Who from your team is participating in the other conversations that are being held away from your sites? Or other blogs, forums and communities and actually identifying and or representing themselves as position in your company?

It’s unfair for business to expect people to value our conversations when they don’t value theirs.

Through this there are some really solid ways to build value and develop things you can’t buy: loyalty and respect.

Social media is giving your customers a space to voice their opinion.  It’s giving them an audience.  It’s impossible to ignore and I think what we’re seeing this year, and especially after the market crash, is that you can’t fake this anymore.  If you’re product or service isn’t up to scratch then people are going to be able to talk about it — to people who actually care.

So why are so many businesses hesitating? More to the point: why are businesses still ignoring these conversations? Why are they failing to participate?

The fear of the unknown. Lucky there are people hear to help — love the digirati.

Belinda at Classy Marketing has just released her Six Tips to Succeed in Social Media — I won’t ruin the surprise, but to summarise:

1. Listen.
2. Contribute.
3. Honesty.
4. Consistency.
5. Approachability.
6. Be human.

What I think is interesting is that this post probably came out of the identification that businesses weren’t doing this — either through their marketing and or PR operations, business practices or through their people. It seems we have to constantly remind companies that when they’re going online they need to adopt these attributes.

So what do you want for Christmas?

Maybe growing up it was a bike or that first guitar.  There’s a good chance it wasn’t clean water. But for so many of the world’s men, woman and children — that’s the only thing they want.  Would you deny someone that basic human right? Or are you going to put your hand up in support.

WaterAid and its partners use practical solutions to provide safe water, effective sanitation and hygiene education to the world’s poorest people.  In a world where we talk about the desires of the consumer it’s this essential, yet basic, need we often over look.

Clean water is essential for life, but one in eight of the world’s population does not have access to it.

I had an email from Good Vibrations Festival announcing their new Facebook widget.  But does it go far enough? Well, I think so.

The widget application means that you can be the first to know any Good Vibrations breaking news! You can check the news items and launch the audio player from within your facebook profile at anytime.
So the freshest Good Vibrations news will update automatically for you without leaving the comfort of your own facebook profile!

You can also add this widget to your myspace profile by clicking on the ‘copy me’ button to grab the code.

These are sell out events on their own and many young people today align themselves with certain ones that reflect their image.  Good Vibes have now given them the tools to further display that.  In many recent conversation among my music friends it’s usually one of the first questions I’m asked if they haven’t heard already: “Are you going to BDO? Are you going to Good Vibes? Are you going to X?”

The focus among fans was on glamour rather than grunge, as thousands of designer-clad punters descended on Centennial Park for the Good Vibrations event. But later in the day, many music fans had to resort to raincoats and garbage bags as rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning, fell.

SMH

Well done GV — they’ve also entered on another venture with The Vine and started their own blog.

GVF BLOG ON THE VINE!

Also, we’ve started the official Good Vibrations Festival blog with our friends at The Vine. We’ll be updating it regularly with artist spotlights, gossip, interviews, giveaways and some behind the scenes insight as to what goes into these events from the back end (so to speak).

The Vine is actually a Fairfax Digital initiative aimed to target the 16-29 year old market: but I wonder just how deep this blog will explore.  Will we see young people flying off their face on pills and crystal? Or are they going to keep it tame?

All very interesting. Personally, I’d love to see every trashy facet of the festival showcased.

GetMo: The Movember team I’m heading up to help raise awareness for men’s health.  Joining me are my MoBros: Gavin Heaton, Matt Fitzsimons, Scott Drummond, Tom Voirol, Tim Longhurst, James Breeze, Stephen Mills, Anoop Lad.

These are all just normal guys who have decided to sacrifice, their vanity, sanity and pashing opportunities (not with one another.. well, not that I know of) for the month of November and growing a mo to raise awareness for men’s health.

On the eve of halfway, GetMo has nearly cracked the $1000.00 mark! Help us by donating now. I’ll be at the Gala Parte, so please let me know if you’ll be there too!

Because NOBODY wants me to look like this any longer (Day 13).

Did you know:

• Depression affects 1 in 6 men….most don’t seek help. Untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.
• Last year in Australia 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 2,900 died of prostate cancer - equivalent to the number of women who will die from breast cancer annually.

The MoBro Salute:

The ever growing arsenal of Google’s online weaponry has once again advanced — this time with browser based video chat.

Only a few hours ago Mashable broke the news that Google had announced the release GMail’s video and voice chat.  This is sure to once again attract new users to the service and secure existing ones.

Unlike the bells-and-whistles Skype, it’s a very clean design and features include fullscreen and PIP.  This comes at interesting time for myself as I’ve been trying to expand my Skype (jyesmith) list more and more each day — and now I find my self questioning whether to bother.

I’ve only had a quick flick through but seems there’s a number of well known case study through there. I really like the way the IAB UK are putting out these guides — it means better knowledge is now better known. It’s very accessible and there’s no need to hand over personal details or even be a member.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Social media handbook

‘Social media’ is more than a concept, and certainly more than a simple add-on to the rest of your campaign activity, it’s more than a simple PowerPoint slide full of ‘web 2.0 logos’, and it’s no good to us marketers unless we know how to use it.

Social media handbook

• Introduction
• What is social media?
• 10 rules
• Definition of social media
• The landscape
• ‘Doing it right’
• Online PR and blogging
• Online conversations
• BRAVIA Bunnies
• Branded utilities
• Creativity
• Search marketing effectiveness
• Integrating social media
• Planning and evaluating
• The Future

Download, read, stream and SHARE.

You can now purchase you copy of Age of Conversation 2: Why don’t they get it? All proceeds benefit Variety, The Childrens’ Charity.

I’m organising a group of people to split the shipping costs on the second edition of Age of Conversation.  If you’re interested please leave a note and join Julian Cole, Katie Harris, Kate Richardson and myself in purchasing the hard copy a fabulous book together — I’ll be ordering on the 15th.

Thanks Gavin and Drew!

So who were all these 237 fabulous authors contributing to this fantastic initiative?  Here they are:

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

237 Bloggers Worldwide Collaborate to Benefit Charity

A year and a half ago, an online conversation between two marketing professionals in the U.S. and Australia evolved into a collaborative writing effort by more than 100 bloggers from nine countries that created a book called The Age of Conversation.  The project raised nearly $15,000 for Variety, the international children’s charity.

Even though I’m currently not 100% on Yammer yet, I was very happy to get this email this week.  Obviously an important feature of any social media technology is the ability to further customise and personalise the way you interact, view and engage with your friends and peers.

What are you doing for your customers? For your audience? Are you maximising their interaction? Their personalisation?

You should be.

Yammer is pleased to announce the release of Groups, our most requested feature since launching two months ago.

You can use Groups to:

* Form company teams
* Join your department
* Post updates to a specific group of people
* Have private discussions with your team
* Reduce noise by following only the groups you care about

The Yammer website, Desktop application, iPhone app, and BlackBerry app have all been updated to let you quickly access group feeds.

Every group in your network has its own email address <groupname>@yammer.com so you can send messages to the group by email.

Members of a group can also choose to receive group messages by email, SMS, or IM.

What groups are you in? Join or create them here:

http://www.yammer.com/groups

When we peel back the layers, “But I don’t want it!” appears to be the underlying catch cry and quite frankly it’s as predictable from this scaremongering minority as it is from a two year old presented with broccoli at dinner time. This way of communicating needs to remain as unproductive in the virtual world as it is in the real world.  Unfortunately, because they are just as noisy, it is easy to fall under the assumption that they are the voice of the majority. Let us not equate noise with reason.

Oh dear.  This was the initial reaction to Australia’s Twiterati changing their avatar pictures to reflect their position on the move to ISP filtering from Australian Women Online.

Needless to say, some of my female counterparts in the industry were outraged.  I mean, they were seething.  With a blog name like that it certainly does come with big responsibility: being the voice for Australian women online (or as they define it: key demographic is Australian and NZ women over 30) isn’t something to be taken lightly.

Being treated like children.

Basically, this shoved a finger in the face of those men and women who had used the service to express their anti-filtering feelings, and said ‘grow the fuck up and be sensible about it’.  One particularly shouty friend of mine even protested further with a picture of broccoli in her Twitter avatar.

A one-sided conversation.

Reports indicated that many, many comments were left after the incident and soon enough, the comments were disabled on this post. As they were for the other posts regarding this topic, including their Statement on Mandatory ISP Filtering from Australian Women Online and Archive of Mandatory ISP Filtering — so what’s this saying?

According to them:

We are not in a position to provide a forum for this debate on our website. We do not have the available manpower to handle the high volume of comments we could expect on this issue and it is for this reason we have closed the comments on this post.

It seems that even though they have a negative position on ISP filtering, they don’t mind user filtering.  Even if the site had become too crowded, why couldn’t they at least leave the comments up that had been made so far?

Why silence the voices of all your users?

From Katie:

@servantofchaos I love someone who want to be the voice of ‘Australian Women Online’ and yet wants to put their opinion up as the only POV

The voice.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I generally enjoy reading AWO — but creating a one-sided, opinionated, subjective point of view is a very poor way to represent the voice of such an important part of the industry.  And if you don’t want to do it — then don’t. I didn’t.

Yell, scream, dream, create noise, throw a tantrum. And give anyone trying to stop you the middle finger.

It’s your perspecive, and this is just mine.

Thanks, Jessica.

E4 Book Of Internet Humour

Digital is mainstream.

-John Butterworth, CEO, AIMIA

It was widely accepted that the digital industry - that while it had a significant amount of consumer data - the industry suffered from lack of industry data beyond online advertising spend.

The AIMIA Digital Services Index (DSI) was a document drawn together by AIMIA, Hyro and IBM Australia which was designed to measure the level of investment in the digital services industry.

• 40% of customers engaged through digital services
• 25% of customer expenditure tied to digital services
• $17.9 billion on digital services in 2008

It was really interesting to note that 77% of respondents to the DSI had more than 1000 employees — Butterworth explained that this was attributed to the surveying of the big banks and other large more “traditional” corporates.

Richard Lord, CEO, Hyro was up next and it was nice to be greeted with an honest outlook — this is just the beginning, it is not the answer.

Lord made some interesting points about the results which included:

• online advertising is a third of the spend of total digital marketing. digital marketing is only a quarter of a the over digital spend
• every dollar of advertising — there’s 10 other spent on digital

Perhaps the most interesting was the statistic that demonstrated just how under resourced the industry is — customer engagement through digital at 39% V.S. a 24.8% share of corporate revenue.

David A Murray (IBM) followed who made the point that ownership of digital strategy is at the boardroom level and that the next edition will be completed next year after the financial crash might bear some very different results.

Brad Howarth, Freelance Contributer, Australia Anthill Magazine was moderating the Q&A sessions and made a very engaging presentation on the outlook of the industry:

• Much like trying to service your own car for it’s life time to keep it running we hire experts to cover this for us: yet companies embrace digital with out properly investing or recognising the expertise needed to manage, service and improve our digital strategies, technologies and services.

• There’s no way the Australia online advertising industry can continue to grow at the rate it does.  It may slow down, but will not decrease from this point.  Howarth’s 6 month outlook: the uptake of digital services will accelerate.

Best question by far was from Jennifer Wilson, Principal, Lean Forward -

Were the companies surprised at the disconnect between customer engagement and revenue used to support it? Or were they ignorant of the fact?

I quite enjoy the answer too.

It was a cathartic discovery when we discovered the disconnect between investment and customer engagement percentages.  Didn’t realise it was as significant as it actually was.

What is the role of government in all this?

• Lord: money, and subsidies.
• Butterworth: two things: 1 is a  recognition of what is going — which is an education process on the industry’s part. And 2: State and federal could lead by example: A big opportunity: Government in the biggest online publisher of content in Australia

Report avaialble: www.digitalservicesindex.com.au

Next year, round 2.

We all have conversations every day.  But why? What inspires you to do so? A lot of people I know are introverted and shy away from new conversations but thrive on conversations with old friends.

Are customers friends we haven’t met? How are you going to start this conversation?

When I talk to someone, when I blog, when I respond: I want to learn.  In fact, in all facets of my life right now, I’m looking to learn as much as possible.  I don’t want to do what I can do, I want to attempt something I haven’t done yet — and use what I’ve already learnt. That, to me, is what I’m trying to do here: here’s what I know so far, now what do you think?

In order to learn, we need to fail.

Whether its coffee mornings or teapots at World Bar — I want to learn more.  What inspires you?

On Wednesday, November 5, AIMIA, IBM and Hyro will be launching their joint initiative: the AIMIA Digital Services Index (DSI). The report will be the first comprehensive measurement of the overall expenditure in Australia’s digital service industry.

Why is this important? Well, according the report, 40% of ALL customer engagement in 2009 will be driven through digital services. This will give a very accurate perspective of the industry and perhaps most importantly — what we can expect in terms of future growth. I’ve been lucky enough to preview the report with some interesting quotes.

“There are important strategic insights in this data” Mr Butterworth said. “40% of customer interaction for business and government is now done via digital channels and these channels deliver 25% of revenue. Despite this, the levels of support for the digital industry from government and for the public infrastructure initiatives required to further develop Australia as an international leader in digital appear to be lagging.”

You can actually pre-register to receive a copy of the report on November 5 for free. Or alternatively, you can join me and register to attend the event itself.

]]> http://jyesmith.com/digital-services-index-measuring-the-australian-digital-media-industry/2008/10/30/feed/ http://jyesmith.com/digital-services-index-measuring-the-australian-digital-media-industry/2008/10/30/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jyesmith/~3/443771644/ http://jyesmith.com/top-50-marketing-blogs/2008/10/30/#comments Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:10:50 +0000 Jye http://jyesmith.com/?p=824

Giving a big thank you to Julian for his hard work in putting the list together, and congratulations to all the other top 50 placements.

1. Banner Blog (Ashley Ringrose and Ashadi Hopper)
2. Servant of Chaos (Gavin Heaton)
3. Young PR (Paul Young) - one of many blogs hosted at prblogs.org
4. Laurel Papworth
5. Get Shouty (Katie Chatfield)
6. Copywrite (Jonathan Crossfield)
7. Corporate Engagement (Trevor Cook)
8. Better Communication Results (Lee Hopkins)
9. Ettf (Emerging Technologies Task Force)
10. Online Marketing Banter (James Duthie)
11. Brand DNA (Stan Lee)
12. Personalize Media (Gary Hayes)
13. Media Hunter (Craig Wilson)
14. The Marketer (Gordon Whitehead)
15. Marketing Magazine
16. Adspace-Pioneers (Julian Cole)
17. Business of Marketing and Branding (David Koopmans)
18. Australian SEO blog (Steve Arun)
19. Angus Whines
20. PR Disasters (Gerry McCusker)
21. Campaign Brief (Michael Lynch)
22. Preneur Marketing (Pete Wililams)
23. Marketing Easy (Lucio Dias Ribeiro)
24. Three Billion (Paul MacGregor)
25. In My Atmosphere
26. Amnesia Blog
27. Publicis Digital
28. Innovation Feeder (Jen Stumbles)
29. Pigs Don’t Fly (Zac Martin)
30. Eico Lab (Zern Liew)
31. Mark Neely’s Blog
32. Sticky Ads (Craig Wilson & Gordon Whitehead)
33. The Flasher (Naked)
34. The Digestif (Wisey)
35. Tim Longhurst
36. Creative is Not A Department (David Gillespie)
37. Peter Sheahan
38. FRANKthoughts
39. Filter Media (Mark Jones)
40. Josh Anstey
41. The Inspiration Room Daily (Duncan Macleod)
42. Publicity Queen (Sally Romano)
43. Online Marketing Sydney (Fred Schebesta)
44. Lexy Klain
45. Diffusion (Stephen Byrne)
46. Australian Small Business (Greg Chapman)
47. Uneven Distribution (Nic Hodges)
48. Zakazukhazoo (Matt Granfield)
49. A Perspective (Jye Smith)
50. A Blog about Digital Media (Ben Shepherd)

LONDON: Buses emblazoned with advertisements declaring “there’s probably no God” will soon be travelling through the streets of London after the prominent atheist Professor Richard Dawkins agreed to help pay for them.

Campaigners say the messages will provide a “reassuring” antidote to religious ads that “threaten eternal damnation”.

Professor Dawkins, the author of The God Delusion, said: “Religion is accustomed to getting a free ride - automatic tax breaks, unearned ‘respect’ and the right not to be ‘offended’, the right to brainwash children.

..

The advertising campaign, which could be plastered across as many as 60 buses for a month if just £11,000 ($27,000) is raised, was triggered by a blog posting. Those behind the project are confident they will raise enough money to pay for two sets of 30 bendy buses to travel through the capital in January bearing the atheist slogan: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

Thanks @OggieBad.

We all like visualising our brands as people with attributes and traits.  But I want you to go further — I want you to imagine your brand as a friend.

You have friends - well I hope you have at least one - now think about why you’re friends with that person. They have certain qualities that make you enjoy their time and company. Now apply this to your own brand - whether its values, marketing or social media.

Is your brand the kind of friend who..

• stares blankly back at people when spoken to?
• demands authority and control of voice?
• who contributes to your other conversations?
• demands that you listens to them at their house only?
• stands you up?
• lets you down?

Sure, it’s great if your friend is ‘about 30, white collar etc’ but what about how they relate to you?

Here are my Monday morning tips — and I want you to walk away and think about this with your content, advertising, response, social media.  ANYTHING that communicates with your audience and or clients.

• Respond to comments, queries and feedback in an open, public and transparent way
• Let your readers have their say in the same place you speak to them — don’t shunt them off site somewhere.
• Where else are your readers and audience talking? How can you add value to their other conversations.
• Make your content as shareable and accessible as possible
• If you promise your readers a group, forum — then make sure you don’t leave them hanging in there by themselves. Contribution and dedication are key.
• If you build these tools/platforms (whether social media, marketing, forum, onsite, off-deck, ondeck) then make sure you continually add value and show them that you’re not a short-term relationship person.  Show them that you are committed.

Your audience isn’t concerned when the advertising dollars run out, or when you get bored of them, or when you switch agency.

Value you them, and their conversations, how you want them to value yours.

October 17, 2008: We’re going to need a bigger table.

All welcome: 8am, every Friday

Single Origin Cafe
Cnr Reservoir and Mary Sts
Surry Hills

It’s been so fantastic meeting everyone.  But I must thank Julian for the first invite, Gavin for the support and Katie for the inspiration.

My favourite meeting of the week with Greg, Katie H, Beth, Adam, Scott, Tim Noonan, Time Longhurst

I ran into the aptly named The Collection of Funny Facebook Status Updates — definitely one for the RSS feeder on those quiet days.

It’s amazing how such a short line of text can generate so much conversation.  I know it’s certainly one of my favourite tabs on Facebook these days.

My favourites:

1. understands that hard work has a future payoff but Laziness pays off now.
2. just wants less to do, more time to do it, and higher pay for not getting it done.
3. is thinking that this isn’t an office. It’s Hell with fluorescent lighting.
4. childproofed his house, but they still get in.

Cerf is Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist - what a job title, eh? - for God Google.  He discusses the need for more internet access and more bandwidth, then onto video (4 mins in) and how as this access increases, people will begin to download it — like iTunes where you can download more music than you could listen to in the same amount of time.

What do you think?