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1min Read: Opinion: Conspiracy and War on Sensemaking

You would be amiss to have not noticed there is a war on our ability to make sense of the world going on right now. The information wars are raging in the western world. The war on reality, the war on facts and the idea of fake news and “alternative facts” has become prevalent.

Trump is the most obvious and outspoken spokesperson for this, but he is not working alone, and it is not only the far right that that is adding to and causing confusion. We could be forgiven for thinking that the world is going crazy because that is how it feels most of the time.

I would argue that ever since 2015 and the Brexit vote in the UK, swiftly followed by the election of Trump in 2016, we have seen a constant onslaught on our sensemaking abilities primarily through social media.

Say what you like about Trump and Brexit, and I have said plenty, but they knew how to use social media and behavioural targeting to sway…

Estimated 4 minutes read: Controlling the Narratives and the Weaponization of Language in 2020 

It doesn’t take a behavioural linguistic analysis of government's narratives and the systems of control of information around Covid-19 to see what is going on. 

Even using the words/labels “Covid-19” or “CoronaVirus” could, and probably will get this article flagged and suppressed when posted on social media and in search engine rankings. Such is the monitoring of information, the suppression of debate and the control of the narrative. 

The language patterns of the UK government and other governments around the world around this pandemic are very telling. Telling in both what it is and is not saying. 

Two statements we heard around the world at the start of this pandemic were “flu-like symptoms” and that those people who had died from it had “underlying health conditions.” 

Both statements had since…

Estimated 3 minutes read: Coronavirus Information Overload: facts, information, misinformation and disinformation how do we make sense of which is which?  

The times we live in are riddled with information overload. From the mass media outlets that are arguably "real news", even though they are famed for their clickbait headlines, through to fake news. Government and health authority information sites and those from trusted sources being ignored whilst social media posts from some bloke down the pub (when we used to be allowed to go to them) go viral. We are also inundated with misinformation from ill-informed sources to disinformation from bad actors and foreign entities.  

We have a war on our information systems and as such on our ability to make sense of reality is fractured at best. Sensemaking needs real determination and critical thinking. It needs deep research and an ability to challenge the words being spoken or written as well as the motive or bias,…

Estimated 2 minutes read: Article Marketing: It is Good to End With a Resource Box: Series Marketing Your Cause

When we look at books in the store, we always see the cover with the title and the name of…

Estimated two minutes read: Article Marketing Is Important: Series Marketing Your Cause

Article marketing has been used for years. From media publications, it has shifted to the web which…

Estimated two minutes read: An Overview of the Concept behind RSS Feeds

RSS Feeds stands for Really Simple Syndication. Other times it is also called Rich Site Summary. But both have the same meanings. The first time you see this, it may…

Two minutes read: A Return on Your Investment and More with Article Marketing: Series Marketing Your Cause

Most businesses want to get a return on their investment in the soonest possible time, charities, not for profits,…

This is a repost of an article written by me in 2016/17 from a site I have now closed down. 

The last three major elections/votes in the US and UK have been filled with shock. First came Brexit, then came Trump and now we have a hung…

The term social marketing often gets confused with social media marketing. To make matters worse social marketing quite often uses social media in its marketing toolkit. But social marketing is actually a discipline in…

Individuality

We are all different and because of that, we all see the world in our own unique way as we delete, distort and generalise what we take in based on our cognitive biases. Yet in many ways we are predictable and…

A useful toolbox for consumer profiling, behavioural marketing and communications analysis, strategic SEO and digital marketing planning but also a great set of tools, techniques and technologies for combating online threats, fraud and…

Estimated 3 minutes read: It is not too far of a stretch to say that data is the 21st centuries crude oil. Big data is King, and the data scientist is the wizard that cast…

Estimated 2 minutes read: The Crack Down on Fake News & Disinformation Should Start with Political Parties. 

There is a lot of noise about fake news in the media.…

Why are Trumpers, Brexiteers and Tory supporters so angry? After all, they won. So why do we see and hear them continually getting wound up and shouting, even screaming at the other side?  

Do they honestly think that once an election or referendum has finished that the other side should just shut up be quiet and not say another word? Do they not know how democracy works? Neither the US nor the UK is in a dictatorship (yet). But still, they seem to think that the other side does not…

It is polling time again soon in the UK and who are you going to vote for? Do you know? Have you made up your mind? Or are you going to listen to what's said and make and “informed decision?” 

Is that even possible in today’s world? Can you make sense of all the noise? If we put aside for one moment the rhetoric and hyperbole from each of the main party front liners and their spin doctors, which are bad enough, and we listen to the media pundits, bloggers, podcasters and YouTubers can…

I recently joined the Open Rights Group as a member and was asked to respond to the Governments Online Harms regulation plans within their open consultation which ends the 1st of July - Online Harms White Paper - Government Consultation. 

Below is my response. Please do the same and keep the UK free from unelected regulators that could harm freeness of speech. 

While we all agree, there is a need to tackle and deal with both illegal and harmful content online this must be put…

It's all fake news anyway! 

Fake news is in the news. It's been headline activity ever since Trump helped propagate it within his ongoing media ramblings. Used now by him and his entourage of bewildered future inmates, it has become a distraction technique during and after his presidential campaign. He has now successfully driven the narrative to be able to deflect anything that is said negatively about him, even by his beloved Fox News, as a five-year-old in a…

The initial onslaught of hype, panic and surge in consultants offering advice on GDPR up to its official launch in May 2018 certainly made it feel, to marketers at least, like a massive constraint in marketing. We had just gotten used to phrases…

Start off by Setting Three to Four Simple KPI’s…

Until now I have not really touched on the specific subject of data in any great detail. Partly because there is simply so much of it, detail and data I mean. The fact is that this is an entire book and website in its…

Business today can be tricky and sometimes you need the financial support to make the right investment in technology or infrastructure to maximise on the opportunities when they come. On this site, we do not offer financial advice but we do put you in touch with the lenders who can and who specialises in helping small and medium-sized businesses in the UK. 

If you are looking for asset…

We spend our days being bombarded by words. From the first thoughts that jump into our heads as we wake up to the very last thoughts that fill our minds as we try to fall asleep.  

Some of these we notice, some we do not.  

We have…

Our words matter.

In fact, they are paramount.

The words we choose to speak, listen to and tell ourselves shape the narratives of our lives and the lives around us. Words and the narratives they form shape society and indeed the…

Have you ever noticed how everybody in a conversation seems to be poised to talk and say their piece and no one ever seems to be really…

Lesson 10: Pull the buying trance trigger

By this point you have read 9 powerful sales and communications lessons that all on their own can get you to this point. All, have…