2008, boy I wished that happened

WOW, What a year! Bronze Moggie in the bag, congrats to Jonathan for taking out the big one.

Here is my list of stuff I wished had happened to me in 2008

Social Media Project I wished I got off the ground: Telstra Bigpond Twitter, these guys need some massive props, I think they were the first real big Australian players to do something awesome and meaningful in Social Media.

Blog I wished I wrote: Truly Heinous, I found this blog yesterday and it is my new favourite read. It is like Imnotantisocial and Aktifmag had a blog baby and created awesomeness.

Degree I wished I'd finished: That old Masters in Marketing at Monash will be still waiting for me in 2019. I have got 4 units left but am struggling to find the motivation to finish it.

Video I wished I created: Hmm, it is close between

Trent from Punchy


or

this remix of Kersal Massive


Animal I wished I had become: NARWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL I got a Narwal t-shirt in The Population Kris Kringle. To get you all excited for the t shirt, I will be wearing for Friday morning breakfasts here is some Narwal photos.
An early depiction of the first Narwal (hence the resemblance to its father the Unicorn)
More Polar Bears are killed by Narwals each year than Global Warming
They roll around in crews of 10 to 100, kind of like the G-Unit of the sea
Narwals are hunted for their horns (most hunters vechile of choice is Helicopter, used fot quick escape), these guys messed with the wrong Narwal, they ripped out his horn and then he went nuts and nearly ate the Helicopter

Moral of the story: Narwals Rock!

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Andrew O'Keefe drunk footage No Big Deal!

Social Media helps to contextualise stories within society

Case in point is the recent footage of Andrew O’Keefe drunken night out in Melbourne.


Herald Sun ran it as a piece trying to disapprove of Andrew behaviour. It was only when the footage ended up on Youtube that the public was given a voice.



Instead of people disapproving Andrew’s behaviour they are actually more critical of the role of the Herald Sun and the filmers of this footage.

It kind of reminds me of the Kevin Rudd in the strip club fiasco, most analyst saw it as a blow to the Labour party. In my eyes it just showed that Rudd was human, when did going to a strip club become illegal?

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An incredibly cynical take on 10 strategic blogging tactics used on you at this blog

Guest post from Mark Pollard (@markpollard, Flickr, Stealth Magazine):
strategy-maker, professional people-watcher and word-assembler.

Note: this post comes with a free copy - available for a limited time only - of the 10 Secret Moves from the Ultimate Blogger's Ultimate Blogging Playbook for Crazy Success.


This is the dirtiest post you will read for a long time.

It exposes the cunning strategies of mastermind social play-maker, Julian Cole. Yes, the blonde-quaffed man who 'innocently' blogs here every day. The thing is, after watching Mr Cole from afar, I quickly came to the belief that he had to be in possession of the Ultimate Blogging Strategy Playbook. The one the seniors kept hidden in American Pie, and passed on to younger generations when the time was right.

Only this playbook isn't about the sacred gyrations of the nether-regions and weird positions that would pull hamstrings the world over. No, the playbook in Cole's hands is about how to get you, his kind-hearted readers, to not just read his blog but to even respond to it ... and - even more sinister - subscribe to it, social-bookmark it.

He's just way too smooth. Every move is so deliberate, every shout-out so thought-through, every diagram so invitingly provocative. Once, I even saw him finish a conference PowerPoint presentation and straight-up tell people to visit his interwebsite! Unbelievable. Was this Chekov getting his bloggy groove on? Or, was it an accidental stealth maneouvre a la Adam Sandler in Water Boy?

I couldn't stand it any longer so I decided it was time to get naked. Well, to get Cole's strategy naked. Exposed. Hanging out in the breeze for all to see: freshly waxed and ready to play volleyball with some Brazilians on Bondi Beach before snacking on some late-night gelato at the Cooge Bay Hotel.

So, you want to know what he's up to? Well, here it is.


1. He is the Elmer Fudd of ego traps. Only better.
This is the oldest trick in the playbook. Name-drop, give props, source, celebrate, promote. Heaps. Let's face it, JC mentions you all the time. Yes, you, Clare Lancaster. You, Nick Crocker. Kate Richardson, you could not escape. Gavin Heaton, hurts so good, doesn't it? He even got Joseph Jaffe.

And, the young Scott Drummond, he got you really good as well. Not only did he mention you but he called you his 'hero' and posted a photo of the two of you locked in intellectual embrace. He even mentioned my digital love interest, Ian Lyons, and me but we outwitted him and zagged his zig by refusing to comment. Got him!


2. He doesn't answer his own questions. ????
As if he doesn't have all of the answers all of the time! He went to uni for ages. Cole knows only too well that leaving enough room in the mousetrap for the mouse is bound to get people to reply to his posts. I especially like his '????' tactic. Masterstroke. I also like the 'help me with my big conference idea'. Makes you want to write something, doesn't it?


3. He fakes you out with pretend absolutism. Bam, made you look!
He got Mr Truffle a good one with PR Agencies owning Social Media because Mr Truffle apparently only reads blog headlines. He nearly got me too but I read it... well, scanned it and then got distracted and forgot to post a quickfire retort. Another example of this tactic is, Why Twitter still loses, in which he even has a blog battle with Chris Brogan. Body slammin'!


4. He knows that diagrams make things true and make him look smarter
JC is a big fan of diagrams, especially his own. He even has multiple posts where he writes about little parts of his diagrams - individually. Now, that's dedication. But what I like most about his 4 Dimensions of Social Media Marketing diagram is that he combines actual absolutism (he's taking this one seriously, not running Play 3 - Pretend Absolutism here) with big words, numbers, shapes and a line. I mean, I look at it and think, "Wow, that's got to be 2 or 3 diagrams he's squeezed into one. Smart guy."

This play deserved a diagram of its own:




5. He is very sticky social glue. Tarzan Grip, not UHU.
I don't even know how many Beersphere franchises this guy is involved with. There's Sydney Beersphere, Melbourne Beersphere, International Beersphere, the Xmas Sydney Beersphere, the Beersphere without Beer Beersphere. How many of you has he introduced? And have you bought him a beer yet? How do we know he isn't working for the alcohol industry?


6. He tells you he'll mention you at conferences. And give you a ticket.
This tactic simply isn't used enough. Not sure what to talk about? Get other people to tell you and give them a ticket that somebody else gave you, and then pretend that you're doing Speaking 2.0 - open-source type stuff. He got Jenni Beattie with this one before the Marketing 2.0 Conference (BTW, Jenni, he got you with Play 1 - Ego Trap, shortly afterwards - the nerve!). He then even put the presentation from the conference on Slideshare to continue the sharing charade but you can tell what he's about because his name is above everyone else's. Smooth operator operating correctly.


7. He bitchslaps the establishment. Establishment won't fight back.
Now, I know whose playbook he got this one from but if I named them I'd be doing Play 7 on the anti-establishment establishment. This year, he's issued smackdowns on NAB, my ironically hip hop skater friend Ben Phillips, dumb 'Pimp My...' campaigns, the Brandshop + Clemenger + George Patts Y&R all in the one post, BMF and even Nandos.

However, his most surprising gasface was blown at his own parents, proud builders of the establishment. They were members of the advertising industry, an industry Cole shows utter contempt for: Sorry Mum and Dad, I wanted to follow in your footsteps but it just doesn't look like there will be that many opportunities in your industry : ( .


8. He has list superiority complex. 3 amazing lists by Julian Cole.
Ah, Lists, how he loves thee. Cole knows that lists make him sound informed (even if he is mentioning the only 12 Historical Social Media Marketing Moments he knew). They make him sound thorough. They make him sound above than the riff-raff. Lists are smart work and easy to do.


9. He makes us think he's one of us. Not like them.
Play 7 - Bitchslap the Establishment goes a long way to accomplishing this but his other ploy is talking enough 'adult' to get away with not dressing like one except when he talks about hip hop. FTW?


10. Own, claim... then share. The ultimate power move.
Let's face it, his Top 100 Australian Marketing Pioneer Blogs was not the move of some unintelligent douchebag. This sort of stuff is the ultimate link bait because it brings together:

• Play 1 - Ego Trap: all of you who are listed looked at it, linked to it, promoted the logo
• Play 3 - Pretend Absolutism: these lists are never perfect, all-inclusive, static... absolute
• Play 4 - Diagram Smarts remixed as a chart: looks rational, smart, believable
• Play 7 - Establishment Bitchslap: Take that, 'heritage media'! (not my phrase)
• Play 8 - List Glory: one.hundred.blogs...top.ones. Pow!
• Play 9 - One of us: he was too soft to put himself at the top

Play 10 is all about him being all about you. It mentions you. It gives you a structure to believe in and propagate because it may make you famous. It provokes you: "Why am I only ranked there? Who did the maths on this?" It looks official... and becomes official when you believe in it. It's a king list. But JC looks like he's promoting your cause... all at the same time. Blitzkrieg!


< /End >
Game over, Cole. You've been outed. Put your Coogee Bay Hotel gelato down and hand over that playbook before the volleyball-playing Brazilians yank it out of your Speedos.


Author's note
Why did I write this? Because I want to be in the audience when he speaks at TED. I always wanted to get the back of my head onto one of those videos. Oh, and Julian called me on it.

Safe and happy holidays, all!
@markpollard, Flickr

Act now! Get free blogging secrets! This post comes with a free copy of the 10 Secret Moves from the Ultimate Blogger's Ultimate Blogging Playbook for Crazy Success - available only while the internet and Flickr stay up. * We take no responsibility for the ridiculous success that the Ultimate Blogging Playbook secrets will give you. And please don't hurt yourself along the way.

Want to read more?
Try 7 things hip hop taught me about community

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Humanising your website

I am currently doing online publicity for Dosh Wallet (the case study is on it’s way). Anyway I have been in contact with a number of top blogs in male culture fashion and design. One that caught my attention the other day was NotCot, I was presented with this screen after submitting an email.

winner.

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Australian Marketing Bloggers, Raise your glasses to 2008

Australian Marketing Blogs just took a giant step forward with the recently departed Managing Editor of B&T Tim Burrowes starting the blog, Mumbrella. The site is in BETA and will launch in February, but it looks like it will be vying as a serious online industry news source up there with Campaign Brief and Marketing Mag, Adnews and B&T daily newsletters.

It has been a great year for Marketing Blogging, there have been a raft of new quality blogs, we have also had a lot of success with getting the Top 50 Marketing Pioneer Blogs published in traditional media, and seen an increase in the number of people at Friday Morning Social Media breakfast.

If you are not doing anything tonight you should come along and celebrate a great year at Sydney Christmas Beersphere.

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7 things hip hop taught me about community

Guest Post from Mark Pollard (@markpollard): Currently, lead digital strategist at Leo Burnett. Moving in new year. Shhh. But more importantly CEO/Chief Editor/Administrator of Stealth Magazine


In the spirit of learning, the official soundtrack to this post


Over the past few years, when I've not been making strategy or changing nappies, chances are I've been doing something connected to hip hop. The good kind. Not the kind you made fun of when we were at school. The kind that makes you think, that challenges your perception of the world and makes you want to become more skillful.

Now, hip hop - as with most sub-cultures - comes with a lot of rules and hierarchy. It can be a difficult community to crack because it grew up being taken advantage of (by film-makers, photographers, record labels, media, advertisers). But the advent of the internet allowed newcomers to circumvent the system, to build new communities that weren't reliant on the rules of the hip hop establishment, and to find new audiences and distribution channels. My magazine, Stealth, was part of that changing guard.

I first published Stealth - the magazine and website - in 1999. Within a few years, the time required to publish an independent magazine (in its heyday it was 108 pages, full colour and came with a CD-Rom) led to the decision to simply turn the website into an online forum. This will change in the future now that print is becoming even more difficult to sustain.

The forum currently averages 20,000 visitors per month (with about 50% of traffic coming from search), hosts over 120,000 posts, and is read by people key to the scene, journalists, academics (one even wrote a paper on the dynamics on our message board - see footnote) and upcomers alike. Adsense covers hosting and I'd spend less than 1 hour per month on maintenance.

Here are a few things I've learnt from running the forum and creating a media vehicle that's purpose was about giving a voice to the under-represented and being an active part of a real-world community.


Work hard for credibility
This is a give and take kind of thing. Hard to earn, easy to lose. It takes time - you can't just launch something and expect people to take you seriously. You need to live and breathe it - not delegate it. You need to take a hit for the community, promote their cause - not just yours, work your arse off... then they'll respect you. Ammunition: knowledge, connections, ability and willingness to make things happen - for other people.


Help the influencers
Not ALL influencers are worth your time. Sometimes the people who seem the most influential are just the loudest and are the worst to deal with. I've often come across people I'd call King of the Kids - grown men who want the approval and following of teenagers (and hang out with them all the time because it makes them feel important). They look influential but don't always have people's best interests at heart, and will always complain. However, the influencers who are worth connecting with will help you help them help you once you've invested energy in them. Get to know them personally - and don't sell to them. They're too smart for that.


Anonymity sucks, authenticity's cool
Don't be an anonymous brand 'doing viral' (and don't 'do viral') and don't allow people to post or contribute to your websites anonymously. Our website has a low number of members (under 2000) compared to the number of visitors (over 120,000 uniques per year) so I temporarily experimented with anonymous posting. It led to really bad karma on the site with people putting each other down. Lord of the Flies stuff. Real relationships are built through authenticity - it's one reason I used to insist writers in Stealth be credited with their real names (unless they were known figures).


Drama wins every time
As with most blogs you read, the posts that get the most views have DRAMA. Any time there was a fight, any time there was sledging between different graffiti crews, these posts would get the most views. Quickly. When Triple J started to play Australian hip hop, I wrote that the hip hop they chose was gimmicky and slightly racist (long story), and within days we'd had thousands of views. This is the sort of stuff that gets emailed around, talked about face to face. If it isn't hurting someone, it's OK to let it happen. If you do it intentionally, all the time, people will bore quickly.


You need to let go
Yes, this point is in every "Thingamajig 2.0" presentation. What I found is that creating a 'leadership' vacuum (ie for the main people to not always be the ones who solve problems, post articles) leads to other people getting more involved, feeling ownership of the community. Over time, you get a feeling for the people who care most about your online community so I would invite them to become moderators and see how else I could work with them (employ them, ask them to write, etc). Letting go is not about being negligent. It's about not being anal and controlling.


People self-regulate
Following on from the previous point, letting go typically sees communities of people self-regulate - especially if a mutual set of values is understood and shared (something a brand can expedite). And if people aren't allowed to be anonymous. If debate is smart and of substance (and doesn't lead to physical threats), then let it happen - and don't feel you need to express a point of view or take sides.


Offline influences online
I'm finding this point true with my recent (and second) flirtation with Twitter. Much as offline brand activity can spike online activity (eg watching a TVC can lead directly to Google), much as meeting your Twitter friends face to face leads to more @ messages and other networking opportunities, if you run a community, get off the computer as much as possible to meet that community. It will make a lot of difference. It's why this post is on Julian's blog right now.


So, really, the main points here are about being 'real' - not hiding behind a corporate veil, and understanding that the online world (for brands as much as people) truly follows many of the same human and tribal truths we know intuitively. Oh, and there's nothing wrong with making mistakes - there's no drama in perfection.



Stealth stuff on the interwebs
Website
Twitter
Flickr
YouTube
MySpace
Facebook group
Wikipedia
Last.FM


Sub-note:
We've had a few occasions where the forum has attacked journalists and academics. One of the most interesting started after members of our message board had criticised Ian Maxwell's book, Phat Beats. He came across their criticisms and then wrote a paper ("When Worlds Collide: A Subculture Writes Back") about the online community hierarchy without consulting anyone - it was a bit mean. The paper was then found, posted and criticised until he eventually joined the forum and discussed his thoughts. DRAMA! Read the post here.



Next week: How Julian Cole games you: A cynical take on strategic blogging

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School of Peter Wagstaff

I now am proudly sporting my Student of Peter Wagstaff badge. Without Peter, I would not have got to where I am today, therefore I see it as really important to show my support for a man who is raising the bar of higher level education in Australia.

A lot of the success stories of Monash Caulfield Marketing graduates in the Industry, will ultimately lead back to, Peter. He has an unwavering passion for Marketing that has been instilled into a number of students of his units.

When the current revenue model for Universities is actually not students but researching grants (that might help to explain a number of socially challenged lecturers at Universities). You have to take your hat off to Peter who has prioritsed teaching students over research (I would imagine he would be in the minority of academics at Universities).

Congratulations and thank you to Monash Marketing Department for giving us access to such a great teacher and mentor within your ranks.

Don’t just believe what I have to say about him hear the other students of Peter Wagstaff

Rick Clarke, Zac Martin, Simon Oboler, Josh Strawczynski

If you are not already subscribed to Peter Wagstaff's, Marketing Today Podcast do it! Also check out his blog Renewed on the changing role of new media.

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Christmas Beersphere w/ Santa Gillespie

I am proposing a Chirstmas Beersphere for next Monday.

Lounge Cafe, 277 Goulburn Street, Surry Hills
6:30pm Monday 15th December

I think it is warranted as we will also have a special guest in David Gillespie who is leaving our sweet shores heading to Toronto. David will have presents for all, so come one, come all.

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Mememolly leveraging audience equity!

image via memememolly
MemeMolly is a great example of a Vlogger/content producer who is commercializing her audience equity on Youtube. She is the 4th most subscribed Canadian on Youtube. Here are two examples of her commercial nouse.

She recorded this music video clip for artist Ali Slaight, she helped to bring 40,000 new listeners to her music.


On MemeMolly homepage she has also given up her prime video position to the MyDamnChannel, a commercial channel sponsored by Southern Comfort.


On a side note; this is a few of the better channels that I am subscribed to on Youtube (full listing here).

Entertainment
Frezned (AUS)
Community Channel (AUS)
Dominic Donovan
MemeMolly
Wallstrip

Music
Modular Records (AUS)
DJ Flagrant (AUS)
Bob Burnham

Advertising/Social Media
B&T Mag (AUS)
MarketingMag
Yerom
Social Media Blog
Ayeletknoff

Gruen Transfer blogger Michael Lanyon has just started playing around with animated blog posts which is something new. He has a great kick off post on Marketing downloadable content.

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PR Agencies own Social Media Marketing

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.

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Mobile Marketing is not scary anymore!

The idea of Mobile Marketing always used to scare me because I didn’t understand it. Then my Population colleague Ben Cooper broke it down for me.

‘Mobile Marketing is just another name for the portable web.’

This is a really great 2min video on the evolution of the screen.

Fourth screen by Nokia.

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Facebook Connect and what it means for Marketers

You have got to check out this presentation. Good use of 2 minutes!

What's The Social Graph Got To Do With It?

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: portability leonard-hansen)

Ross Raeburn just pointed me in the direction of this awesome slide presentation and post by Alison Leonard Hansen.

There are 4 things I like about her post;

1. This shows how this technology can be misused.

2. I am just a sucker for a good bit of response feedback. Check out the comments by David Deal, aka Razorfish

3. Alison's Tagline is spot on;

Musings from a social media "current iteration of the Web" junkie.

Social Media is just a current iteration of the web. David Gillespie talked about this recently.

4. There is a unicorn at the top of the page! TAKE THAT STAN LEE!

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