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The best post I wrote this year is the Social Media Marketing Framework, it helped to get my job at The Population and is something that I keep referring too (if you are lazy check out the 5 min video).

After the Paul McIntrye article in the Sydney Morning Herald about Social Media and the focus of PR Agencies owning Social Media, I thought it would be good to look at the model and see who was best set up to help a company with this discipline.

As you can see it is a bit of everyone. Really at the end of the day, who gives a flying unicorn who is the right person to hand Social Media, lets just get some kick arse projects out there and let the agency thing sort itself out.

I have just realised that my favourite unrelated online content is all written by females.

Twitter

_neek
I would put likeomg up there as well.

Blogs
Imnotantisocial – I am clearly not in target demo for this blog but really enjoy reading it?!?!??!

Tavi – She is 12 years old, WTF?

Why the hell is there not more female online copywriters?

If we do not do something about this, we will be left with shit like Hooking Up.

Really good ideas to a Social Media Startegist (Audience Equity from the top vloggers on Youtube, how could this not be a success?) but such a massive error on the copywriting.

Sorry for the lateness of this post!

Case Study: How Scott Drummond created a Brand (MarketingMag) Community

In late August I was puling my hair out trying to find a great example of an Australian Community Manager, someone who had helped to create a community around a brand. Where had a brand come into an environment and been accepted by the community. It just so happens that the perfect case study of creating a Brand Community had been in contact with me and become one of my friends over the last four months. I speak of none other than Scott Drummond the person who created and put a face to the Marketing Magazine Brand.

Scott Drummond was amazing the way he reached out to the influential members online and got them to create engaging content that would drive traffic and conversation to the site. Additionally, He was on the frontline making sure that he was in the on Twitter, Plurk, other peoples Blogs and Youtube making sure that Marketing Magazine had a presence.

He has left a great community in the safe hands of Kate Kendall who has had a presence online through her blog The Zeitegist and will surely drive Marketing Magazine to the next level while other traditional channels struggle to acclimatise to the new media landscape.

This week, I am a guest on the Film and Television Institute WA Forum for part of their series on ‘The Secrets of Short Film Marketing’. Graeme Watson asked me to help advise on how Short Film makers can use Social Media to market their films.

Laurel Papworth just wrote a cracking post on this, which has been a good start.

Tomorrow I will be starting a discussion on the social media environments that Australian Short Film Makers should be aware of.

Check it out and feel free to join the forum, if you don’t want to join but have some good resources or advice please share here.


Here is one of my favourite SMM for a film; the leaked crocodile attacking footage around the Australian film Black Water

Malcolm Turnbull is on Twitter, at first it was just one way communication and you know what, I was totally cool with that!

With Malcs on Twitter I was just keen to have the inside word, I was thinking about how cool it would be if he released a good bit of info, like when Barack Obama named Joe Biden as VP over SMS.

Broadcast has a place in social media.

When people are just searching for information it is totally cool for you to be broadcast.

I was thinking about this the other day with Nick (@waycooljnr), Why do most people go to Myspace Music? To find more information and songs about a new artists they just heard. Majority of people don’t give 2 cents about having a conversation with the band.

For a different interpretation of Social Media Broadcast, Zac Martin has just written the post of his life on the topic.

I actually got the name iMalcolm from a post that Gavin Heaton wrote on Malcolm Turnbull and the problems associated with digital identity, it is a great read!

‘Social Media Marketers need to start talking to Marketers about the behavioural changes that occur from Social Media Platforms rather than the nuts and bolts of the technology.’ Tony Thomas

Last night, I was a guest lecturer at the ADMA Certificate in Digital Marketing, I was asked to talk about the Social Media platforms, so instead of talking about the specifics of every platform I talked about the Behavioural changes and Marketing Opportunities that those platforms have.



Here are the definition for the Behaviour and Marketing Opportunity.

Behaviour- Is why do people use the technology? How has it impacted that the way they interact with friends and brands. I based this loosely off Blumer and Katz Uses and Gratification of Media Theory via my Thesis

Marketing Opportunity – Where does the opportunity lie for brands to interact with people.

And the examples

1.Twitter
Broadcast->Customer Service
BigPondTeam

2.Twitter
Information Source -> Sales
AmazonMP3 Sales

3.Blogs
Information -> Brand Positioning
BodyShop Blog

4.Youtube
Entertainment/Diversion -> Branded Entertainment
Blendtec

5.Facebook
Communication/Self Image -> Communication/Conspicuous Consumption
BarackObama

I would love your feedback on this or any other examples you have.

Could you get any more serious poses?

We are currently looking for another person to join The Population team. I have used Gavin Heaton's SocialMediaJobs site to advertise the position of Social Media Executive, so check it out and if you know someone who would be good for the job make sure to pass their details on.

St. Jerome

The Melbounre social media crew is well over due for a catch up. So I have proposed a beersphere (idea stolen from Faris).

The date has been set Sunday 28th September
The time has been set 2pm (that will give you enough time to work off the Grand Final party hangover)
The venue has been set St Jerome's (see map), 7 Caledonian Lane, City (City location, so there is no excuse why you should not be coming).

The following people will be invited

Bloggers
Zac Martin from Pigs Don’t Fly
Rick Clarke from I Hate Ads
Simon Oboler from Simon Says
Tannie from The Gruen Transfer
Darren Rowse from ProBlogger
Stan Lee from Brand DNA
Tait Ischia from The Wayfarer
Gerry McCusker from PR Disasters
Glenn Rogers from Pixel Paddock
Age from In my atmosphere
Alex White from Marketing Magazine
David Gillespie from Creative is not a department
Kate from The Zeitgeists
Joshua Strawcyznski from Current Issues in Marketing Strategy
Tamir from FRANKthoughts
Jasmin Tragas from Wonderwebby

Podcasters
Peter Wagstaff from Marketing Today
Jake Lawton and Nat Graf from Gen Y Marketing Podcast
Alisa Page and Phillip Greenwood from Marketing Geek

It is open invitation so all are welcome, so spread the word and lets have a cracking afternoon.

After speaking only a month ago about the 2009 Australian Social Media Revolution being an article in the Australian Financial Review. It was great to see that the company (The Population) that I moved to Sydney to help form and work for, got a great feature in today’s AFR.

The Population will be Australia’s first fourth pure play Social Media Marketing Agency. I feel like everything is in place for this to be something really big, the opportunity to work with the very talented and experienced Tony Thomas and the fact Photon Group has seen the enormous potential and backed it.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity which I believe will make up for everything that I had to give up in Melbourne including an amazing girlfriend, my close group of friends, my Masters degree and a close relationship with my family.

Young people just 'get' content creation, they do not want to just consume content but are hell bent on creating content as well.

Case in Point- Fashion Rookie

Tavi is
1. A Fashion Blogger (Style Rookie)
2.Already part of a blogger outreach program (Australia struggles to do outreach to Top 100 Bloggers, America is doing it to niche niche markets)
3.Has had articles published in NY Times Magazine
4.is a really great engaging writer


and is

5. 12 years old!!!!!! 12 years old !!!!! 12 years old !!! 12 years old!!!!!! 12 years old !!!!! 12 years old !!!12 years old!!!!!! 12 years old !!!!! 12 years old !!!12 years old!!!!!! 12 years old !!!!! 12 years old !!!12 years old!!!!!! 12 years old !!!!! 12 years old !!!

Tavi Fashion Editor of Vogue by 18?

For 19 years I grew up just being able to consume media, Tavi grew up being able to produce and consume media! What effect does that have on a generation?

Hat tip to Meg Rayner

P.S Thanks to Jye Smith the creative genius for producing my killer header banner. I am sorry to all those fans of my pixalated image I had before. :(

I hate long posts, so if you are lazy just read the bold!

The American SMM revolution has been and gone, they are now booming and getting a massive head start on us in terms of innovative social media strategies. There is absolutely NO reason why the Australian market is behind. I do not believe for one minute the broadband argument! I know that some of my readers are of the camp that just let things take there course. However I think that we can help bring about the revolution ourselves.

In a sentence we need

AIM:
To get a CMO/CEO of a blue chip Company to state the success of an Australian Social Media Strategy in The Financial Review.


You may ask why?

1. A Blue Chip Company

It is great for Jim and Marie Butchers in Woodend to have a success with social media but they do not drive the business community in Australia, there is about 20 companies who run this market.

2. CEO/CMO

We can talk till we are blue in the face but it is only when someone with credibility/high profile in the mainstream business market states their success with social media that the rest of the community will follow suit.

3. Australian Financial Review

Although I would love to think that Sol Trujillo reads my blog….it probably does not happen.

4. Social Media Strategy
To me a social media strategy has got to be an example of a company responding to conversations happening in the social media environment. I think we need a Dell Hell, or a company to employ a Social Media Response Unit or a Idea Storm.

I think that we can help this happen. I came close with Connex, I had a seat at the table in front of their CMO and Corporate Affairs but because of unlucky circumstances the meeting didn’t go ahead. However I am not giving up on that as well.

I think that as a community we should really work together to find a Blue Chip that we should aim at talking too with the aim of implementing a strategy.

I also think we should view this as an investment in our future. I was willing to volunteer my time to help set up a Connex employee to respond to the social media environment because I saw the time/costs as a long term investment.

Who is with me?
Which Blue Chip should we help?
How should we go about aiding them and imparting our knowledge?

A 2 min Vlog on why we should work together!


UPDATE 29/08/08
David Gillespie made a great comment countering my video blog, he suggests that we should not be trying to compete against someone else (aka Management Consultants) because that is when you actually loose the game.

He is right, Management Consultants are not the competition marketers not knowing how to get involed with online communities and how it affects businesses is the barrier we must overcome. What I think stays the same is that we must be trying to inform marketers about social media.

Having the aim of getting a CEO/CMO to come out and state the success of their social media strategy in a credible publication is still paramount to achieving this goal.

My new BFF Joseph Jaffe (sorry Zac) is coming to town. The king of the Social Media will be sitting down and helping us hatch a plan to start the Australian Social Media Marketing Revolution.

There will be some local heavyweights there too, Gavin Heaton (arguably the leading thinker in Social Media Marketing), Scott Drummond (Online Editor of Marketing Magazine) and I am sure Top 10 Aussie Marketing Bloggers Laurel Papworth and Katie Chatfield will be attending too.

So in the famous words of Australian Hip Hop Juggernauts Hilltop Hoods,

‘ We have a whole lotta superstars on this stage here tonight.‘

The stage is set, Blue Hotel Bar Woollmooloo,Sydney, the time is set Tuesday August 19th (9:30pm), come along and help shape the revolution.


Hilltop Hoods - The Blue Blooded

3 reasons why the Pimp My Kettle will FAIL.

1. Social Networking around a false hobby
Where the hell is the consumer insight in this one? When have people ever tried to Pimp their kettle. We already have a social networking site, it is called Facebook, why do we want another? People created Nings around social objects/niche passions people have(no one loves pimping kettles)

2. Fake people
Kill me now, this is reminiscent of Skip Harder, why don’t you do a bit of research find someone who actually does do this and use them as your poster boy, Instead of trying to pull the wool over your dumb target markets eyes(I am in this market and find it offensive)

3. Google Pimp My Kettle
Where is your site? Do you think everyone is going to remember and type your site URL straight in. Who the hell launches a site and does not even get the SEO.

Why am I laying into this campaign so hard?
Because it is these sorts of campaigns that wreck the name of Social Media Marketing for the people who actually know what they are doing.

Here is some advice;
Clemenger BBDO get someone in who knows what they are doing, or stick to above the line! It is good to see your creatives are stealing their ideas straight from Youtube too.

This clip was produced a year before the Fanatastic Noodles campaign

Fanatastic Noodles when Clemenger tell you they have had success with the social networking side of things. Have a look at who has joined, all the profiles (there is only 49 at last count) are from Adelaide, is this any coincidence that this campaign came out of Clemenger Adelaide?

Bloggers call out these rubbish campaigns because if we don’t they will just tarnish the reputation of Social Media Marketing.

I am not alone here either;
Matt's(Zakazukhazoo) interpretation of this rubbish
Zac thinks PimpMyKettle is wrecking his future as well

This comment by Tait Ischia was in the comments section but it is so insightful I decided to publish it in the body of the post. Check out the comments section for the great discussions about this campaign.

I think the core issue is that the idea to incorporate social marketing into the media mix seems to have come from a need to reach the target rather than extend the idea. I can't really be bothered going into how terrible the site is; I just don't think it warrants any critical perspective. These things happen all the time - think recent Vegimite campaign.

What I found interesting though, is the giant lift-out I found in this month's Vice magazine. Vice got Ed Woodley from China Heights (and Oxford Art Factory) in Sydney to pimp a kettle for the campaign. It's fucking cool. Which means it could have been done well. It was actually a fairly OK idea. Although it was a 'rip-off', so was the Honda 'Cog' Ad. And everyone loved that. Some call it appropriation and others copying, but whatever people say, execution is the biggest difference between the two. And if the execution is done well, then ripping-off becomes referencing and everyone's happy.

Conclusion: Poorly executed campaign mixed with social media being chosen too late in the process. There are other things as well - just to name a few: A confused selection of media placement eg. poster in Vice, terrible use of irony in street posters, a mainstream look trying to target an underground populace, and not to mention a great list of (hopefully well-payed) artists that the vast majority of the mainstream gen-y audience will not give two shits about.

The big agencies don't really get it. Not to mention most creatives thinking they're cool and hip-to-the-scene but in fact being complete wannabee douche-bags. I have no problem in saying that because I see it all the time. Although I must say the guys at Publicis Mojo are the antithesis of that statement. A little less so after Toby & Serene left for Fallon a year ago. Sad, but as an industry we need more of those people.

I wholeheartedly agree we need more critical perspectives on campaigns like this so that others don't fuck-up social networking for the rest of us who are trying to do it properly.