Logic vs. emotion is a false dichotomy

All transactions and all actions are emotional. They involve and trigger feelings. In normal life, a non-emotional state does not exist. The mind-body organism just does not function without emotions. Even the most apparently rational, logical person is emotionally active, although they will probably have developed ways to control the intensity of their emotions.

Only machines are completely logical, operating entirely on the basis of data, unaffected by any emotional associations with the data.

Whatever the buying decision and the focus of attention (technical specs, colour etc.) the process proceeds or not on the basis of emotional checks or impulses. It proceeds on the feelings that the prospective buyer has about the product in the here and now, the feelings that they have about the buying process and the feelings they expect to have if the buy the product and use it.

Logic vs. emotion is a false dichotomy.

There's information that is relevant to the buyer (the colour, the engine size, the procession speed, the name of the designer, the tone of the salesman's voice, how clean the toilets are etc.) and there is the buyer's emotional response to it.

Real brands winning me over in social media

I've been delighted by the way brands have interacted with me on Twitter.

Around April, I tweeted about RunKeeper, an iPhone app I had just bought. Within hours the developer, Jason Jacobs, was responding to me. Within a couple of days I was interviewing him for an article I wrote for a client.

Around the same time I tweeted something about Boingo. They too were on to me like a shot, helpful as could be.

Two weeks ago, the BT Business Hub in my hub office went down. I tweeted about it, and within an hour @BTCare was onto it, asking me questions and passing me on to @BTBusiness. They quickly got their service person Lisa Nield to call me, talk me through the problem and decide on dispatching a new modem router. I asked if I could have a chat with one of the masterminds behind BT's social media work and hey presto, Martin Faux rang me later that day.

Then yesterday, I happened to mention my favourite photo sharing site Smugmug in a Tweet. Within less than an hour one of the co-founders DonMacAskill had commented on my tweet and was following me.

One take-out for me is that businesses who notice customers and prospects get their attention - they deserve their attention.

I've also posted this here >>>>

Tidying up after leaving an online forum

Good old Mitch Sullivan, the recruitment expert, has the right idea about interacting online; it's not the real world, so don't take it too seriously. Wise words and I'm trying, honestly.

However, this year, the behaviour of one particular person in one particular forum (LT) got right under my skin. It didn't seem to bother anyone else in the forum, so I guess it was just my own weak spot. I tried ignoring it, I tried just staying away, I tried mocking the behaviour as Mitch advised and none of it worked. So I left the forum and asked the owner to delete my account. And I once again became more active on Ecademy, where I started out my online networking activities in December 2004.

For the good order, I would like to express my appreciation for various people on LT:
- Coaksey for his humour, balance and for sharing difficult moments of his year
- Rupert for his intelligence, erudition and for playing the ball, not the man
- JH for patiently hosting the whole thing
- Mollie for her unique wit and incisive perspectives
- Rachie for putting me straight on websites
- RAD for being an all-round good man with a great sense of fairness
- Mitch for being a provocative, funny and insightful nutter
- MJ for his dry, wry, pithy humour
- Bood for being the deep-thinking, reflective peace-maker
- JW for reconciling me with Ecademy again
- Nikki for taking no prisoners
- DH for being a unique monomaniac
- Essex Girl for her spirit, curiosity and kindness.

Apologies to anyone I've missed out - I guess we weren't so much on each other's radar.

Reasons to visit Bradford-on-Avon

Nobody sane comes to the UK for a beach holiday. There is always the possibility of sunny weather, so it’s good to be near a beach or walking area. But there is always the likelihood of rain, so it’s good to be near indoors attractions too. I would recommend the town where I live – Bradford-on-Avon- or somewhere nearby. The parents of our German au pair came on holiday here twice, each time for a week, in the last year and loved it. I believe an IWE staffer spent a week here this year as well.

The Cotswold countryside is beautiful, with lots of little stone villages and valleys and streams and woods for walking. The Roman city of Bath is nearby (great for shopping too) and the port city of Bristol is half an hour by train. Within a half hour drive there’s Glastonbury, an old magical town full of “alternative” people. The ancient stone circles of Stonehenge and Avebury are also with half an hour by car. There are great country parks to visit such as Longleat, Stourhead and Westonburt Arboretum. There’s swimming and paddling in the river Avon if it gets really hot, or a trip to the coast of North Somerset (about one hour west) such as Brean Down or The Jurassic Coast of Dorset, about 90 minutes drive south. There’s horse-riding, paintballing, canoeing, cycling and walking all in and around the town. Cycling along the Avon and Kennet Canal it’s easy to go for many kilometers without seeing a car – just stopping occasionally for a beer or a coffee.

The power of incremental progress (and a gadget)

I've never been a great fan of jogging, but where am at right now it's the most effective way to get some daily CV and rebalance the system. I can swim for an hour or play tennis for an hour, no problem. When I started running just after Christmas I had to take a breather after 800 metres.

I've gradually increased the distance non-stop and the pace but the big break-through has been getting the RunKeeper app on my iPhone. Now that I can see exactly how far I've run every day, and how fast, I just have to make sure it's a little more each time. Today it was just over 3 km and soon it will be 5.00 km.

So many thanks Jason Jacobs of RunKeeper.

Blowing away the cobwebs today

I went on the following run - map courtesy of RunKeeper on my iPhone. Great app, guys!

Tweets as a way to drive blog / website traffic

Maybe it's the people I'm following on Twitter, but it seems to me that a lot of tweets are essentially functioning as a signpost to blogs or websites.

Sometimes the click-through is worth the time, but nine times out of ten I scan tweetlinks and ignore them. IMO part of the value of Tweets is saying something worthwhile in 140 characters or less.

Twitter search, not Google

Today I needed to find out some information about Location-Based Services and rather than Google the term I searched it on Twitter. Within seconds I had found something highly relevant and authoritative here, thanks to Twitter.

Twitter 95, Blogger 0

It's a couple of months since I've been moved to blog anything here. Yet in not much more than a week I've tweeted over 90 times.

Two key differences.
1 - Brevity - no need to craft a well-turned piece for Twitter, there are only 140 characters
2 - Interaction