Category: Crowdsourcing

Julian Cole’s Top 50 Australian Marketing Blogs for 2010

Blogging, Crowdsourcing, Facts & Figures, Social Media

A couple of years ago, when Julian Cole kicked off his Top 50 blog list, ranking “Australian pioneer marketing blogs”, it caused something of a sensation. Some people loved it. Some people hated it. Many could care less. And that’s the way it is with social media – there’s plenty of interesting content to consume, so if you don’t like one blog, or social media channel, you can simply surf across to another.

But for those of us who ARE interested in Australian marketing blogs, this list has become something of an institution. Here is Julian’s updated list for 2010. It’s good to see some new entrants – I will certainly be checking out a few of these.

Blog Name Pioneer Score Google Reader Alexa Score Total
1 Digital Buzz Blog 9 7 9 25
2 Mumbrella 9 5 9 23
3 Bannerblog 7 7 9 23
4 The Inspiration Room 7 6 9 22
5 Campaign Brief 7.5 5 9 21.5
6 Marketing Magazine 8 4 8 20
7 Servant of Chaos 9 4 7 20
8 B&T 6.5 4 9 19.5
9 Laurel Papworth 7 4 8 19
10 Young PR 8 3 8 19
11 Personalize Media 7.5 3 8 18.5
12 Adspace-Pioneers 8 4 6 18
13 Better Communication Results 7 5 6 18
14 Media Hunter 8 3 7 18
15 Amnesia Blog 5.5 5 7 17.5
16 Life. Then Strategy 8 3 6 17.5
17 Online Marketing Banter 8 3 6 17
18 acidlabs 8 3 6 17
19 Talking Digital 8 3 6 17
20 Consumer Psychologist 8 4 5 17
21 Brand DNA 8 4 5 17
22 Digital-Media 8 1 8 17
23 Get Shouty 8.5 3 5 16.5
24 Gold Coast Web Designers 6 3 7 16
25 Shifted Pixels 7 2 7 16
26 A perspective 8 2 6 16
27 Angus Whines 7 3 6 16
28 Dan Pankraz 8 3 5 16
29 WayCoolJnr 8 3 5 16
30 AdNews 8 0 8 16
31 Publicis Digital 7.5 3 5 15.5
32 Gourmet Ads 7 1 7 15
33 PR Warrior 8 2 5 15
34 FRANKthoughts 8 2 5 15
35 PR Disasters 7 3 5 15
36 Matthew Gain 8 1 6 15
37 Zakazukhazoo 6.5 1 7 14.5
38 EcioLab 7.5 2 5 14.5
39 Corporate Engagement 6.5 3 5 14.5
40 Dominique Hind Collective 7 2 5 14
41 Tim Longhurst 6.5 2 5 13.5
42 Pigs Don’t Fly 7.5 2 4 13.5
43 The Flasher 8.5 1 4 13.5
44 Three Billion 6 1 6 13
45 Marketing Easy 6 1 6 13
46 Who is in conrtol of your b**** 8 1 4 13
47 Sticky Ads 6.5 0 6 12.5
48 Mark Neely's Blog 7.5 1 4 12.5
49 Business of Marketing and Branding 6.5 2 4 12.5
50 CIIMS 7 1 4 12

Support Independent Media in Australia – New Matilda

Crowdsourcing, Good Works, Media, Old Media, Social Media

There are precious few independent voices in the Australian media landscape. There is Crikey, group blogs like Larvatus Prodeo and a handful of individual bloggers, but the nation’s dominant media players maintain a stranglehold on political and social debate. In the face of this domination, these alternative sites provide much needed space for debate and deeper conversation.

When New Matilda collapsed earlier this year, it shocked and saddened many people. Yet shifting people beyond that shock is difficult. Getting people to financially support the production of independent media is exceptionally hard.

So in an innovative move, New Matilda has turned to the crowd to source much needed support. Now, through Fundbreak, you too can make a contribution to independent media in Australia. Every dollar counts.

The Very Unofficial Facebook Privacy Guide

Crowdsourcing, Personal Branding, Smart Bloggers, Social Media

One of the inspirations for the Age of Conversation books that Drew McLellan and I have been publishing over the last few years is the concept that we are smarter than me. And every day, I see yet more evidence of this … that someone, somewhere out there has an insight, a piece of knowledge or a “social object” that perfectly solves a problem.

As a case in point, Angela Alcorn has put together this fantastic, unofficial, guide to Facebook Privacy. And in a time when the blurring between public and private, and between private and professional is causing us all some concern, this is a very useful and timely publication.

Download the guide from the MakeUseOf.com website – and be prepared to be surprised. Your most personal information may well be being shared with people you don’t know (or don’t want to know).

A tip of the hat to Ian Farmer for this awesome guide.

Give the Gift of Water #BAD10

Age of Conversation, Crowdsourcing, Good Works

Today is Blog Action Day, a day where bloggers from around the world come together to support a single cause. This year’s cause is water.

Right now, almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. That’s one in eight of us.

Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Children are especially vulnerable, as their bodies aren’t strong enough to fight diarrhoea, dysentery and other illnesses. The UN predicts that one tenth of the global disease burden can be prevented simply by improving water supply and sanitation.

And you can make a change in this situation.

For the Age of Conversation 3, we have partnered with charity: water – one of the non-profit partners associated with Blog Action Day. This means that the profit from every book purchase will support the UN’s effort to bring clean, safe water to millions of people.

So what can you do?

  1. Buy a copy of Age of Conversation 3 for each of your customers – they’ll love it and they’ll love you:
  2. Make an additional donation at our charity: water page
  3. Insert the Blog Action Day widget on your blog

Don’t forget to become a Fan of the Age of Conversation on Facebook.

Green Envy – Vibewire Election Coverage Hits Ten News

Creativity, Crowdsourcing, Politics

During last weekend’s election, Vibewire, the not-for-profit youth media organisation, sent their electionWIRE teams out to polling booths to capture the mood of voters at the sharp end of the election campaign. While visiting the seat of Bennelong – the seat where Maxine McKew was ousted by John Alexander – Austin Mackell found Liberal campaigners dressed at the “green army” handing out how to vote cards which preferenced the Liberals rather than Labor as was the Greens’ stated policy.

This story was picked up as part of the Channel Ten news coverage and was also featured on ABC's The Drum.

vibewire-greenEnvy

In the clip from Channel Ten, Austin is interviewed at the Vibewire Enterprise Hub. He explain his surprise at the polling booth activities described by an AEC official as “dirty but legal”.

It is great to see the mainstream media picking up on some of the great stories unearthed by the electionWIRE teams. Be sure to checkout the electionWIRE channel for the type of coverage you just don’t get to see anywhere else. I have a feeling that this won’t be the last time you see these young journalists on your screens.

Oh, and if you are looking to add your voice to the media mix, be sure to get in contact with the Vibewire team.

Have We Taken ‘Participation’ Too Far?

Creativity, Crowdsourcing, Social Media

I came across this interesting letter on Katie Chatfield’s blog. It purports to be an open letter from “Brian” to the marketing industry. But whether it actually IS from a real person or not, the sentiment certainly resonates with people.

Now, because I hope/expect/want people to participate in the programs or marketing that I put together, I try to participate where I can. I contribute content and content, I comment and retweet and share. Sometimes I even do a mashup. But I do that out of a sense of reciprocity – not necessarily out of a sense of fun. Unless, of course, someone else puts the fun “in” – a good example being the @oldspice campaign. But I am predisposed towards participation – many people are not. And as “Brian” suggests, sometimes a social activation for your brand is either not relevant or (at worst) lame, but the same can be said of microsites lovingly built for the dozen or so people who actually visit.

Pic-An-Open-Letter-To-All-Of-Advertising-And-Marketing-525x711

So, the question we should ask ourselves is – have we taken participation too far? Is “Brian” right? Or are we just not trying hard enough?

Crowdsourcing the Election – Vibewire and YouTube Combine with electionWIRE to Show How it’s Done

Co-creation, Crowdsourcing, FutureVisions, Politics, Social Media, Strategy, Videos

The Australian Election for 2010 has, thus far, been a fairly lack lustre affair. The politicians have kept to tightly scripted, rehearsed announcements designed to appeal to minutely targeted swinging voters in marginal electorates. It’s policy without vision and politics without conviction. And it’s largely why non-issues such as the “real Julia Gillard” and the deposing of former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, have generated broad coverage.

Interestingly, given the success of the grass roots, social media activation of the David Cameron and Obama campaigns, the local strategists have largely ignored social media – and the web in almost all its incarnations. As Stephen Collins suggests, it’s not the social media election we were looking for.

But one of the more interesting efforts around the election is coming from an unexpected quarter. Vibewire, the innovative, non-profit youth organisation (disclaimer: I'm a board member) have teamed up with YouTube to cover, debate and shape the political conversation over the next four weeks. They have recruited and trained young, graduate reporters from across the country and are also crowd sourcing comment and commentary through a dedicated electionWIRE channel. Back at the “Vibewire Hub” an editorial team is managing, vetting and promoting the coverage as it comes to hand.

Anyone can get involved. You can submit a video or suggest a story. And judging by the quality of the coverage and perspective already coming through, it seems that Vibewire’s mandate to showcase the skills and expertise of young media professionals is more than delivering for reporters such as Megan Weymes and Elise Worthington, it’s providing insight and new perspectives on an otherwise dull election. Be sure to check it out! 

The Promiscuous Idea

Books, Compliant Ideas, Crowdsourcing, Social Media

CK, George & GregWhen Drew McLellan and I pulled together the first The Age of Conversation book with 100 of the world’s leading bloggers, social media was still a rough and ready frontier. Two more editions and three years later, many of us are still having the same conversations – partly because more businesses and more people are beginning to see value in the space, but also because innovation is like a spiral, folding back on itself in ever more complex ways.

With this in mind, I thought I’d publish here, my article from the first book – the Promiscuous Idea. To me, it still feels as relevant as it did in 2007. If you haven’t got a copy, consider buying one. It’s a great primer – and all the profits (still) go to a great cause.

The Promiscuous Idea

We are living in a time of proliferation. Never before has the marketplace of ideas been so free, the barriers to entry so low and the willingness to collaborate so powerful. In moments, a concept can be explained, shared and tracked on a single blog — on the other side of the world, this idea can be modified, expanded upon and discussed. Seconds pass and more voices are heard — a version transmutes into new forms … being picked up as a podcast, a video, an older-style presentation deck. From a single creative impulse, a legion of additions, modifications and transmutations can spread in minutes, hours, days and weeks.

Even months later an idea can come full circle. Someone, somewhere can stumble upon a “stale” idea, investing it with new energy, new context and a new perspective and the cycle of proliferation begins again. What this means is that our ideas are constantly in a process of reinvention.

What links an idea and draws us to it is the “story”. And the power and gravitational pull of the story brings us back to it time and again. In the Age of Conversation, whether we are marketers, activists, educators, politicians, academics or citizens of the world, we are all becoming the connected storytellers of this new era. This presents new challenges but also significant
opportunities for brands, consumers and communities.

We are now dealing with a different type of story. Where once we had a beginning, middle and end, as readers and storytellers we can fall into a story at any point. We can link into the middle of a raging debate or witness the genesis of an idea that can change the world, and the narrative that we
are dealing with is no longer linear but multi-textual, layered, overlapping and promiscuous. The ideas and stories care not for their creator but freely leap from one mind to the next — sometimes appearing simultaneously across the globe — with storytellers tapping into a powerful worldwide zeitgeist.

The new art of conversation relies not on a sense of ownership but on a willing openness on the part of storytellers of all kinds. In fact, the jealous storyteller may well find that “their” ideas, brands, concepts or other “intellectual property” will laughingly thumb its nose at its creator and walk off, hand-in-hand with the idea-next-door. Whether we like it or not, our brands, ideas and
stories are no longer our own … they are out there promiscuously reinventing themselves word by word.

Lead Generation, Community, ROI and Other Games of Chance

Conferences, Creativity, Crowdsourcing, Digital Strategy, Flaneurs, Innovation, Social Judgement, Social Media, Storytelling, Strategy

Back in April I had the opportunity to speak at the ConnectNow conference. It was quite a daunting situation as I was the first speaker at the three day event featuring people such as Tara Hunt, Darren Rowse, Brian Solis, Katie Chatfield, Jim Stewart, Debs Shultz, Stephen Johnson, Hau Man Chow, Laurel Papworth and Gary Vaynerchuck, but I saw my role as setting the scene – creating a platform for the following days.

I looked at lead generation, community, ROI, discussing:

  • What works
  • How to sustain it
  • What to expect

Along the way, I pick up on the recurring themes that I write about here on my blog. Topics such as how audiences are changing (the new B2C), the Auchterlonie Effect and why it is the future of your brand, continuous digital strategy, influence and fat value. 

Marketing Briefs and Designing for Collective Action

Co-creation, Creativity, Crowdsourcing, Digital Strategy, Innovation, Social Media, Strategy

Often, when it comes to advertising and broader marketing, social media is bolted onto the side of existing programs. There’ll be a request for a “Facebook”, expectations of a Twitter account and maybe even a blog. But if you are serious about creating a successful BUSINESS program, then integration is the way to go.

“Integrated marketing” has been one of the great promises for years – but is notoriously difficult to achieve. There are different silos (and often different agencies) responsible – and budgets are often spread thinly across the campaign architecture. Unfortunately, one agency’s view of the client’s business objective is often different to another’s – and even where there is alignment, the specialty of each silo or agency will dictate a preference for approach, channel and budget.

Creating a collective view of the problem – and a shared commitment to solving it is the end game. That’s partly why I love this great presentation by Mike Arauz. On the one hand, you can read it as-is – a great investigation into the mechanisms behind collective action. So as you are going about the business of building your strategies, think about how you design for the outcome you want to achieve, and consider how the network will play a role in that.

On the other hand, think about collective action from your business or agency management point of view. How do you create the change you need to support your program? What can be designed and orchestrated to transform behaviour? And how do you use the collective intelligence genome (see slides below) to drive this all forward?

Design for Networks

View more presentations from Mike Arauz.