“Transparency & honesty is the only way. Fake personas suck.”

If the Twitter stream is anything to go by, the crowd appreciated David’s insights:

With ticket sales closing tomorrow, time is quickly running out to see David for yourself. Tickets for the full-day Master Class seminar can be purchased here.

Mel and Cochie’s favourite Social Media Expert, and author of Public Relations DISASTERS will be joining us to moderate the Q & A panel at the end of the Social Media Masterclass with David Meerman Scott.  We take a few minutes to find out what’s on Gerry’s  mind, and what he’ll be asking of the panel (David, James Duthie of Online Marketing Banter / Next Digital, Kate Kendall, Online Editor of Marketing Magazine,  and Trevor Young, ParkYoung, and PR Warrior).

Gerry, you’re  moderating the  Q & A Panel at the end of the Social Media Masterclass day. What are some of the key topics you are interested in exploring?

Selfishly, because I implement social media campaigns as well as teach corporates about Web2.0, I’m especially keen to find out the latest tactics and techniques of securing ‘traction’ for online campaigns. Naturally, I’ll be pressing David for new, cutting edge developments on the evaluation and ROI fronts for online campaigners, too. 

Your book Public Relations DISASTERS covered some examples of online impact in the section on World Wide Web, if you were to do a 2nd edition, might there be more examples? And which come to mind?

The book was first published in Jan 2005 Jen, which meant copy was lodged around July 04!! The media landscape has been transformed by Social Media in the last 5 years, and I’ve since been transfixed by tales of online PR disasters. A few personal faves must include:

• John Mackey’s misadventures as a pioneering CEO blogger 
• Edelman’s early and abortive ‘fake blog’ for Wal-Mart
• Kryptonite locks reputational ‘unlocking’ via a customer with a ballpoint pen
• And the Scottish Labour PR guru who used his blog to defame his soon-to-be bosses

Unbelievable!! 

Where do you see Australian businesses sitting in the global scene of social media marketing?

On the sidelines, more often than not. 

 Fear of reputational damage seems to be a big barrier to entry to social media marketing for many companies? What’s your perspective on this?

In all honesty, many of the fears are real. A lot of social media commentary is of the judgemental and detrimental kind (running the prdisasters.com blog, I should know!!) But taking a slightly longer-term issues and reputation management viewpoint, online is simply an area most companies need to be active in. As advertising and marketing dollars plus new generations of stakeholders migrate online, companies need to engage with them in the new ’stakeholder’ media and forums. I think there’s a strong case for entering the field cautiously, building rapport and trust with key online influentials and embracing a more interactive (and ideally rewarding) kind of relationship. Idyllic Jen, eh?

Ah Gerry, if we didn’t have ideals, we’d just be sitting on those sidelines – thanks for your time, we can’t wait to hear more from you and from the attendees on Friday week.

Some other things that will help in getting great content shared, is choosing a great title for your youtube video or blog post. Think creative or controversial (for example, Kraft’s Are you a wormer, streaker or a slapper?)

David also discusses the value in hiring a journalist, and discusses how ‘brand journalism’, can assist in driving people to your site. It’s all about telling compelling stories targeted to a specific buyer persona.  One website that has caught our eye recently is the Quicksilver skate site.  Amazing content, both visually, and music wise. We’re not sure if they have hired a journalist, but it really looks like they know their audience well. Their surfwear sites are similar, high impact, exciting, good local customisation and worth telling your mates about. Gnarly dude.

So there you have it, the 6 Rules of the Rave:

1. Nobody cares about your products
2. No coercion required
3. Lose control
4. Put down roots
5. Create triggers that encourage people to share
6. Point the world to your virtual doorstep.

If reading about these isn’t enough, and you want to hear from and interact with David, then there’s about 10 days left to get your ticket to his Social Media and Online Marketing Masterclass at Champions, Federation Square. We can’t wait…

 In what is fast becoming a new and exciting occupational pursuit, Karalee Evans is representative of the new breed of conference attendees, the official Tweeter!

 After seeing @karalee_’ s fine work at other events, we asked her if she would mind tweeting from the Social Media and Online Marketing Masterclass with David Meerman Scott. We find out a little bit more about the semi professional tweeter…
 
Q: What are the attributes of a good conference tweeter?

I think the key attribute of a good conference tweeter is the ability to listen to the content and translate that to 140 characters or less. And that is hard! For me, it is understanding that people following a tweet stream of a conference are more than likely not there physically at the conference. So grabbing key insights from the presenters which are further than just a slide presentation which people can usually access, and truncating this into valuable tweets is important. What people can’t access are the little comments and advice which presenters add to their presentations and this, as well as capturing audience participation from questions and answers, makes for a value-add conference tweet stream.

 Q: And what makes for a great conference to tweet at?

A great conference to tweet at is an engaging conference where you feel compelled to share the pieces of pure insight-gold generously given to you by the presenters. Oh, and as simple as it seems, a conference which has easy and sustainable access to wireless internet. This might sound obvious, but I have been to conferences where the internet access has been limited and this doesn’t boad well for tweeting. So if you want people to share their experiences at your conference, ensure they can hook up to the internet (and have access to power points).

Q: What do you see is the benefits of conference tweeting?

Sharing content from a conference via tweeting has quite a few benefits for all parties.

The conference organisers: by having participants share their views and learnings from a conference and engaging via Twitter, you are essentially opening up your conference to a whole new audience who may be so engaged by what they are seeing from the tweets, that they attend the conference the next year or a future conference you are organising.

The presenters: again, why not encourage an extra layer of participant engagement with your presentations? You are most likely there presenting to share your insights and hope that people take something away and incorporate your thinking in the future, so the more people who are sharing what you are presenting to their networks via Twitter or other social media platforms, the more people are being exposed to your pieces of insight-gold. Or, if the feedback is not entirely positive, then take it on board and use it to tailor your presentations for the future. This mechanism can also be used as a real-time participation tool – why not incorporate the conference tweet stream in your presentation where you can answer audience questions as they’re posed?

The tweeter: by sharing content from conferences, you are essentially giving your followers a free pass to the conference. But this is not a bad thing for anyone. Twitter is re-positioning itself to ‘Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world’ so utilising Twitter to contribute to the knowledge bank of your followers is good thing. But I would recommend you pre-warn your followers that you are tweeting from a conference or seminar and share the hashtag (e.g.. #SMOMMC) prior so that your followers can opt in or out before you start tweeting!

Q: What’s your best example of social media marketing in Australia?

You know what? I agree with Markus Hafner (@eskimo_sparky) who has said

 “Without fail my favourite social media case study is always the next one; without it we simply aren’t learning.”

This is particularly pertinent with the continuously evolving nature of social media and as public relations practitioners become more savvy with all things social media, there will be more interesting and successful usages of social media for organisations.

Although, worth noting at the moment is @Optus and their use (albeit late to the game) of Twitter to engage with and assist customers. Their channel is clearly not a marketing account, which is important, but there to assist people with issues or to provide additional information. This, I think, is leveraging the best aspects of social media. Don’t push a product out, but build an engaged supporter base and provide information or support to compliment your existing marketing and customer services tactics. Social media is not going to save or replace current marketing or public relations strategies, it is simply an extension of your strategy tailored to the needs of the medium.

Q: And what’s your day gig when not tweeting?

My day job is currently the Communications and Partnerships Manager for headspace (National Youth Mental Health Foundation) and this keeps me very busy! But I love what I do and I love the fact that social media is one of my core functions, so I get to tweet for work and personal purposes as well as save the world with strategic communications for a NFP.

Thanks Karalee, we can’t wait to see your fine work. For those itching to give it ago, Champions at Federation Square will be wired up and ready to go, all tweeting welcome, just use the hashtag #SMOMMC.  And if 140 charters of @karalee_ is not enough for you, you can find her here on her blog “Just another PR Blog”. ]]> http://www.socialmediamasterclass.com.au/?feed=rss2&p=237 0 http://www.socialmediamasterclass.com.au/?p=227#comments Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:53:00 +0000 admin http://www.socialmediamasterclass.com.au/?p=227

With thanks to guest blogger @GirlBug for sharing her adventure! You can read her other tales here.

As with all good discoveries, I stumbled across the ‘World Wide Rave’ by accident. Half-way through my 5 month global trek, I was in New York City and looking for action… action of the Twitter variety. And oh what timing! David Meerman Scott (@dmscott) was invited by GlobeNewswire to launch his book ‘World Wide Rave‘ and ring the bell to open NASDAQ. He invited 30 lucky Twitter buddies along to participate in the first ever #NASDAQ tweet-up. I was very lucky that @dmscott had room at the inn for this little Australian gal… in fact he thought it was pretty funny that I was representing Australia for this tweetup. Funnily enough I would be fielding many questions about whether I came specifically to New York just to tweet at the launch. Errr, no.

Bright and early Monday morning, I rustled up some corporate attire fully vindicated for my ‘you-just-never-know-I-might-need-that’ approach to packing clothes. Not only was the first tweetup to take place at the NASDAQ, I’m also certain it may have been the earliest one. C’mon 8.30am?  I was on holidays… surely the world markets should cater to this?

After successfully passing the security check and chitchatting with local Twitter folks, we finally met the ★ star ★ of the moment, @dmscott. The brief was very simple: Tweet away & drum up some noise for #NASDAQ tweetup. All the tweeps had to join @dmscott onstage after his speech to cheer as he rang the bell. Easy enough? Everyone was busily tweeting away. From the outsider’s point of view, it may have looked like a very anti-social event, with 30 people texting, tweeting and tapping away on their mobile phones. But I met a wonderful bunch of new people and we created a little #NASDAQ twitter chatter amongst our followers.

During the tweetup, all the tweeps had their photos taken at the podium and beamed up to the NASDAQ big screen in Time Square. Who would’ve known that getting your face on a big screen would be so much fun? Suffice to say, I had a ball and was drunk with joy. This still rates as one of my favourite experiences in New York City and my 5-month adventure.

If you want check to out our World Wide Rave, watch this video posted by @devindwyer – you’ll get a gist of what the event was about (can you spot me??)

I’ve since had a chance to read ‘World Wide Rave‘ and found it thoroughly useful and easy-to-read (a huge plus for the time-poor). The book examines exciting and powerful ways to build and engage with an online audience, and is littered with practical examples and inspired business ideas. This is a small book with big messages. It’s triggered my brain to think more creatively about the needs of my client and how we can better serve their audience.

Next up… Social Media Masterclass. Can’t wait for more inspirations and ideas.

We were very fortunate to have a chat with Simon Talbot, Corporate Affairs Manager of Kraft, during a very busy time! He has a terrific story …for them social media is about the listening, and understanding buyer personas.

Simon, Kraft Aust/NZ has been one of the early adopters of social media in its marketing campaigns, tell us about that journey?

We acknowledged that we were considered by many to be a very conservative and traditional Brand/Corporation – and that we weren’t as close to our consumers as we would like to be.  About two years ago, we uncovered the following facts:

1. The internet has twice the influence of Television & ten times that of printed media, yet it only represents 7-8% of company advertising budgets globally (source: Zenith Optimedia for Ad spend, 2007).
2. Increasingly consumers prefer to get their news from online sources as opposed to printed media. In the UK Printed news now accounts for only 5% of media influence. This is influenced through the timeliness & search capabilities of online news sources, compared with their printed cousins.
3. The Internet is by far the most important medium in the lives of consumers…but companies are under investing in that influence.
4. Over 80% of online consumers use the internet to conduct comparison shopping for major purchases.
5. Around 30% of online consumers post a comment to an online newsgroup or a website during a typical week.
6. In the U.K., 28% of online consumers do not read printed magazines in an average week, and 26% do not read a printed newspaper.
7. In the U.K., during 2007 the internet accounted for 15% of all advertising spend, up from 11% in 2006, however the U.K. is considered to be leading in this area with France & Germany at 9.5% & 9% respectively.
8. Price-comparison sites are by far the most common research targets, consulted by 85% of consumers.
9. Blogs have a 31% and growing adoption rate as a research source.
10. 20% of all consumers have created a profile on a social networking site. While 10% of all consumers write blogs.
11. There are 112 Millions Blogs on the internet and this figure is doubling every year
12. We are seeing 120,000 new postings to blogs everyday
13. Over the last 2 years we have seen over 1.5 Billion posts to Message Boards, Forums and Groups (Like Facebook Groups)
14. Facebook has over 80 million “active users” which means that they “returned to the site in the last 30 days.”
15. Facebook and MySpace attracted over 300 million visitors last month[1].

When it comes to getting close to consumers we knew we had both the mechanism and mandate to re-engage with consumers. If you look at the more recent studies and reports, it only becomes more critical to do so.

So you engaged in a social media campaign, what exactly did you do?

For many of our strong brands such as Vegemite – we acknowledged that we are simply (proud) brand custodians and that the brand is owned by “the people”. We focussed our first two years of social media on simply listening and asking questions.

Two of these questions were:

1. How do you individually like your Vegemite?
2. If there ever was to be a Vegemite variation what would this be?

In his book ‘The New Rules of Marketing and PR’ , David Meerman Scott talks about the importance of understanding your buyer personas. How did these questions influence your understanding of your buyer personas?

Very much. In total over 300’000 Australians participated in online forums, surveys, chat sessions and Q/A briefs. The answers to these questions generated the Great Vegemite Census with the identification of the Streaker, Slapper, and Nudist, or really nine other common ways of eating Vegemite.

It must have been an incredible thrill to find out that Vegemite was the most loved brand online! Tell us about that finding and how that has impacted your social media marketing efforts.

In two words “very humbling” but again it is the people’s brand – they love it and love what it stands for; it reinforced our marketing and comms campaigns to give the brand across to the people and encourage them to share different eating ideas and taste trials. In all 12 common ways of eating Vegemite were identified; some quite well know such as melting cheese, others with Avocadoes and Tomato were less known; and even some apparently bizarre uses such as in Pork Crackling were common folklore in many sections of the population.

We handed these top ideas back to the people and launched our largest Integrated Marketing/Comms campaign ever. These result were staggering, with record sales for Vegemite (23 million Jars). Year on Year we grew sales by 8% (which is very significant for a mature established brand that exists in 70% of Australian Households).

Two of the biggest challenges for marketing products with social media are getting to grips with the ‘authenticity’ aspect, and the need to ‘listen’, rather than push. How have you addressed this in your campaigns?

Again the common link that I instil across our Kraft team is listen, ethically and openly steer (if required), but don’t judge, force or sell.

We have also invested in Ambassador Program to launch and test new products – again being open and placing the brand “and its future” in the rightful hands of consumers.

A big issue for many marketers is the question of metrics. How do you measure success with your social media marketing efforts?

We conduct a variety of measurements, both internal and external. These cover simply scores from click throughs, downloads, surveys’, through to web voice in food industry, sentiment tracking across core brands, sentiment improvement across campaign and of course realised sales as a result of positive engagement.

And most recently you have launched your latest product the “Name me” vegemite plus cream cheese experience. How are you using social media and online marketing with this?

Well this is a real work in progress; we spent two weeks listening, and now with product on shelves the Kraft Communications team is engaging with Vegemite loyalists and cynics alike across the 12 top social media “medium”. We are engaging and getting samples out on and off line  – and encouraging debate on the new products  – you can already observe a number of Facebook groups sitting in the following camps: pro original, pro new flavour and anti new flavour.

We have created the Vegemite home page to allow increased  engagement; inclusive of naming the new vegemite.

You won’t see us over branding vegemite on line – this is not our style or in the best interest on consumers of corporations – but you will see us engaging; and a good friend of mine guided how we do this (with his 7 rules for Corporate Social media interaction)

1. Be as transparent as possible at all times (people will know if you aren’t)
2. Be human, i.e. don’t be afraid to show ‘the person behind the corporation’
3. Admit you’ve made mistakes in the past and are learning by listening to consumers).
4. Tackle negative sentiment promptly/directly. Remember its real-time discussion and the reach can be exponential.
5. Support advocates messages and engage people who love your brand.
6. Remember at all times that the world is watching, so speak with confidence/authority.
7. Remember your role is to facilitate the discussion, not necessarily lead it. Be open to what people say and respond in-kind.

Kraft has a new philosophy of being an equal participant in the Social Media collective and enjoying the journey.

Simon, thank you so much for your time. We’re sure the new product is going to be a World Wide Rave!

 Some of the “triggers” employed by IABC globally include a comprehensive web site facilitating global discussions , eXchange, an online tool that connects the popular WordPress blogging platform with the IABC member database of more than 15,400 communicators and IABC Marketplace  a member service created to connect consultants with prospective customers in need of communication services. 

 Here is Australia, Helen Taylor, President of IABC Victoria says:

 ”IABC Victoria recognises the growing focus and importance of social media in creating “triggers” within the communications landscape.  Social media enables organisations to get the word out quickly, easily and at low cost, yet it can also become a communicator’s nightmare. The application of social media as a suitable communication medium, like every other medium in the communicator’s toolkit, must depend on the crisis, PR issue or marketing opportunity being addressed. We are witnessing a growing trend of communicators engaging with social media, tweeting, blogging and podcasting at a personal level to discover how these tools might apply in the workplace.”

She goes on to summarize, saying,

“as professional communicators, it is essential we remain relevant in a world of continuous technological development.  We must stay on top of the technology trends; engage our online audiences with truth and honesty and face up to the reality that social media is here to stay.”

 IABC and its international member base were early twitter adopters, who embraced Facebook and LinkedIn at both the International and chapter levels. They actively promote speaker lineups that encourage the membership to learn about and engage in the social media conversation. On the global stage, IABC Australia proudly showcased a few “triggers” from its own social media luminaries at the recent 2009 World Conference held this past June in San Francisco.

 The conference program included a session from Gerry McCusker, analyst and author of PR Disasters  who has delivered conference keynotes and education sessions in Australia, Asia, the Middle East and New Zealand. In addition to presenting his session “Why are CEOs scared of social media?” at the IABC World Conference, Gerry shared his vision around what could well be the answer with the launch of a refreshing and compelling video “Social Media is the New Punk Rock”  (it has since gone viral!)

 It wasn’t only the speakers who were creating “triggers” and promoting conversations. Linda Johannesson, conference delegate, participated as well. This Sydney marcomms strategist and social media advocate created “outtathegate” an integrated social media campaign  that used a blog, podcasts, videos, tweets, tweetups, flickr photos, delicious links, skype, gmail, and a Ning to share news, highlights and ideas from the IABC World Conference with the online world that exists well beyond the conference hotel.

Through the conference and various chapter activities, IABC does well in in creating “triggers to encourage people to share”. And, it’s through this sharing that IABC can accomplish the association’s overriding goal to “Be Heard”.

In this guest post by Linda Johannesson, we look at how Robert Half International has incorporated the New Rules of Marketing and PR.

Robert Half International (RHI) is winning at the Recruiting game by playing by some new rules. I recently had an inspiring conversation with RHI’s Alan Chapman, Director of Marketing & PR, Asia Pacific to learn how the influence of one book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR played a role in steering their present marketing strategies.

RHI is the world’s largest specialised recruitment firm in accounting, finance and banking.  Alan has been with the business for 6.5 years, but it was about 18 months ago when he read David Meerman Scott’s The New Rules. He shared this book with the RHI APAC Marketing & PR team and its concepts instigated some new thinking at RHI.  Alan shares,

The most compelling aspect about David’s New Rules principles is that you can implement many of them quickly and easily into your organisation. After reading the book, my team and I were reporting positive results within weeks, particularly in optimising press releases for our direct audiences (buyer personas). We introduced several new online initiatives directly as a result of reading the book and two years on we know there’s more we can do using David’s principles.

Benefits from adopting the new rules (and new tools)

Alan shares that social media marketing enables them to do more with less (and get better results!)

We have a greatly increased speed to market with online content and we continue to build a relevant database. In fact, in the last three months many fruitful leads across APAC have been generated from these online efforts. The Robert Half websites outperform many of the major job boards as a generator of new candidates and placements demonstrating that the strategy is working.

Another key benefit of delivering content direct to our audience is that there is a far greater control over core messages, supported by a reduced possibility of any misrepresentation or misinterpretation. When disseminating this much information, this is an imperative. They have achieved both increased volume and continuity in our marketing messages.

Here, Alan explains more:

RHI have historically relied on a good relationship between their sales team, their online marketing and their PR efforts demonstrating the New Rule that states “marketing is more than just advertising”. They’ve used online tools like the RHI website, a strong keyword campaign and a growing email database. In the time that has transpired since reading the New Rules…, they have demonstrated a continuous commitment to supplementing their marketing toolkit to continue to create value for both clients and candidates.

Podcasts

The New Rules espouses that “companies must drive people into the purchasing process with great online content”.  RHI believes that they were the first recruiting firm to begin podcasting on various topics for the Australian and New Zealand markets about three years ago.  However, early into this, they found challenges in segmenting the podcast content by geography, so they then focused on the challenges and issues that were common to both countries and then expanded the program across the wider APAC region.

This effort has provided ongoing rewards and relevance. Even podcasts that are three years old continue to get play today. The continually expanding podcast series can be found  here. There have definitely been some titles that generate more attention than others – the “How to Deal with a Difficult Boss” was one of the most popular registering several thousand downloads in a month.

 The Video Program

Alan is proud of the integration of their online presence with their traditional PR activities. While Robert Half receives enviable television coverage, they felt that the reach of a single broadcast could be limiting. So, they purchased the rights to television interviews. RHI has further extended the reach and relevance of these videos by incorporating them into the RHiWatch video series available through the website 

E-books  

Another way RHI maintains the dialogue and lives the new rule of “blogs, podcasts, e-books, news releases and other forms of online content let organisations communicate directly with buyers in a form they appreciate” is through the availability of e-books  and regular e-newsletters.

A popular E-Book title was “How to Keep Your Best People.” After rounds of recent staff reductions companies around the world are keen to hold on to their start performers and this E-book offered clear guidance.

In making this information available, RHI needs to strike a balance between maintaining an open and accessible distribution of material (that requiring no data capture prior to download) and the need to capture some visitor information that can be used to build the database and create the buyer personas of the high volume consumers of this information.

Media Releases

RHI also employs a news release strategy that uses the power of media releases to further the dissemination of information and keep the conversation going. Alan says that they issue regular releases aimed at direct audiences as well as journalists.

LinkedIn

RHI leverages LinkedIn profiles to promote its consultants and the company overall and to build the candidate database. They are increasingly participating in relevant Groups discussions by sharing updates and creating a variety of RHI related groups like the Robert Half International Alumni Group.

Twitter

RHI Australia just recently began twittering this past May. When asked why they delayed tweeting, Alan explained that it was based on the findings of a Media Usage Study of both their clients and candidates and that their particular stakeholder group’s usage was still low. Alan admits that the study was conducted back in July 2008, and will have risen by now but suspects that adoption within the finance, accounting and banking community may lag other sectors. Their tweets reflect current career opportunities, links to content and basic editorial. You can follow RHI on twitter @roberthalf_au  and Alan directly @Alan_Chapman.

Measuring Social Media Success

As with most sales teams, they are driven by results. The RHI management team seems to be happy that these initiatives increase traffic and dialogue (creating leads) while providing them with an innovative offering to bring to the marketplace. The success metrics are mostly quantified through the numbers of downloads, but overall sales seem to reflect these increased efforts and the anecdotal references are on the rise. This feedback is very supportive of the value provided by the online content. Alan also assures us that this feedback is being captured and will be used for future testimonials.

In measuring success against the New Rule that states, “marketers must shift their thinking from mainstream marketing to the masses to a strategy of reaching vast numbers of underserved audiences via the web”, the downloads numbers indicate that RHI is doing a great job of this in filling an underserved need for useful content.

Alan sums up by saying, “By creating innovative tools that we integrate together to extend conversations and maintain relevance, we trust that this will continue to increase RHI’s competitive advantage by maintaining our thought leadership, ensuring we’re maintaining ongoing relevance and that we allow our consultants to concentrate on their core duties”.

Robert Half International is just one organisation foregoing some of the old rules and using podcasts, video broadcasts, e-books, e-newsletters, LinkedIn, twitter and online press releases to maintain dialogue and thought leadership in a highly competitive marketplace.

What might we see next from a company who has successfully adopted new rules to create new relevance and new results? I can’t help but wonder if it just might be a World Wide Rave!

However, in David’s book, he offers some more ideas on how to turn the odds in your favour. The first step, is thinking like a venture capitalist, for instance, you know that some of your investments will tank, some may do OK, and hopefully, one or two will take off big time. Essentially, in order to create the best conditions for a World Wide Rave you need to be brainstorming, or as David calls it, a Triggerstorm!

One local business, that is well on the way to creating a World Wide Rave is Ideas Culture. Ironically, the product that has everybody talking is about crowdsourcing brainstormers! Founder of the online business Yvonne Adele created “Ideas when you sleep”. Through Twitter, Yvonne has sourced a posse of over 200 Ideas Agents. Clients submit a challenge that requires brainstorming, and in 24 hours they have a 2 page report of up to 100 ideas. As a result of the idea taking off Yvonne has achieved considerable twitter reach, press coverage in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Dynamic Biz, Mumbrella, and the Herald Sun Business owner section. Additionally, there’s been lots of blog reports, and Yvonne has been asked to speak at the Inventors Association; and quite a few more. The traffic to Ideas Culture has doubled and let’s not forget the ton of new clients.  Now, that’s a return on your investment. Hat- tip Ideas Culture!

And that is Amanda Boland-Curran, also known as @auntie_abc. David hand picked Amanda’s excuse as the his favourite:

“I don’t need an excuse to attend Social Media Masterclass – but the boss would need a damn good reason to STOP me going!”

Congratulations Amanda. No one is going to be able to stop you now! We’ll be in contact to get your ticket to you.

For everyone else, tomorrow is the last day that discount tickets prices will be available. As of August 4, tickets will only be available at full price. So if you’re after a cheaper ticket, act now.