Filed under: Digital Strategy
I was lucky enough to spend some time last week in New Zealand with a client team that included the very bright sparks from Marker Studio, Tim Laing and Jon Beattie.
Jon and I think very much alike about blogs as witnessed conversations. He was telling me a story about a financial services client that was really having trouble with the notion of employing blogs to tell the stories that would inspire uptake of a new product, which would also provide feedback about people’s perceptions of the product: the FAQ’s, the resists, the barriers to understanding and so on…
The client’s policy on the written word currently requires that everything that is to be published gets sign off, not merely from the Marketing Director, but from the Trustees!
If you look at a blog like a witnessed conversation you can start to readdress this kind of thinking. For example, you wouldn’t involve the Trustees in every conversation that was happening in the call centre. When you empower someone in your retail environment (or call centre) to tell the story of the brand and describe the product you are taking more of a risk than in the ‘think and release’ environment of a blog. In fact, a brand has a great deal more control of the conversations that take place on a blog, as the author should be the recognised expert in bringing the product to life.
I’m a huge fan that company blogs are not only an opportunity to talk and learn from the brand’s audience. I think that by creating a narrative structure around the day to day best practices of a brand, written by the leading expert, that they are also a great platform for knowledge management for employees to witness and contribute.
In the spirit of Faris, I’ve almost entirely nicked this post.
Waaaaay back in July I shared my infatuation with the lovely Lynette. She’s been sharing her Interesting Snippets via Flickr for a year or so now – they are basically ready made slides to steal looking at the impact of digital. If that wasn’t enough crush points she has possibly the coolest job in the business – Director of Futures for Google UK.
At the time I mentioned that she was compiling the first year into a book via Lulu, and it’s available now.
Proceeds are being donated to the Battery Hen Welfare Trust.
The commitment to implement change everyday is quite a challenge.
One of the things I’m attempting to overcome is the use of the word ‘consumer’ :Stop calling me a consumer. I am a person a Facbook group started by Adam Crow.
Personal
Stop calling me a consumer. I am a person.Work
Stop calling them consumers. They are people
Give it a go- it’s quite difficult.
Recently I was asked to define what kind of activist I am, and what my philosophy is…so here we go:
I am a practicing activist. To me this means everyday action. I believe in doing what you can with what you’ve got. I believe in knowing your karma footprint, addressing it and keeping it in check as much as you can, when you can.
I take personal responsibility in trying to make this place a little better every tomorrow. Because it makes me feel good. Because its fun. I have a lot of karma credits to make up!
If you’re at all interested Ed Cotton has started an initiative from the Planing for Good group PFG City Groups- Making it Fun and Easy:
1. We want to create PFG groups in as many cities as we can
2. Each city will have a leader who organizes coffee mornings – 30/40 minute brainstorms over a brief that happen once a month
3. The ideas generated are then sent inIt’s a good way to meet people and do good at the same time.Let Ed know if you want to lead a city or be part of a group, it’s an option. It’s still possible to contribute your own thinking and work with others outside these mornings. All we need is your name, your city and if you want to lead or participate.
This group has already done some great things. Check out Planning For Good- Ideas for the Idea Village-New Orleans
Emily has been kind enough to chair a Sydney group and there are quite a few tippy top types who have already put their hands up- so please, if you think you have great ideas, or want to contribute to something outside of your 9-5 (or 7-9 as it usually seems!) please send Ed a note.
Filed under: Digital Strategy
Michael Wesch and the KSU digital ethnography crew also posted this video on the same day as “A Vision of Students Today.”
According to the Information R/evolution post description: This video explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information. It was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively.
As for a summery of the ‘Students Today’ post: 200 Students made 367 edits to the document, and surveyed themselves, to bring you the following message:
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My average class size is 115. 18% of my teachers know my name. I complete 49% of the readings assigned to me.
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I buy hundred dollar textbooks that I never open.
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I will read 8 books this year, 2300 web pages, and 1281 facebook profiles. I will write 42 pages for class this semester, and over 500 pages of email
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I get 7 hours of sleep each night, 1 ½ hours watching TV each night, 3 ½ hours a day online, I listen to music 2.5 hours a day, I spend 2 hours on my cellphone, 3 hours in class, 2 hours eating. I work 3 hours every day, 3 hours studying. That’s a total of 26.5 hours.
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I’m a multitasker. I have to be.
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I will be over $20,000 in debt after graduation. I’m one of the lucky ones.
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Over 1 billion people make less than one dollar a day. This laptop costs more than some people in the world make in a year.
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When I graduate I will probably have a job that doesn’t exist today.
Filed under: Digital Strategy
Why the focus on trash mags and reality TV? What’s the payoff?
Gossip is the twenty first forum for telling stories. Celebrities become protagonist archetypes that navigate modern morality tales.
Gossip unpacks understanding of people and their motivations.
Celebrity and reality drama gossip allows a neutral platform to display these understandings- each member of a gossip group can increase social currency and achieve social consensus ’safely’ through the discussion of people they’ve never met.
Filed under: Zeitgeist
I went to a forum this week : Is online media dumbing down journalism? Liz Jackson (Four Corners), Peter McEvoy, Catharine Lumby, Dylan Welch (Sydney Morning Herald Online) and Jacqueline Breen (ElectionTracker.net) were on the panel put together by New Matilda.
I won’t summarise what was spoken about ’cause Tim does a great job here:
“What has happened to newspapers could be summed up as follows: once upon a time newspapers were sold as three course meals, and no one really knew what was being eaten – the entré, the main or the dessert (or all three?). Now we can measure readers, it turns out most people are just interested in the dessert. So does that mean you just focus on desserts and stop making nutritious mains? Or does it mean you have to work harder to make the mains more appetising?
It seemed to me the room last night was full of people that just love to eat vegetables. They know how good vegetables are for them and they’ve acquired a taste. Now they’re nervous – if people are only eating dessert, what does that mean for the health of democracy? or ‘public discourse’? And more importantly, if we’re the only ones eating vegetables, who’s going to be paying for them?”
My outtake was that it seemed to me that what was missing from the debate was any real vision of how the online medium might advance the essential offer of journalism which was put forward as ‘originality, credibility and analysis’.
The focus of the panel seemed to be on how online effects the economic model of a news masthead and then how that relates to the resources that are given to journalists in order for them to deliver their craft.
I’m into the notion that in the current explosion of data there is a valuable role to be played in an offer of synthesis of information, contextualisation with authority and transparency of agenda. In this scenario a newspaper might be seen as an umbrella brand with its journalists becoming brands of their own. The role of the newspaper is then to facilitate and add value to the relationship between the content created by the journalists and the audience.
An example of this might be a meme/topic tracker so that you can follow issues as they unpack over time or visualize how silos of news interact with each other (a finance story and a policy decision or a gossip piece and a media merger).
The Digg Arc model is a baby step towards this- imagine if you could colour code and navigate your way through topical information and see how it related and informed other silos of activity….
The ability of the online medium to tell stories and to allow journalists to create new ways of creating understanding and describing the agenda seems to be lost in the contemplation of dwindling revenue.
In response to will online “Shaft or Save?” journalism I come down on SAVE, so long as there is a willingness to innovate.
UPDATE: I watched the 2007 Andrew Olle Lecture given by John Hartigan broadcast last night on the ABC.
You can read the transcript here or listen to it here.(MP3 RealMedia 28k+)
Amazing. No really. Inspirational, visionary, passionate. Go check it out:
‘….journalism is in very good shape. In many ways, better than ever. There has never been a better time to be a journalist. And the value of good journalism has never been greater. “
‘…digital technology is delivering a more diverse range than ever of wonderful journalism. Our audiences are capable of telling the difference. The one thing they don’t have is enough time to consume what’s available. This is why demand for high quality news from credible sources will grow, not decline.”
“Newspapers draw our attention to things we didn’t know we were interested in. The internet hasn’t induced passive browsing in the same way but I think the content that achieves this will attract a huge audience. As journalists we’ve never had more inducements to open our minds, stretch our imaginations or reach more people.”
Filed under: Great Stuff
It is well known that I have a major crush on TED.
Two weeks ago, TED.com hit a milestone: posting their 150th TEDTalk. To help you keep track of all the TEDTalks you’ve watched and want to watch, here’s a simple, low-tech tool: a list of all the TEDTalks posted to TED.com so far, in the order they were posted.
My favourites:
Filed under: Get Activist
On October 15th – Blog Action Day, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind.
In its inaugural year, Blog Action Day will be co-ordinating bloggers to tackle the issue of the environment.
Blogs of every variety from huge top 100 blogs to small, niche sites are going to be participating, find out who is involved. You can also learn about who is behind the initiative and read through some frequently asked questions. Or if you are ready, find out about getting your blog involved.
The Pixel is mightier than the sword.
UPDATE: Total number of blogs: 19,746
Combined rss reach of blogs: 14,183,070
WOW!
Filed under: Digital Strategy
Harold Sogard, Vice President of Goodby Silverstein and Partners presenting “Traditional and Digital- Unbundled” at the iMedia conference. His focus is not how they took a ‘nice piece of Australian business’ (his words), but how the company best known for amazing TV and print work turned around perceptions and won serious kudos and recognition as a digitally lead agency in just over a year.
How did they make so dramatic a change? Well watch here.
As a summary:
- “No digital?- Go away”
- In 2005 18% of work was digital compared to 83% traditional
- By May of 2007 it was 50/50
- the focus on digital increases the agency’s ‘hit rate’
- in 2005 the success rate for pitches was 37% and 51% in 2006
- in 2007 55% of their work is digital and they have won $2 billion dollars of new business as a result of the changes made
- well worth a 55 minute investment!
Filed under: Great Stuff
Wow- my blog’s life in 30 seconds. Watch it. Make your own!
Animoto Productions is a bunch of techies and film/tv producers who decided to lock themselves in a room together and nerd out.
Their first release is Animoto, a web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos using their own patent-pending technology and high-end motion design. Each video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music. Produced on a widescreen format, Animoto videos have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer.
The heart of Animoto is its newly developed Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology that thinks like an actual director and editor. It analyzes and combines user-selected images and music with the same sophisticated post-production skills & techniques that are used in television and film.
Filed under: Zeitgeist
Some of the best ideas happen over a drink, perhaps not including me doing video posts but here you go anyways…
Beers n Ideas is an hour of inspiration during which experienced idealists present snippets of work over a schooner. This month Craig Allchin from Six Degrees Architects opened our eyes to the potential of laneways and cheap rent to transform a city into a cultural hub.
Six Degrees isn’t a design principle. It came about as a result of having six young graduate architects working in a shared studio environment in the early 90’s. None were registered architects, they were also interested in the power of a group being greater than the sum of the individuals. The Beers ‘n’ Ideas team are also responsible for Raise the Bar.
The Hope Street Markets are a joy. Fantastic new designers supporting urban compassion. A better life for the less fortunate and hip lucky dips? Bring it on!
Watch this space for news on Sydney’s newest Interesting node….
After following along with Interesting2007 from over here on this side of the world, Emily from Conformists Unite and the Sydney coffee morning gang thought why should London have all the joy? So we’re putting on an Interesting South here in Sydney at the end of November. The evening of November 22nd actually.
This is a marketing conference for marketing people but none of the speeches will be directly about marketing.
Not about brands, advertising, blogging or twitter but interesting, unexpected, original things.
We’re hoping to find fascinating people and have speak about something they care about. We want to replicate the experience of clicking from one really good blog to another, ranging across sciences, arts, musics, jokes and whatever.
There will be 10 minute slots and 3 minute slots to speak. And some people who can’t be there will send in three minute videos. The idea is to be informal and fast paced.
Interesting South is sponsored by Open Intelligence Agency but overall is very much a collaborative, not-for-profit project.
So we’re deliberately keeping the price low enough so anyone can rock up.
First batch of tickets available at: http://interestingsouth.eventbrite.com
We’re currently looking for speakers! If you know someone who would be good or have any idea yourself, just jot down a brief description (25 -100 words or so) you can submit them via our Facebook Group Interesting South by October 25th.
Filed under: Zeitgeist
YouTube has launched a program that enables non-profit organizations to setup their own channels free of charge. The channels enable non-profits to upload public service announcements, footage of their work, and calls to action. Additionally, the channels allow non-profits to use Google Checkout to collect donations without being charged any fees.
YouTube also plans to launch a central location where users will be able to browse all of the non-profit channels. For the moment, you can browse some of the channels that have been created so far on the YouTube NonProfit Program page.
On a similar note, Pure Digital (makers of the Flip video camera) are offering a million camcorders for non-profits. Combine the two and you have a great platform to show people why you matter to your community.
At under $200, Pure Digital’s recently announced Flip Video camcorders are already pretty inexpensive, but the company now looks to be trying to make them even cheaper for non-profit organizations — as in free. That’s the goal of the company’s just announced Flip Video Spotlight program, which aims to give up to one million of the camcorders to non-profits and other non-governmental organizations over the next five years.
Apparently, the initiative (which is set to get underway this December) will operate as a donor matching program, with donors (or the organizations themselves) able to purchase so-called Flip Video Spotlight Kits, which Flip Video will match one-to-one. Much like the OLPC program, Flip Video sees virtually no end to the benefits of its camcorders, with Pure Digital CEO Jonathan Kaplan saying the company believes “video can help change the world.”
In addition Current TV offer a pretty comprehensive online producer training course
Thanks for the head up Matt!
Filed under: Zeitgeist
The lovely Ann Handley asked attendees at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum in Chicago were asked what interesting things they’ve found when they Google themselves.
It’s great to see fellow Age of Conversation authors C.B. Whittlemore, David Armano and Matt Dickman in full flight.
Filed under: Digital Strategy
On October 4, 2007 we are combining action with words …you can join by writing a single blog post with the title “Free Burma”. (For those who have not seen the coverage, take a look at the latest update from Amnesty International.)
Filed under: Zeitgeist
Comfortable is just boredom with good PR.
