dan thornton - 2/4 - TheWayoftheWeb

Two Facebook milestones reached…

November 15, 2010 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

When I started creating my own blogs and websites, I always set up Facebook pages and links as an element of good practice, but that’s been about it. Despite preaching about delivering valuable content, engaging in conversation etc, they’ve been left while I concentrated on building effective social media practices for the various companies (and now clients) which I’ve worked for…

So it was a nice and somewhat surprising boost to see first TheWayoftheWeb on Facebook, and then OnlineRaceDriver on Facebook both top the 50 Likes mark. And a fair proportion of those people liking what I (and the rest of the OnlineRaceDriver team) do are not existing friends of mine.

Now I know that there has been a lot of debate over the value of someone liking on Facebook, following on Twitter, or signing in via Google, but here’s the value to me. Every time someone makes that bit of effort to show a bit of support, it gives me five times the motivation to keep striving to improve what I do, offer more value, and keep going with projects which can sometimes be frustrating, are always time-consuming, but equally give me back massive amounts in terms of social media support, comments, incoming links and connecting with new people.

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: dan thornton, facebook likes, facebook pages, onlineracedriver, support, thanks, thewayoftheweb

Hello, I must be going…

October 12, 2010 By Dan Thornton 4 Comments

For me, it’s no longer just the title of a 1980s Phil Collins album, due to the fact I’m no longer with Absolute Radio.

It was a mutual decision, at a rare time when there’s a healthy break between projects. And going into a company of incredibly talented and digitally-aware people from senior management down to reception, I was well aware that the key objectives of knowledge transfer and integrating digital marketing throughout the business contained an element of self-redundancy at some point.

It’s a testament to the team at One Golden Square that in the 14 months I’ve been there, we:

Launched over 20 mobile applications which have had downloads in the millions, and driven sustained growth in mobile listening and engagement.
Connected with tens of thousands of new and existing listeners via social media, with each account now run by a key stakeholder in the business. Those connections have increased by a multiple of about x1000 in 14 months, with a corresponding effect on engagement with the Absolute Radio websites and specific content items.
Launched a number of new brands, including Absolute 80s, Absolute Radio 90s, Absolute Radio Extra (with Rock ‘n’ Roll Football), and the re-launch of Absolute Classic Rock.
Redeveloped key content areas of the Absolute Radio website for natural search optimisation, usability and user engagement with fantastic results.
Developed internal digital and social media policies which encourage engagement, and utilised an internal planning and collaboration tool.
And increased and improved the utilisation of paid search.

And that’s just some of the things which spring to mind…

It’s honestly been a privilege and honour to work with a group of people who are not only skilled, but also extremely passionate about building a new brand which is clear and transparent to both employees, and most importantly to consumers.

In addition I’ve also met and worked with great people from external companies, and if you’re one of them and I haven’t already thanked you, then I hope this counts.

And as for the future?

It’s quite an exciting time – I’m working on a some projects with various people, I’m looking over what I’ve achieved with my own digital projects in the past, and I’m taking the chance to speak to a whole host of new people about various opportunities, whether on a short or long term basis. So if you’d like to chat, please do drop me an email (thewayoftheweb at googlemail.com).

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Filed Under: Dan Thornton Tagged With: absolute radio, dan thornton, opportunities, projects, the future

This is my brain on Audioboo

October 12, 2009 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

I’ve chatted with the team at Audioboo for a while now. But it wasn’t until the pre-event party for Media140 that they finally captured me in audio format.

Hmmm – the embed code doesn’t seem to like my theme – so follow this link to hear me chatting to Audioboo/Best Before boss Mark Rock.

It’s fairly short and very quickly covers some of the things I’ve been busy working on at Absolute Radio.

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Filed Under: Digital Audio Tagged With: absolute radio, applications, apps, audioboo, dan thornton, iphone, mark rock

Media people on Twitter – an interview with me from April

July 20, 2009 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

I don’t think I’ve posted the interview that I did with George Hopkin back in April as part of his ‘Media People on Twitter’ series, but as he’s kindly agreed to share the whole series, I thought I’d start with myself!

‘More Twitter hints, tips, etc. from power Twitterers from the world of UK media. This time it’s Dan Thornton, Community Marketing Manager at Bauer Media (Heat, Empire and many others). (NB: I’ve since left, and joined Absolute Radio as Digital Marketing Manager)

* What did you think about the concept when you first heard about Twitter?

The idea made sense for quick communications with friends, but like the founders, I couldn’t imagine how it would grow in terms of size – and especially the ways to use it. The uses of hashtags are staggering in terms of potential.

* Do you recall your first tweet?

Thankfully no. Probably ‘Hello’ or something similar.

* How did you use Twitter to begin with?

Like most people, I signed up, posted a couple of messages, and then ignored it for a bit because I didn’t see the value.

That changed with my first @ messages, and suddenly I became addicted to being able to communicate so easily with so many people

* How has your use of Twitter changed?

It hasn’t really. It probably should, as I’ve gone from a small group of friends to having over 2,000 following and followers. But I find it hard to only talk about marketing or the internet. And at least this way, people won’t be surprised or disappointed in the long term when I talk about motorcycles or Xbox instead!

* What do you want from Twitter?

From a personal point of view I just want to be able to interact with more great people, and be able to build better relationships with them.

From a business/tech point of view, I’d like to see more disclosure from businesses of their direct results to be able to build up a bigger body of proven evidence, and I hope the use of Twitter will speed up the changes needed in almost every business strategy to become more relevant and useful to consumers.

And a way to delete multiple DMs at once!

* Have you attended a tweetup?

Yep. Some small gatherings, and the Twinterval organised by the founders of Twestival – really annoys me I’ve missed both Twestivals so far due to work/family commitments.

* Have you evangelised Twitter? If so, any success?

I’ve promoted it to friends and colleagues, and seen a reasonable number join – although the mainstream media coverage has done more if I’m honest!

I’ve also introduced several titles to using it, and the early indications are that it’s becoming a valuable communication tool for marketing, PR, customer service and engagement.

Oh, and I do run a blog dedicated to microblogging (Including Tumblr, Seesmic etc alongside Twitter) at http://www.140char.com.

* Do you have any self-imposed policies regarding your use of Twitter?

Not really – just apply a bit of common sense before I mention anything regarding work or personal items about my family. I’m pretty open about myself, but I have to respect my employers, colleagues and family.

* How do you see your use of Twitter developing this year?

I think the only change for my personal account is that I’m following less people – I’m reaching the limit of how many people I could hope to have meaningful interactions with.

For business use, I can’t really say until the Twitter monetisation plans are in place, but I’d expect it to be a core part of almost every digital marketing plan.

Daniel blogs at http://www.thewayoftheweb.net and http://www.140char.com. And you can follow him on Twitter here.

Interview originally posted at georgehopkin.com.

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