In the land of marketing, August is traditionally labelled “silly season”. It’s the time when our friends on the continent embark on epic holidays, MPs take a recess, and journalists decide that a travelling gnome is a newsworthy story. So here’s seven suggestions for what you could be doing if August is giving you some down-time.
1. Refresh your RSS Reader – get rid of the feeds that stopped updating six months ago, ask friends and colleagues for recommendations on some new ones, and create a folder for blogs of people you’ve met so that you can pay more attention and comment regularly
2. Try a couple of new services – I recently signed up to CoComment, a service which tracks your comments on the blogosphere, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it could enrich my life online!
3. Become a little bit more techy – I’m not talking about learning the finer points of open source programming, but how about getting your head around basic HTML or trying out Yahoo! Pipes one of the more advanced tools for rewiring the web.
4. Get a Twitter account – Chances are, if you’re reading this blog you have one already, but if not – it’s so hot right now.
5. Network – This summer has already provided networking opportunities from the likes of Moo and London Bloggers, and there’s stuff coming up from Girl Geeks and the Shoreditch Twit. It’s a great time to get out and meet people that you’ve only connected with online up until now.
6. Read something made of paper - life’s not all about RSS and blogs you know… I’m currently reading The Pirate’s Dilemma which looks at how capitalism has been forced to change the way it thinks about the consumer and how todays online entrepreneurs echo the early punk mentality!
7. Take up a sport – Ok, this one’s a bit of a curveball, but since the Olympics is the ultimate sports showcase, there’s a whole bunch to chose and take inspiration from - I’m opting for fencing.
