Pigs Don't Fly

Reaching Critical Mass Through Social Media

2012-01-17T21:58:00.006+11:00

It seems like even the laggard brands are now finding their way on Facebook. And what better way to kick things off than running a big promotion with a big prize.

Wrong.

Brands are relying too heavily on "going viral" and "amplification through social networks" and "sharing". As a result there are far too many social media promotions happening at the moment producing less than average ROIs. Big budget promotions are only receiving very little uptake.

It's pretty much the reason I recently won a car. In fact right now I am in with a pretty good chance to win $10,000 in a video competition... where less than 30 people entered. (You can help get me across the line by voting here, it only takes four seconds.)

Brands fail to understand that to run a big social media promotion you either need a cracking idea, a big media buy, or an already established audience. You can't launch and expect big results from your small community.

Instead, start with small, regular promotions until you've built up a sizeable audience. Then start giving away cars and large sums of cold, hard cash.

5 Tips for Handling a Media 'Scandal'

2011-11-27T16:00:00.007+11:00

What a year I've had, two media 'scandals' in six months. In May I was accused of writing offensive tweets that supposedly meant I couldn't do my job and just last week I apparently cheated my way into winning a new car.

Between the two 'scandals' (and I use the word lightly) I've managed to be the most read article on The Age website, the lead story on Channel 10 news and even had a joke made about me by Dave Hughes on The Project.

Here are the five things I've learned about handling what is quite a daunting experience for a 22-year-old.

1) Anything can be a story
What I didn't realise until recently was that anything could be a story.

It doesn't matter if it's pointless or what I would deem 'a non story'. It particularly doesn't matter if it's a scandal for the sake of being a scandal.

You might think the content of the story isn't newsworthy, but you have to ask yourself, "What is the headline?". Because if the situation can be condensed into a scandalous headline, the rest of the article doesn't matter. And that's why something as innocent as a tweet or a mention of the word 'BFF' three years ago can apparently be news.

2) Don't feed the trolls
It's quite incredible how crazy some people can be. Despite being ill informed and unwilling to be informed, social media has allowed these people a voice.

It's tempting to respond to their blatant stupidity or cruelty, but don't. Trolls don't argue with logic so you're just wasting your time, and more importantly any response can be used as fodder by journos to make things worse.

Trolls are best left in silence.

3) Don't feed the journos (some of whom are also trolls)
Simply put, don't comment on the scandal.

Again it's hard not to, but by doing so you're throwing fuel on the fire and potentially getting yourself into another news cycle.

The quality of journalism and research in both of my 'scandals' were incredibly poor, yet the best option was to remain quiet and let the story die as quickly as it came.

No one ever got in trouble for not making a comment.

4) Do the ground work to win the SEO game
Articles and 'scandals' like these hurt people, especially when it comes to their Google results. One news piece could cost you and your reputation years down the track when a potential employer (or potential date) runs your name in a Google search.

To avoid this as much as possible, you've got to be proactive. Thankfully I've got this blog that I've been writing for four years and a number of other platforms that help my search results. They will (hopefully) always trump a rogue journalist who decides to use my name.

It's unreasonable to assume you'll never be a front page story (just ask 21-year-old Zac!). The best defence you can have to protect your page rank on Google against shoddy journalism is a quality blog or website. If you don't have one, best you get started.

5) Ride it out
Once the story breaks, you can't do anything about it.

If you've followed the advice above then the story should be dead within a news cycle and the damage won't be too extensive. You can't control how you're portrayed or what peple say about you, so you're best to ride it out and remember that in a few days no one will remember or give a shit.

It's been a crazy few experiences, certainly not something I want to repeat. Hopefully I don't have to follow these tips myself ever again.

Two scandals is enough for one lifetime.

I'd Happily Pay for "Free" Content

2011-10-19T11:49:00.004+11:00

I don't pay for most of my content, and I haven't for a long time.

Even my once beloved DVD collection has been replaced by torrents. My music and television shows have long been downloaded and most recently, I've even started torrenting my books and reading them on an iPad.

It's fair to say, I don't pay for content. But I want to.

I do realise that someone needs to pay for it, and I'd be willing to do so if it was easy and 100% of the money went to the team who produced it.

I'd happy throw a few dollars to an author of a book if I knew it was going directly to them (and their editor, etc.) Likewise for a band, and it could even for movies and television shows. What I don't want to pay for is the unnecessary cost of middle men, distributors and physical production.

I've just finished reading five Game of Thrones books. I didn't pay for them, but seeings how they kept me busy for the best part of two months, I'd happy give a good amount of money to George R. R. Martin and his crew if it was easy. But I can't find a donation button anywhere, and the only way to 'pay' is to give a large proportion of the money to the likes of Amazon and Angus & Robertson.

At the end of an ebook, television series or album, there should be an option to donate/pay, with the proceeds going directly to those who produced it.

I know then I'd pay for content instead of 'stealing' it.

The Next Generation of Start Ups

2011-09-13T15:18:00.003+10:00

I went paint balling on the weekend for the first time. Not only did I leave with a few welts across my back, but also with a feeling of how poorly the business was managed from a digital experience sense.

The website was hard to find and hard to use. It wasn't intuitive and lacked a number of features that would make the process of organising 20 guys on a buck's party much easier.

Everyone talks about the next generation of entrepreneurs starting up the next Facebook or Angry Birds, but I think there's a bigger opportunity; your everyday businesses, particularly services. Paint balling, plumbing, computer repairs, and car washing; everyday analogue businesses.

But unlike their current-day counterparts, the next generation of business start ups will be run by digital natives. They'll have killer websites (personalised, localised and mobile optimised) and will crush their competition in SEO.

I'm in half a mind to ditch this advertising nonsense and see what I could make of a paint balling business.

Always Be Building

2011-08-15T12:06:00.003+10:00

My post Move Fast and Break Things got a fairly good response so I decided to present it to some undergraduates last week. After the presentation I was talking to some students about Angry Birds Blog, the example I used of something they could build.

And then I let them in on a secret. Angry Birds Blog wasn't the first thing I built. Nor will it be the last.

Some of you may remember an online business I tried to get off the ground that failed miserably. None of you know about a number of other websites I have that get less than 100 hits a month. And as we speak I have another project in the works for people who like beer.

It doesn't matter if you build something and it doesn't work. It doesn't have to be a success for you to learn from it. And if it's so bad that you need to pull the plug, then do so and go and build something else.

That's the thing about the internet; you can always be building.

How to Combine or Merge Facebook Pages

2011-08-03T11:48:00.001+10:00

About a year ago, I wrote how it was possible to merge unofficial Facebook pages if you had a big enough media buy.

However a recent change now means that anyone can apply to have fans migrated from an unofficial page over to an official one, even without a contact as Facebook. Although they don't promote it much, the steps are quite simple and are as follows:

You will need to 'authenticate' your official page by submitting it for review here (it doesn't look legit but it is!). This may take up to a few business days to complete.
Once authenticated, you can request that the fans from unofficial pages be migrated across to the official one here. Again, this may take a few days.

This is not normally the type of content I post here, but I figure it's a great piece of knowledge to have and is usually an easy way to get some fan growth. And at the same time you're reducing the potential risk of your brand in someone else's hands.

If it works for you, be sure to buy me a beer sometime.

Move Fast and Break Things

2011-07-26T14:30:00.021+10:00

'Move fast and break things' is a philosophy I've stolen from Facebook's work culture. Anyone who's seen The Social Network movie will know this ideology is at the core of everything they do, demonstrated by the regular Hackathon events they host where programmers stay up all night building for the purpose of building.

The outcome isn't necessarily important. It doesn't have to be perfect, nor necessarily functional. But by moving fast and breaking things, they approach problems in a different light that creates new solutions and new ideas. Many of Facebook's features have come out of these Hackathon events.

So why am I writing about it? Well, I think it lends itself to great advice for graduates looking to land themselves a gig in digital;

Build something.

Building something these days generally costs next to nothing. A lack of technical skills is no excuse either given Google is at your finger tips. And the only thing you'll need you should have plenty of as a student; time.

Time to move fast. Time to break things. Time to learn. Time to build something.

As an undergraduate I built this blog. Everyone's got one now (not to say you shouldn't build one too), but you could build a YouTube Channel. Or an online store that sells socks. Or a video that gets 1,000,000 views.

Throw yourself in the deep end. If it fails, pull the plug and build something else.

Six months ago I started a website called Angry Birds Blog. Like me, I realised people were searching for walkthroughs, Golden Egg locations and information about the game. The website now receives 95,000 hits and brings in $150 a month. But that's nothing compared to what I've learned over the past half year about SEO, SEM, AdSense, affiliate marketing, design, coding, ad placement and more.

And I reckon if you can build something, that's probably more impressive than talking about your empty resume in a job interview.

Edit: I sold Angry Birds Blog in September 2011 for a nice little sum.

How Much Is An Invite Worth?

2011-06-14T17:58:00.005+10:00

So how much is an invite to a Facebook page worth? I'm sure there's various conflicting studies out there, so I thought I'd do some research of my own.

I asked people how much they would charge a brand to invite all their friends to the said brand's Facebook page. Some said flat out they wouldn't do it, others said they would do it for free and quite a few people said it would depend on the brand.

With a sample size of 15 of my Facebook friends, here are the results.

So there you have it, conclusive research suggests on average, an invite to a brand's Facebook page is worth 13 cents per friend.

If you're taking this seriously (you shouldn't be), this figure is of course from the point of the consumer, not the brand. But what this does mean is that if a brand can offer something worth more than 13 cents for each of their friends, it will be worth an invite.

Also, some of my friends are sellouts.

Commenting Anonymously

2011-06-05T18:25:00.006+10:00

Sean Cummins wrote a pretty serious piece regarding anonymous comments on the internet.

Here at Pigs Don't Fly I'm a fan of the anonymous commenter. I mean, I've received everything from abuse to death threats, and just last week in a very witty comment I was called a "homo". Yet I still allow anonymous commenting.

I do it because complete anonymity is a rare thing and it's one of the interesting unique features of the interwebs. Of course this has it's problems, but let's not forget the anonymous produce some of the most creative stuff on the internet (and not to mention LOLcats). They also do some pretty impressive stuff offline.

Sure, some anonymous comments are shit. But you have to take them for what they are. By allowing people to comment anonymously, they're more likely to do so and more likely to express an honest point of view. Sometimes this comes at the cost of your ego or confidence, but they're certainly not going anywhere.

(In before anyone, yes I'm expecting a lot of "homo" comments on this post.)

Being iPhoneless For 31 Days

2011-05-31T19:11:00.005+10:00

For the whole of May, I decided to go without my iPhone. Effectively, I went without my iPod, camera, email, calender, Angry Birds, Google Maps and Facebook.

It was interesting to say the least. Here's my takeout;

Over the course of the month, only once did I wish I had responded to an email faster. Everything else could wait until I got home or got to work.
Only a few apps were truly missed; Tram Tracker and Shazam being up there. Everything else is really good at eating up your time and making you very unproductive (mostly games).
Instead of listening to music and podcasts on the tram each day, I read three books over the course of the month. Unfortunately this meant I could also hear the amount of rubbish people talk about in public.
I stopped checking my phone every five minutes. However, having been involved in a 'news scandal' during the month, it would have been nice to be connected to watch it play out.
I could drop my burner on the ground and it didn't even matter. That was kind of nice.
And last but not least, I only had to charge my burner three times during the course of the month, and didn't once worry about running out of battery.

Good fun, I'm going to try and read one book a month on the tram and it's fair to say I've become less dependent on my iPhone. If you're interested in taking part, I have a free phone you can use, all it will cost you is a beer.

Water Wonderwall

2011-05-18T20:57:00.005+10:00

A few months ago a water feature was installed on the corner of Swanston Street and Collins Street in Melbourne. For a while, the large stone wall with water cascading down one side remained untouched. But then slowly people walking passed realised that the leaves from the trees surrounding the feature could be stuck to the wall. Quickly, messages and pictures started appearing. A walk passed this wall each lunch time would have a new piece of art every day.

As I've said before, people like to think they're creative. Yet not enough brands create things for people to interact with. This water feature is the perfect example, and it wasn't even intended to be.

I wonder what a digital/mobile version of this would look like.

Why I'm Ditching My iPhone

2011-04-28T14:47:00.005+10:00

The gents over at Native Digital ditched their iPhones. And I thought I'd do the same, so for the month of May I'll be iPhoneless, instead using this Samsung "burner" I picked up for $20.

For 31 days I'll be without reliance on a permanent connection, satisfying my digital communication and technology needs through only a desktop. It could be a long month.

I'll post the results here, but in the mean time you can follow my progress on Twitter through the #iphoneless hashtag. Although I'm not too sure how tweeting will go without my phone.

Every Time Someone Likes This Post Another Shit Status Update Has Been Written

2011-03-23T11:48:00.007+11:00

Here's some fun statistics for you that I promise I didn't make up.

71% of peeps are becoming more selective regarding the pages they Like on Facebook

The two main reasons people leave pages are because updates aren't relevant or are posted too often.

When this happens 19% of peeps do nothing, 38% block the posts from their News Feed and 43% unlike the page.

As more and more brands jump on the Facebook bandwagon, the market gets to a point of saturation and fans start to get choosey. There's only so many times you can click the Like button.

The first-mover advantage was a win if you got there, but you probably didn't which means you really need to be doing something of value on your page.

Most brands think the solution is to launch with a campaign and a media buy to build a foundation audience. Which usually works. But once that's over, they spend the rest of the year when their budget runs out pumping out pointless status updates.

There's only so many times you can ask someone to Like a status or fill in the blank. I know I'm guilty of it, where you write bait posts to crack a good level of engagement. But at some point people are going to start seeing past these shitty pointless status updates that don't mean anything.

Instead, you need to be entertaining or useful. There's enough brands trying the former (most of them failing), but not enough for the latter.

And I reckon one really useful post does better things for your brand and page than 20 pointless ones.

We're All Wannabe Copywriters

2011-02-05T17:06:00.006+11:00

Nearly everyone likes to think they're creative (even if they're not).

I'm certainly one of those people. We like to flex our creative muscles where we can, but never really go out of our way to do so. We express this in the everyday things like updating our Facebook status with something witty. Or writing a funny product review on Amazon. In fact, here are my recent feedback posts on eBay...

The brands that do community and content management the best are the ones that let their consumers be creative without having to go out of their way. Running a UGC campaign isn't always about asking people to film the next Super Bowl commercial, upload the next big viral on YouTube or be a pro in Photoshop.

Just let their inner copywriter run free. It's usually free (because people like to show off) and it creates good content to feed back into the community.

The Most Ridiculous Ad Complaint Ever

2011-02-02T18:50:00.005+11:00

The Advertising Standards Board (ASB) regularly receives quite a few ridiculous complaints. Thankfully, most of the time they're dismissed.

But I wanted to test it out myself. And what better way to do so than with this recently released Pure Blonde ad...

Here's how it played out...

23rd November 2010
I submit the following complaint on the ASB website...

"On the weekend just passed I was enjoying a cup of delicious tea while watching some Sunday night programming only to be confronted by an appalling commercial for Pure Blonde beer.

I am sure I am not alone when I say winged-horse enthusiasts like myself will be outraged at the disgusting lack of treatment regarding the magnificent animal in this commercial. The rare creature is clearly depicted in distress and suggests it is later physically harmed or, god forbid, killed. While some consider these beautiful beasts nothing but mythical, this ad supports animal cruelty for those of us who know the truth and it must be taken off the air."

24th November 2010
The Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code (ABAC) Adjudication Panel dismisses the complaint regarding any breaches of the ABAC Code.

13th December 2010
The complaint is scheduled for submission to the ASB for a potential breach of Section 2 of the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) Code of Ethics.

2nd February 2011
After consideration, the ASB dismisses the complaint and issues the following response...

"At the time of writing this, the commercial had been on national television for over 3 weeks and has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. In relation to the complaint [...] we'd just like to state that no harm to the 'Pegasus' (a mythical horse that has wings – brought to life here through special effects) is depicted. Whilst the horse is clearly startled when the mountain starts to crumble – as are the humans featured – and does move with the mountain as it gives way, the horse does not come to any physical harm in the commercial.

In addition to this, given the horse has wings it's completely reasonable to extrapolate that it flew away to safety."

"This is the only complaint of its kind that we have received."

I can't believe it's someone's job to waste their time considering and responding to people like me.

It Begins

2011-02-01T17:19:00.002+11:00

Yesterday I arrived home from a trip around the world in 21 days. For the final unit of my degree, we traveled to Hong Kong, London, Milan, Madrid, Paris, New York & Los Angeles. Over the three weeks we visited brands and agencies such as Google, Ogilvy & Mather, DDB, L'Oreal, Citroen, Arsenal and Zara. Good times.

And tomorrow I start my full time career at George Patts.

I think I just hit a new stage in the life cycle.

The Popularity Paradox

2011-01-05T09:10:00.003+11:00

I'm going to call it the popularity paradox, where something becomes too popular and peeps turn away from the lack of individualism. It's in every aspect of our lives from avoiding mass fashion and art to paying out on mainstream music to not buying an iPhone even though you secretly want one but everyone else has one therefore you can't.

Here's some interesting examples from Facebook...

1) As parents jump on Facebook, their children turn away.
2) Bigger fan pages tend to have lower levels of engagement because when something already has 3,000 comments I'm less likely to add my own.
3) Exclusive access for college students was arguably the key to Facebook's initial success.

So how do you stop something becoming too popular? By the time it happens, does it even matter? And how can brands use social media to minimalise mainstreamism?

I really don't know, but I haven't posted in a while and that's what was on my mind today.

Worst Movies Ever

2010-12-14T08:20:00.005+11:00

I've come to hate my DVD collection.

It was once something I was proud of; a collection of great movies that had grown considerably over the years. In fact movies were the only form of content I was willing to pay for, unlike the music and television shows I downloaded for free.

But I've realised it's become an expensive waste of physical space, for many reasons.

Not only is the DVD case poorly designed and unnecessarily large, it's quickly being replaced by Blu-Ray. And were I to update my collection to Blu-Ray, I'm certain even that would become obsolete within a few years. And while your standard definition DVD's (which by the way I think are fine quality wise) seem to be on the way out, retailers have no problems stinging you $40+ for a new release.

And if I were to try and sell my collection today, I reckon I'd be lucky to get $5 for each one.

Unfortunately I can't see myself paying for digital downloads, which means over time I'm going to steal the content to replace my current collection. I figure if I've paid for it once, I don't need to again, right?

Now I only need to work out a way to download special features. And find someone willing to pay more than a gold coin for my collection.

Anyone else have the same frustration? How many people have as stack of CDs collecting dust?

The Risk of Hardcore Fans

2010-11-29T21:51:00.009+11:00

Stephen King wrote the novel Misery that later became a movie of the same name. Although I've not read it, Wikipedia tells me it's a story about a women who rescues an author after he crashes his car in the snow. She recognises him as her favourite author of a series she's obsessed with. Locked in by the snow, she takes him to her home and nurses him for months. However she discovers a manuscript of his latest novel and doesn't like it. Her series is ruined and it eventually leads her to cut off his foot, holds him captive and forces him to rewrite the ending.

I think social media, particularly community managers, are increasingly going to have the same problem.

Social media is great for building a community around your brand, or bringing together an already established one. What you can then do with this group of evangelists is limited only by your creativity.

But by bringing together this group of hardcore fans, you also bring in the fans that are a little too hardcore; the fans whose obsession with your brand becomes harmful. They don't quite fit the mold of your perfect target market, where their social awkwardness is not limited on platforms of such an impersonal nature. Their constant activity becomes spam and a slight wrongdoing in their eyes creates an unwarranted response. These obsessed lovers become haters.

I have a friend who does promo work, usually giving away free samples. I found it amusing when she told me she was only allowed to approach consumers who were in the target market, but never to turn down anyone when they approached her, no matter who they were. Many of those who approached her would not reflect positively on the brand. But she dealt with them by keeping them happy, allowing them to move on.

But with social media these people don't have to leave. These crazies can continue to interact with the normals and when you create a branded community, they think they're being encouraged to do so.

And dealing with these people can be difficult. Particularly if you like your feet.

Six Things I Learned From A Marketing Degree

2010-11-10T14:33:00.007+11:00

Yesterday I stepped out of my last exam thus completing a Bachelor of Business (Management/Marketing) from Monash University. Well technically I still have a piece of assessment due in March but let's not talk about that. Looking back, in a concluding sort of manner, here's the six lessons I take away from my time as an undergraduate.

1) Play the game
University is about playing the game. Once you learn how to work the system, achieving good grades is easy. I worked it out towards the end of my second year, and my grades were consistently better from there on out. It's not about saying the right thing but giving the teachers what the want to hear.

Students aren't encouraged to apply themselves, they're told what to write, do "research" (read: plagarise off a journal article) and any form of creative execution goes unrewarded. Instead you play the game to get the grades.

2) It's important where you sit
For some reason universities are far too keen on group work. Which I don't have a problem with because that's the way it should be done in the grown up world. However if you're caught in a shit group, it's too bad. Upon raising concerns with teachers about said group you'll be told that it's too bad, in the real world you don't get to choose who you work with. Except in the real world people who are shit don't get employed. And if they don't do anything they lose their job.

In some cases I single handedly carried useless groups to HDs (arrogant but true). The best way to overcome this is to make sure you attend in Week 1 and sit next to "good" people and try and get into a group with them.

3) Be loud
Being the loud arrogant kid in class isn't all bad. Opinionated students never receive anything but full marks for class participation and presentations. Even if what you're saying is rubbish the fact that you're saying it gets you points. Especially when you sit in a class full of people unable to speak up in front of others.

4) Rote learning is for winners
Studying the night before an exam trying to think of stupid acronyms to help you remember a list of six items that you forget on the way out of the exam got me through my degree. Likewise for when a tutor tells you that you can't do an assignment the night before it's due. Challenge accepted and you prove them wrong when you smash it.

5) Drink beer with your lecturers
Well, the cool ones anyway. It makes a massive difference when you can rock up to Week 1 and the tutor or lecturer already knows you because you've met them through other staff members. Can't state enough how helpful this is, especially beyond academic performance.

6) Uni teaches you to learn
Most importantly; I will finish on the the biggest point. Uni helped me realise my career interest. I wouldn’t say it taught me a lot about it, perhaps a few basics, but it did teach me to get off my ass if I wanted to follow it and go out on my own to learn it.

In many ways, it taught me that university couldn't teach me what I needed to know. It got me interested in marketing and ultimately advertising, which made me realise I needed to learn on my own by reading books not on the text list, start a blog, meet people in the industry, do internships and ultimately score a gig.

I suppose that's a rather negative take on the past four years of my life, one that will no doubt change as I look back on it in the future. There are certainly a few teachers who do good things and I would like to thank them.

And I suppose because of that last point alone the ridiculous HECS debt and the piece of paper I receive when I graduate will be worth it.

Deliberately Flawed

2010-11-06T17:31:00.004+11:00

Research is flawed. Incentivising it creates a defective outcome.

But as I sat in a focus group the other day I couldn't help but wonder if someone had ever deliberately partaken in their competitors' research just to screw with the results.

That would make a great blog post.

Six Tips For Running An Internship

2010-10-20T18:35:00.005+11:00

Old timer Julian Cole wrote a cracker of a post, Six Tips to Nailing an Internship. I was fortunate enough to do two internships with Naked Communications and George Patterson Y&R, and would def recommend his list for any students looking for some experience.

But what about the other side of the coin? Based on my own expiration and many of my friends', here's six things I've learnt on how to run a kick ass internship...

1) Make them feel like one of the boys
Give them their own desk, stationary, computer, email address, rubbish bin, phone; you name it. Nothing says "temporary" like coming into work and having to wait for a chair.

2) Don't start the first day at 9am
Especially if it's a Monday. No one is ever prepared for an intern to come in first thing in the morning. On the first day give them the morning off and do an induction that afternoon. Make day two the big day they can get started.

3) Give them more than enough work
Perhaps the biggest complaint among my friends who have done internships, there's never enough work. Which kinda surprises me given how busy everyone is always complaining they are. There's often no expectation on an intern's capability, so make sure you've got something lined up when they come back from a two hour task half an hour later. This is generally why an intern will leave at 5.30pm.

4) Give them feedback on everything
Pretty self explanatory. On every task they do.

5) One long meaningful project is best
Rather than giving them a number of tasks each day that don't really mean anything, try to work out a project that will last the period of the internship. It allows them to think a bit deeper, keeps them occupied and they walk away feeling like they've actually achieved something.

6) Sit them next to someone rad
Don't sit them next to other interns. Put them next to someone who they can annoy all day with questions and who will show them which places to avoid food poisoning from at lunchtime. I sat next to Praveen during my last internship and learnt a heap just from him. Makes a massive difference.

I think sometimes organisations think they're doing interns a favour by taking them on. Which is completely true, just make sure the intern is getting the most out of it. I certainly appreciated it and they will too.

What does your organisation do to make their internships kick ass?

Happy Third Birthday

2010-10-17T14:03:00.001+11:00

Today my blog celebrates its third birthday. Over the past 365 days I have...

+ Posted 70 times.
+ Had 16,765 visits.
+ Had 29,224 pageviews.
+ Received 441 comments.
+ Peaked at 657 RSS Subscriptions.
+ And 35 email ones.
+ Completed an internship at George Patterson Y&R.
+ Started my career as the Social Media Manager at George Patterson Y&R.
+ Ran a $100,000 campaign.
+ Appeared a few times on the Gen Y Marketing Podcast (not really an achievement, just giving them some love)
+ Completed my third year at university.
+ Celebrated my twenty first birthday.

And just in case you're interested, here are my statistics from last year's birthday.

I certainly didn't give this blog enough attention over the past year. I kicked off my career while uni and work commitments have certainly taken priority, although in many ways getting a job was one of the reasons I started this blog so all is well. Who knows what will happen to this space over the next twelve months. Either way, I hope you continue to read and comment. Thank you.

Zac Sells Out

2010-10-05T11:37:00.005+11:00

Perhaps naively, a few years ago I promised I would never run AdSense on this blog.

Well I haven't quite broken that promise, but perhaps I've come close.

I was recently approached by someone to include a link to their website in an old post of mine. The link was fairly relevant to the post and I bet you couldn't find it if you tried.

They said they would give me $100 to do it. So I accepted.

Am I a sellout or what?

Digging Up Content

2010-09-22T21:24:00.007+10:00

Google changed everything. Suddenly, everything became about search. You could find anything with Google.

But this is changing. It is no longer about search. That takes time. Time to decide what you're looking for. Time to find the right key words. Time to filter the results.

Instead, it's now about discovery. Where the content finds you.

Where is this most prevalent? Your Facebook News Feed and your Twitter stream. And with the recent implementation of Facebook's Open Graph, content will come better recommended to us, with more relevance, drastically reducing the need for us to search.

Eventually, everyone will have their own personalised Digg where the content is almost perfectly relevant, recommended from the people you want on the topics you want.