moment. Not...

The honest conversation and plain cakes

Posted by Ally Simpson | Oct 7, 2015 |

The honest conversation is very different to the promotion conversation. At Ballymena Today we talk to people. We work hard to bring value with our words, recommending local businesses and organisations who we have met and will continue to meet. We offer other business options too, design and advice are two key areas. We would rather have the honest conversation with you and not the promotion jargon. Lovely icing Promotion puts beautifully decorative icing on a cake. Promotion is often happy to wildly exaggerate. But, there is no long-term and lasting value in exaggerated promotion. If you’ve spent time crafting some lovely icing on a stale cake and given me a slice, it wont be long until I’ve seen and tasted the problem. The honest conversation and plain cakes A plain fresh sponge cake will always be better than a stale but beautifully decorative christmas cake. Ballymena Today is more interested in the honest conversation and plain cakes. And then once you have mastered the art of the plain cake, you can think about decorating it if you...

If people aren’t buying your product

Posted by Ally Simpson | Oct 2, 2015 |

Most people don’t care where they buy their every day goods from. Food, essentials and toiletries are often mundane purchases, with little interaction or uniqueness. Choose, pay, leave… A lot of people say price is the sole deciding factor for why we buy things these days. But we aren’t sure if that generalisation is fair, in fact we think it lets too many businesses of the hook. Worth & Value Ballymena Today love the wisdom of Seth Godin and, he had some brief but valuable thoughts on worth on his blog recently. He said this… If people aren’t buying your product, it’s not because the price is too high. It’s because we don’t believe you enough, don’t love it enough, don’t care enough. Read the full post here. If your business offers a service or product that can be obtained for less on the Internet then you need to stop complaining about the Internet. You can’t hold back that tide and in fact, you should have given up on that about 5 years ago. It’s too late. We have said this before… There is no magic wand The Ballymena Today team would love to wave a magic wand and transform your business. We can’t but, here’s a reminder of what/who we are and what we do. Ballymena Today is not a publicly funded organisation or project. We are simply a team of people...

Author: Ally Simpson

Handling choice in a new way

The honest conversation and plain cakes

If people aren’t buying your product

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