Are you in the Hospitality sector in South Africa? Not sure what to do on Facebook, what Twitter is or even who Google Plus is? Social Media Training. Why not attend this FREE webinar then. Register now http://ow.ly/D9KHJ
The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Performance
The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Performance-Driven Marketing http://ow.ly/2MYjeu
We are pleased to announce the first client Webinar from WSI of 2013
We are pleased to announce the first client webinar of the New Year. The Road Map to a Successful Digital Journey for Your Business in 2013. This session is scheduled for Tuesday, January 29 at 11:00AM (EST) and will be hosted by Husam Jandal. Visit the link to register. http://ow.ly/gRiVE
We all know that every New year we make
We all know that every New year we make a bunch of promises that we generally forget about within the first 2 weeks of January. So how can we actually do the goals we set out for ourselves in the New Year. Is there some magical piece of script out there that can put us on the right track?
More often than not it will start out with some simple goal setting, researching and measurement tracking. But check out this blog post I just wrote for our company to see if it could help you out this year. http://ow.ly/gFdjS
Are you on Pinterest yet? It’s a great
Are you on Pinterest yet? It’s a great way to share and find really amazing things on the internet. http://ow.ly/gdSNg
Do you know the 3 main Digital Marketing
Do you know the 3 main Digital Marketing Trends for 2013. Find out http://ow.ly/f9FWG
How sorted is your Website for Halloween?
Well, it’s Halloween around the corner and the guys at Google have been trying to throw all sorts of bad guys at us. The latest of which is the Disavow Tool from Google, that aims to allow webmasters a tool so that they can disassociate their websites from potentially dangerous or unnatural links. Facebook too has been playing about more with their EdgeRank algorithm.
So, what does this all mean for your website and Halloween and SEO? It just means that the guys trying to get your website higher up on the Google rankings need to make sure that they are following Google’s guidelines and not using any bad practices. There are lots of other smaller, more technical things too. Below is a great infographic that was designed by the guys at Advanced Web Ranking to try and put some humour into the explanation of SEO and the items contained in Search Engine algorithms, particularly Google’s algorithm.
Enjoy, and let me know your thoughts on it.
The inevitable baby toilet finding mission
The story begins
Yesterday, Thursday 25th October, I was faced with a great dilemma. One that I’m sure that thousands of mothers have faced this year alone, but one which I feel most South African fathers have not had to deal with. Finding a baby friendly toilet in a small shopping centre.
I visited a small coffee shop in the Fields Hill Shopping Centre in the morning with my wife to have a meeting about some work stuff. During the meeting my wife was doing most of the talking and low and behold the inevitable happened with our 6 month old boy. A HUGE poo.
Now, I’m a new age father and have no problems with changing poo nappies, getting vomited on and all the other good things that happen. So this wasn’t a big thing for me.
The Toilet hunt begins
The problem I had was finding a toilet in the centre that had a baby changing facility. The shopping centre toilets didn’t have; not
even for moms! How ’90s I told myself. No fear, next to the coffee shop, Sam Browns (which really is a great little coffee shop for anytime of the day coffee, good vibes and good music-see how nice the inside of their shop looks on the photo,) there was a lovely Virgin Active gym. This is a seriously busy gym in the kloof area. So I strolled into the reception area and made my polite request to the ladies behind the counter.
-Hmm, are you a member? Was the question I got.
-Well actually no, I’m sorry. All I need is to quickly use your facilities as a non member – which I’ll pay for, I hastened to add.
-No, sorry. It’s only for members. One of the ladies informed me.
At this point in time a lovely neighbourhood mommy was coming in and she advised me to use the nice clean couch in the reception area to change my baby. I probably have to apologize to this lady, as my response was not as sympathetic. I simply told her that I didn’t think that Virgin Active would appreciate poo on their couch. To which the lady behind the reception counter said I could use the shopping centre toilets. So let me paint you a quick picture.
Are your Local Shopping Centre Toilets up to scratch?
This is an old shopping centre in kloof, Durban. It’s recently had a facelift with some paint, some new plants and some other things that I couldn’t really see. The toilets however are quite old, especially the men’s. In fact I’ve got to be honest they’re dirty and pretty rank for the majority of the time. Any public member is allowed to use them, and they contain a single toilet with 2 urinals. It’s dark, smelly and reminds me of how I imagine Shrek’s toilet to be like. Enough visualisation?
So politely as I could, I replied to the Virgin Active employee by telling her that the toilets didn’t have any baby changing facilities in them, not the ladies, nor the men’s. “but you can still use them” I was told.
What, to put my baby on the floor? In the pee? And change him? You must be mad.
At this stage there were other people waiting to come into the gym and there was also an assistant manager and a floor manager of the Virgin Active gym. They must have all been members, as they seemed to get in with no problems. Or maybe it was because they didn’t have a baby in their arms. I wonder…
Anyway, the lady behind the desk said I could now fill in an indemnity form and I would be escorted to the toilets. Which I duly did, and we got sorted out – eventually.
I will say this though, the kids area, changing facility, child minder facility at this gym are excellent! Well done for this, Virgin Active Kloof.
There we have it, all done and sorted. No, I won’t go into details of the number 2. Suffice to say it was prodigious! Well done my boy!
When we left I thought I needed to find the centre management though and find out their thoughts of this episode, and more importantly why the heck there were no baby changing facilities! I found them in the end, and the reply was that they were in the early phases of redoing the bathrooms and there would be facilities to change a baby in the them. But only in the ladies. Sorry guys, looks like we actually don’t count. Although after putting up some semi-heated arguments I think the centre manager of Fields Hill Shopping Centre in Kloof may consider spending some money on buying a wall mounted fold down table.
In Conclusion
My conclusion; simple. If you need the facilities of Virgin Active in Kloof – better be a member, or else be prepared to put up with nonsense until you can shout loud enough for someone to actually care about any other member of the public. Virgin Active Kloof you need to train your staff better. You can’t profess to be a local gym supporting the community when you clearly don’t support the community unless it benefits you! I’d rather go to one of the many private gyms in the kloof area. Fields Hill Centre, you need to come into the 21st century and realize that dad’s do need facilities for their babies as well. Seriously guys, catch a wake up! Next time we’ll have our meetings in Hillcrest corner. There I know for a fact they have nice family bathrooms.
But what do you think? Have you had an experience similar to mine? Let me know your pain – oh, and if you agree with my rant don’t forget to share the love.
Why do you need social media training?
Time and time again I get told my clients, potential clients or just general people that I meet – Oh, but I’ve already done a course in Social media. It was great. But when I ask them how to do certain things or how things are going they have no clue! Or they tell me that they know Facebook, so they’ll be ok.
Maybe ok is alright for your personal stuff, but would it really be ok for your business?
I didn’t think so. It’s important to learn how to do it properly so that you get it right the first time AND then you need to have some form of backup form the person that trained you.
But, this is just me. What are your thoughts?
LinkedIn can be very duanting for small
LinkedIn can be very duanting for small businesses. Learn the right ways before you make a mistake. http://ow.ly/d12Qc