One of the powerful aspects of Twitter is that, with the right connections, it creates a powerful, live, expert network. Within hours you can reach well outside the walls of your own business to tap into the experience and insight of others who may well have the knowledge you need to solve a current business problem.
Darryl Ohrt explains that a friend was preparing for a class on PR and decided to tap the collective wisdom of his Twitter network.Brad Ward went ahead and asked the question:
HEY!!!! If you had 133 characters to tell a class of PR college students something, what would it be? Tag it #jr342. Thanks!! And retweet.
The replies that came back apply not just to students of PR (let’s face it, that is all of us), but can be readily applied to any form of marketing.
I like Douglas Karr’s take on reputation and focus on outcomes.
And I think Allie Osmar’s focus on continuous learning is also important.
But perhaps the most insightful response was this from Jason Kintzler who acknowledged the changing focus and shape of our industry and the growing influence of non-traditional media.
In our rush to write up the latest piece of news, link to the newest application or discuss the most recent strategy flashing before our eyes, it is easy to overlook some of the quality thinking that is already-available on the web. Often, when I find a new blog I will spend some time digging through the archives to try to get a sense of the quality and direction that the writer takes. It is like getting to know someone … quickly.
But not everyone is like me … I like the randomness that can come with blog exploration. Some people like to get to the heart of things quicksmart. For those people, eBooks or directories of a blog’s most popular content can come in handy.
If you do not already read Greg Verdino’s blog, then you now have a supreme opportunity to do so. Not only is it jam packed with strategic goodness, he has thoughtfully prepared new readers a tasty snack. This eBook is now available for download. Called 4 & 20 Blog Posts, it captures 24 conversational marketing and social media posts from the last 24 months. Bon appetit!
When I read a book or even a blog post, I am always waiting for the punch line. I am waiting to be smacked by the truth.
The same can be said of advertising. The best advertising, the best copywriting and the best storytelling should smack us. It should wake us from our reading slumber, or as Franz Kafka said:
A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.
The Age of Conversation is loaded with these types of insight. Every page has something that jolts the reader. And in an effort to encourage you to purchase the book (in either eBook, soft or hardcover), John Moore from Brand Autopsy has collected a series of “money quotes”. Remember, all profits from the sale of the book go to Variety, the children’s charity. Read and be inspired!
I have worked on and with teams for most of my career … and I have found that I am most productive (and creative) when I am in a team environment (ok I like to lead, but can play nicely with others!). But I know this is not the case for everybody – yet I am always surprised to learn that colleagues don’t understand the mechanics of collaboration. Even the basics of brainstorming seem foreign to some people. But now, Leisa Reichelt provides a solution that will get your collaborative process off to a flying start … with some great tips and techniques for brainstorming.
Every year of my working life, technology has transformed the jobs that I do and the way that I perform in those roles. From my earliest start in an chartered accountant’s office where I began using Lotus 1-2-3 and the Basic programming language to automate my more mundane tasks, I have always focused my use of technology towards a business outcome.
These days, technology is second nature to me. Each day I use a web/tele-conference facility of some kind to collaborate with colleagues around the world; listen and scan online conversations for products and services that I am responsible for; download podcasts and vodcasts; read and respond to blogs, Facebook group discussions and forums; and a number of other things. And while I live in Australia, I am now more globally connected than I ever have been.
As the twin pressures of climate change and financial chaos continue to reverberate through the business community, we will need to increasingly use these types of technologies to cost- and time-effectively deliver value to our businesses. After all, it is not that the business need for global collaboration has evaporated – just the conviction (and funds) that we need to do so face-to-face.
From a brand point of view, the timing has never been better, nor the environment more open, to begin experimenting with social media. Sure, there are pitfalls; but you can learn a great deal simply by beginning to participate. You could start by joining the Network Solutions Solutions Stars Video Conference on October 29. By my calculations, the 1pm New York start time translates to 4am Sydney time and 5pm GMT.
This free video conference aims to provide insights and online marketing tips to small businesses … but the advice can easily be applied to larger businesses and brands. The conference features nine different documentary style video sessions:
Building Web Presence
The Social Opportunity
Start with Listening
Strategy Drives Outreach
You Need Social Networks
To Blog or Not to Blog
Visibility Through Search
Rising Above the Noise
Time Demands
A great cast of speakers have been assembled, including:
And while it may be an early start for some of us … it’s a small price to pay for some great advice from those who not only talk about marketing, branding and strategy in a socially connected world, they practice it daily.
Shall we agree to meet there online? I’ll bring the coffee!
Recently our coffee mornings at Single Origin seem to have taken on a life of their own. For a while there were only a hardcore group of three or four regularly turning up on Fridays for a heady mix of conversation and caffeine. But now we are easily spreading across three or four tables – causing all manner of headaches for the good folk of Single Origin who good humouredly scramble to find us additional stools, tables and the odd makeshift seat.
Last Friday we must have had 20 people squeezed onto the footpath on Reservoir Street — with conversation flying from one end of the table to the other. Among the new regulars are the authors of some excellent blogs:
Katie Harris writes a blog focusing on qualitative market research. Because the world is never black and white, her Zebrabites blog reminds us all to beware of the easy answers lest they come back to … well, bite us
Jye Smith is a dynamo, holding down a marketing role with CBS Interactive, making music, creating websites, writing a blog and playing WAR in his spare time … and he seems to do it all with excessive good humour
Adam Milgrom is one of our long timers and often arrives well ahead of us all (I think to eat breakfast in peace). He helps us all to keep track of cool stuff from all over the web with his Shared by Adam blog.
But not everyone is able to make it down for coffee on a Friday morning. Tony Thomas attends in spirit as does the charming David Wesson, while I expect to see Zac Martin only when pigs fly 😉
And now all these fine folks have been properly added to my reading list and blogroll. Check them out, and you are guaranteed to learn a thing or two. I do every week.
We always thought that Ann Handley was powerful. We always knew that she secretly commuted across the globe in an invisible plane. But now it has been confirmed.
Ann has been named as the #1 most powerful woman in social media. This is hardly surprising given that she single handedly identifies, nurtures and supports many of the most respected marketing bloggers in the world. The stable of writers she has assembled for MarketingProfs is without compare. And her personal blog sets the standard for the rest of us and dares us to do better.
Check out the Top 50 list and add other great women bloggers to the list.
Oh, and leave me a comment if, at any time, you have seen Wonder Woman and Ann in the same room together. I don’t believe it has ever happened.
For those of us who are involved in blogging (or broader social media) from a business or professional perspective (here some of us are enjoying a Friday morning coffee at Single Origin), it has been surprising and not a little frustrating to find Australian brands and businesses actively resisting the opportunities presented by social media. For while social media tends to have an aura of "danger" for brands or can be considered to be the personal diarizing of the great unwashed masses, smart marketers are reaching out to their customers directly and with great effect. And perhaps, this week will see a change in the social media landscape here in Australia.
For a start, we are seeing the flow-on effects from the global financial crisis, with businesses indicating that their advertising spend is likely to drop. This will mean even greater scrutiny over marketing budgets and promotional efforts in the year ahead (or as I suggested recently, it’s not time to cut through, but to cut out). This bodes well for social media based efforts where long term brand engagement, trust, preference and recall are staples.
It seems that this sentiment is being echoed in the wider business community — with both B&T and Smart Company giving some serious prominence to blogging. B&T not only announced a redesign of their website, but followed through with a revamp of their magazine where they feature an update on Julian Cole’s list of the Top 50 Australian Marketing Blogs. Not only do they list the Top 50 (where I am proud to be included at #2), they also devote space to an interview with Katie Chatfield and David Gillespie. This represents, in my view at least, a significant change in the attitude of one of the local advertising industry’s leading publications. I look forward to seeing whether we can move towards the sort of roundtable discussions we had with AdAge in New York earlier this year.
The article is wrapped up with a list of 15 of Australia’s best business blogs. There are some excellent blogs listed (even a couple are new to me), but all worth checking out:
Have you ever wondered what social media is all about? Here, I will let you into a trade secret. It is just TWO things.
Being social — reaching out, activating, participating and exciting people
Doing things — creating content, sharing ideas, holding events
Now, you might think that this sounds easy. But you see, the challenge is, in a digital landscape and in a social world that crosses borders, timezones (and sometimes even boundaries of common decency – jokes), the crafting of a compelling offer and the telling of an enlivening story requires a broad array of skills and expertise. And you will find that the bloggers and social media participants who do this well have a breadth of expertise that normally resides in a TEAM of people.
Now, Marcus Brown is one such person. I profiled Marcus in my first Mining the Gold post, but that was a retrospective. Tomorrow night (Australia time), we all have the opportunity to actually PARTICIPATE in one of Marcus’ creations. It is called the KaiserMix and it will be a heady mix of music, streaming, photography and live bar action direct from Munich. It is easy to participate, as Marcus explains:
Twitter:
I’ve set up a twitter account (robbed myself of a former Character’s Twitter account) called TheKaiserMix
which you can of course follow. I’ll only be using this twitter account
on the evening and it’ll be tweeting my blips – and through that odd @
functionality the blips of everyone following me. If you’re on the road
and want a song played just send an @TheKaiserMix to me on twitter –
and I’ll play it.
Flickr:
I’ll be taking lots of photos during the evening which will be appearing in the slide show widget you can see above over on The Kaiser Mix
blog (the charming Gentleman in the slide show above is Snoop – and
along with Joseph runs The Schwarzer Hahn). If you’re there, like in
“The Hahn” on the night and you have a flickr account you can upload
photos and if you tag them thekaisermix (just that tag) they
automatically appear in the slide show. Likewise if you’re not going to
be in Munich but you’re listening or watching (see below) you can
upload your version/experience of The Kaiser Mix.
Blip:
For those of you who are not going to make it to Munich, there is of
course blip itself. If you follow me and use the @thekaiser function
you can send me songs you want played. If I play your blip it’s goes
into the kaiser’s playlist.
Yahoo Live:
OK, as some of you know I’ve been playing around with the video
streaming stuff – and think I’ve got it nailed. You can either watch
the event, live (starts around 21:00hrs C.E.T) on The Kaiser Mix channel (where you can chat with me during the evening – and if you’ve got a video camera stream on the channel as well) or on the The Kaiser Mix.
If you’re especially excited by all of this you can actually embed the
yahoo live widget on your blog.
Hope to see you in Munich … or a screen a bit closer to home!
As I have grown older, I have been amazed to realise that the more I know, the greater is my capacity to learn. Not only can I quickly absorb new information and transform it into knowledge, I can also direct this towards business and branding opportunities. Even where I come in contact with some completely foreign information, my brain scrambles to find a connection that allows me to contextualise it.
But what about you? Do you find that your capacity has increased over time?
Angela Maiers provides a great explanation in this 30 minute class. She leads us through the different types of connections that we can make so that our memories can be stimulated:
Easy – the simple connection can be made because of our exposure to a topic. There is no work involved here. A common topic will add a new layer over the knowledge schema that we already possess – and the information will be readily accessible to you in an instant.
Dig – while a piece of information may not have an instantly recognisable hook on which you can make a connection, a small amount of digging into your own knowledge will help you. This will require some effort, but will also help turn a piece of new information into actionable knowledge.
Impossible – when we are introduced to an alien concept, we are faced with an impossible situation. There are no EASY ways to make sense of the information. Digging provides no context and no prism for understanding. When faced with the impossible piece of information, our natural instinct is to begin to memorise, to rote learn – but this is a mistake, for without providing some personal context to this information you will not be able to retain and apply this knowledge. It will gradually fade from memory.
In the last 10 minutes of this video, Angela shares an approach that allows us to begin creating NEW memories. She explains the technique for creating the first thread of retained knowledge upon which you can build additional context.
Chunking: After reading/absorbing a piece of information, the main ideas are categorised by the ideas that they invoke. This is not about collecting facts. It is about finding one or two words that connect and explain the overall concepts.
Joining the dots: Once you have the “big ideas” you then need to make connections between them. You need to write them down. You need to establish a narrative between them.
Now, think about this from a branding and marketing perspective. Have you ever wondered why some things stick and some don’t? In general, the information that comes to us through advertising is “impossible”. We are hit by facts and assaulted by images. These all seek to CONVINCE us.
However, if we are each subjected to 5000 marketing messages per day, the blink of an eye that acknowledges each new message will instantly erase the previous one. This means that those marketing messages that are mediated, that come with BUILT-IN context, are more likely to anchor in our memory (hence the use of popular music/spokespersons) – and this plays particularly strongly for digital/social media.
And in a time of increasing financial uncertainty, brands will be looking not to CUT THROUGH but to CUT OUT. It won’t be a matter of your brand standing out in a crowd, but of eeking out some space in which it can create meaningful context in which your consumers can participate. Those brands who have begun experimenting with social media will have an advantage in these tougher times; and those who have not will need to accelerate their engagement by hiring agencies and consultants who have a deep understanding of hands-on brand activation in the digital/social media space.
Interesting times? Sure … but really, as Angela Maiers says, it’s about making connections.
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