http://www.letsgodu.com/

TEST – THIS IS A REPUBLISH From Jul 23, 2008…… Testing Google! Results shortly ;)

Warning – Major Rambling Works Ahead – Wanted A break from the onpage seo tips serial.

I once said to my boss (who was a dick) I wanted full access to the internet and fully paid home internet access. I was heavily abusing Napster & Limewire at the time. I also wanted a mobile phone as I was handling clients on a pay as you go. He nearly spat his coffee over his face onto his desk over the presentation he’d been working on all week. That sorta thing used to happen with me and him in the advertising agency I worked in.

I also told the management at a later meeting I wanted to bring my dog to work and start and finish whenever I wanted. I’m an animal lover. Either that or I was off to do the business plan I came up with on my own (OK with a mate).

And so, after I won the only award the agency won that year (the same day the MD tried to sack me) Hobo was born. Thank f*ck!

I work on the internet. I would not work for a company that stopped me going on the internet whenever I wanted to. To do anything legal I wanted to do.

Caveat – I ‘work’ about 18-20 hours a day.


I don’t usually respond directly to a post on another blog, although last time I did Seattle based SEO Seomoz UGC linked to me, so maybe I should. Actually, I’m just enjoying posting my thoughts on seo on my blog this month – purely for myself (and some of the new staff at the office). Total self satisfaction.

Brian Wallace of Now Sourcing, a blog consultant and Social Media expert, posted an article on Collective Thoughts which I am subscribed to about letting staff loose on the social networks, during work time.

Corporations and draconian IT departments out there often block many or all social media sites from employee consumption.

It reminded me of the time before Hobo when I thought the first thing I would say in a job interview was that I wanted full access to the internet and time to do my own thing. OK. And start when I want and bring my dug (see Dog I am Scottish) in.

I would not work in an office that didn’t trust me to go online and do whatever I wanted minding I represent a company. Online banking, social media, music streaming. Plenty of work. Research. Shopping. Whatever.

Social media is about information & networking – plain and simple. You be my mate and I will be yours. Together we’ll leverage the contacts we make and reputation we build and drive traffic to customer sites and our own interests bla blah as the seo / sem mantra goes.

Using social media ‘for SEO’ is useful. That’s fine but it’s mainly about taking part and learning how to network and get involved. And it’s actually as much fun as spamming it. You get a lot more out of it if you play the game and not screw the community.

I saw Brian’s article and it was ironic as we had a social network day today. Everybody was on Digg, Last FM, Flickr, Mixx, Stumbleupon and Bebo today. Even my Maw (see Mum).

Does it make sense to turn off social media on your employees? Perhaps its a trust factor. My opinion: if you trust them enough to run your business, they should be able to have a social media outlet. And if you are proactive and support it as part of your business culture, then viola! – you now have a social media team in house (at least part of the way there).

That was today’s snippet of my business plan published on somebody else’s blog. I recently decided it was time I cleaned up my Digg profile and made some mates and soon will.

When I encouraged everybody to get online more, I never said “here’s how we abuse this” – I said go away and spend the day on these networks and take part and have some fun. Make friends. Pick a network you think will interest you and use it as it was intended. Do you know there’s a cool typing tool on Bebo (just cleaning up that profile!) :)

That’s it.

I’ve gave them some loose targets for finding like-minded people – make a hundred friends in the next month for instance – I too will be doing this. In a couple of months, I might leverage this, slightly, but not at the expense of their reputations in these networks. I have emphasized this is their online reputation – don’t make a tit of themselves – what they write stays on the internet long after you wish it gone.

I used to use social media purely for reputation management and link-building. Most who know me knows I was a comment spammer too (but that was a Page Rank test – forgive me – I have). Now I don’t generally hide the fact I am a seo (see scum of the internet) on these networks – because I am not using primarily for links these days and to be honest most of my time is spent onsite anyway these days. I’m hoping at least my Stumbleupon profile shows I am trying to play it right. Learning all the time.

If I can’t trust someone to use the internet intelligently and navigate the oft distracting media on it while pushing themselves to work smarter and do better – they aren’t working at Hobo.

I’m pleased to say I work with pretty smart people who do this for a career not a job – we don’t need anal ‘Draconian IT’ policing. We’re free.

“Your best employees are the ones who are the most connected and most current.”

I want my team to take part in every aspect of online marketing – especially the fun stuff. The more often they use a computer to perform a task the better use they are to me. The more they use the social networks the better networkers they will be.

A few of the guys even have their own blogs – why?

So they understand the pain in the arse spam blog commenting is – so they think like a blogger. It makes them better link-builders if they understand this, and social media participation will make them better marketers and networkers if they participate. When they participate they’ll learn what spam looks like and what not to mimic.

They can use social media and blogging to learn, discuss thoughts and share their knowledge in their fields and promote their expertise outside of Hobo, and that adds to their reputation and the reputation of this company. I’m encouraging everybody onto the net and I am hardly a power user in any of the networks. I’ve already got my main obsession taking up all my time. :)

The better they can use the internet the better and faster they can spot online opportunities they can share with me. :)

We offer our engineers “20-percent time” so that they’re free to work on what they’re really passionate about. Google Suggest, AdSense for Content and Orkut are among the many products of this perk. GOOGLE

Yup we have a version of that – it’s called X-Box Friday, started by Super Geek but Cool Marty, and basically we play a league of Football during the day, two people on while the rest of the office is working. I’ll be posting the league on Fridays but suffice to say I am humping everybody at the moment lol. It’s down to me and Al and it’s early in the season.

We’re not big enough to do a full Google, but I would in a heartbeat, and already try and get work commitments clear before Friday (I usually actually take new business calls on Friday anyway) and am looking to install in everyone a sense Friday is different to the rest of the work week – because it soon really will be. At the moment, Friday is definitely team-building day.

I’m glad our office is nothing like the place i used to work (ironic because I am mates with everybody at the agency now the boss-man is gone). We’re trying to enjoy working hard.

I think the Hobo office is in the minority. Everybody works their socks off and more importantly there is not one person in the office who does not take immense pride in showing off achievements and showing the others how to do it. We have a staff turnover rate of zero. Nobody has left. Everybody has (listened to me ) and found their niche in the company and blossomed.

That’s more like it, and it’s the reward from treating your staff like adults and letting them do what they want to do as long as it is enriching them, not necessarily the directors. If you want to work at Hobo let me know, although we are starting two people in the next week or two if Michael gets his finger out of his ass.

We need someone to tell the clients what we are doing – his name is Chris and he’ll be joining us shortly. A shout out to Jack too – sorry to mess you about, we’ll get you in shortly.

OK – so what about downloading porn? Probably went to far there. Mum’s in the office after all, so I wouldn’t :) – any way I think Michael confiscates all porn on work computers. Well policed that is.


Ian BrownBy the way – I take my dug to work these days. And everybody in the office has unlimited use of their own 3G Nokia N95 mobile phone. Not a pay as you go. Perfect for watching porn.

And I think everybody loves what they are doing, and seeing there is so much to always learn, and we’ll pay them well for it.

Hey want to friend me – do me a favour :) I’m looking for web designers-cum-seo, more to share the nous and learn (OK and leverage a bit).

Don’t hesitate to drop me a line or leave a comment. I can’t answer all my emails anyway so a few more won’t matter. :)

Did you know when you link to a Hobo SEO post we have search engine friendly links back to your site if approved? Our comments are also search engine friendly you know (once you've commented on a few posts)! Do you need any more encouragement to get involved in the conversation ;)