Business needs to keep perspective on social media – Corporate Engagement

The Obama campaign is the current gold standard of this approach – they controlled message but they allowed people a great deal of lattitude in the way they helped promote that message

I’ve read it a few times now, and I’m not sure.
Did the Obama campaign control message? They certainly created it, but did they really “control” it allowing people “lattitude” in the way they helped promote it?

I don’t think so. I think the reason it is the “gold standard” is because they created the kind of messages people wanted to share and promote, and then created highly targeted tools and activities to enable these messages to be spread.

In fact, had they made any attempt to control the message (apart from correcting people when they misrepresented the message), the whole thing would have failed.

What do you think? Did I miss something here?

Tags: social, media, obama, control

The End of the Email Era - WSJ.com

“People were very dependent on email. They overused it,” he says. “Now, people can use the right tool for the right task.”Perhaps. But there’s another way to think about all this. You can argue that because we have more ways to send more messages, we spend more time doing it. That may make us more productive, but it may not. We get lured into wasting time, telling our bosses we are looking into something, instead of just doing it, for example. And we will no doubt waste time communicating stuff that isn’t meaningful, maybe at the expense of more meaningful communication. Such as, say, talking to somebody in person.

For example. Kraft thought it was a fun idea to engage their customers in naming a new product. They put little jars with Vegemite flavoured cheese spread and decided to crowd source the name for the new product. “Name Me” the little jars of spread shouted off the shelves. So that was the brief. “Name Me”.

The result was that thousands sent in their ideas, and the good people at Kraft, (custodians of one of the most iconic brands in Australia, Vegemite) chose one that sounded like something their target audience might like. iSpread 2.0. I won’t go into all the reasons why this was a terrible choice, there is plenty of commentary from all sorts of media (social and otherwise) on that. In fact, the Wall Street Journal even reported the fact that the company has decided to pull the name and think of a new one.

What I am more interested in is how they got there. The reason you don’t let your 6 year old son design a logo (or a product name) is that he is not likely to be clear on what you’re trying to communicate, how you are trying to position the product. That is the difficulty in design and good branding; how to communicate an idea in the simplest, most powerful way.

The sort of thoughts you expect to go through someones mind naming a product (especially for an iconic brand) are:

Without that, how could either the people creating the name, or the people choosing the name know if it was good, bad or indifferent?
It is the difference between advertising thinking and brand positioning, and I think Al Ries should have a field day with this one, in one of his contributions on Branding Strategy Insider.

Get your customers involved is fun, but don’t think that you can take a short cut to the hard work of positioning a product.

Tags: positioning, branding, 1snack 2.0, branding strategy insider

Dealing with information overload (and sharing around)

• Hootsuite - the most elegant way to manage twitter in a clean, easy to use interface.

• Delicious - one place to bookmark everything I find of interest and want to share with: 1. Everyone, 2. A select group of people.

• Feedly - a really nice little plugin for Firefox that grabs your RSS feeds from Google Reader and makes it easy to digest, share and manage what you read.

• Yahoo Pipes - a bit more techie, this is a very clever tool to combine and filter information from the web.

Getting things done

• Firefox 3.0 - The best web browser, simply because it allows you to customise with all sorts of handy tools, such as the one I am using now to write this blog post offline, but in a browser (Scribefire) or the Delicious plugin that lets me quickly manage bookmarks (without leaving the page). If you’re still on Internet Explorer, you should really have a look.

• Xmind - a “mind mapping” tool that helps me organise thoughts and plans rapidly and communicate them with others in a simple, visual way

• Dropbox - so simple. Why store files on your PC? Store them in an online folder by dragging them into a your “dropbox” folder. Access from anywhere, synchronized copies on all your PC’s if you install the little app.

• Logmein - Lets you remotely access and control someone else’s computer (with their permission of course). I’m talking helpdesk to your Mum, or accessing one of your computers at home from work.

• Jing - a simple screen recording tool that allows you to either grab a screen image, or record a little flash movie (for US$9.95 pa you can get the pro version, which has MP4 recording and no Jing branding at the end of your movie)

• Google, of course…..In particular Gmail, Google Maps and iGoogle if you want to personalise your news and get some RSS feeds (look in the right top hand corner of the Google page) as well as the “forms” function in Google Docs (spreadsheets) that allows you to run simple, free little questionnaires online. Lots, and lots more but these are the ones i use mostly, or see the greatest application for.

• Audacity - a free audio recording and editing tool that’s so powerful and easy to use it is almost ridiculous.

So what do you use? Have I missed any great apps you are using? Share!

Tags: tools, gtd

Than this: “Australian trade minister Simon Crean announced a $20 million plan today as a means to ‘re-brand’ Australia with a new tourism tagline and logo to reboost diminishing interest in the country as a tourist destination”
He admires the New Zealand campaign: “100% Natural”.  The CEO of the Tourism and Transport Forum is a little cautious (and rightfully so) about what a new brand might look like and realistically achieve. He says:

We often look to the great success of 100 per cent Pure New Zealand, though New Zealand in a way is almost mono-destinational and mono-product. Everything can be encapsulated in that.

Exactly. They are promoting NZ as a tourist destination. That’s it. And that’s the problem with this brief, IMHO. 

You can’t be all things to all people. What do we want to do? Appeal to tourists? They don’t give a rip about the investment opportunity. Do we want to appeal to investors? Why would they care that this is a great place to study? Or fish? Or go to the beach?

You want to do it right? Three audiences. Three dreams, three campaigns. Not one. With that many spin doctors around, is there no one to help the politicians with this?

Tags: branding, australia, strategy

So why are you reading this instead? Possibly because you’ve read some other posts I’ve written and decided to come back, or you know me personally and decided to follow this blog. In either case, the fact that I have your attention is a demonstration of what you can achieve online without spending a dollar.

Just a reminder why you should do this….

Most of all, your competitors do it badly - I can almost guarantee that your competitors don’t do half of the things they could be doing online. The vast majority of businesses still see marketing (and therefore their website) as a “set and forget” kind of thing. There’s an immediate opportunity. Look at your competitors and see what they do badly.

Top things to do

Invest time in content - the more you’ve thought about your niche, and how you position yourself away from others, the better. This means that you can use SPECIFIC key words in your content and page titles that will help people understand your differentiation, and search engines find you. Make sure people can find the information they may be looking for FAST. Don’t be gimmicky; people are in a hurry.

Invest money in design - create an online presence that makes you look bigger than you are, and is a window to you and your brand. If you do have some money to spend, spend it on someone who can help you with design. Why would you go through all the effort to get someone to your site, to present them with an image of you that is crap? YOUR NOT A DESIGNER, AND THEY’RE NOT THAT EXPENSIVE.

Make a blog a key page of your site, so you have your own media outlet. It is STILL the way to give your prospects and customers value that they won’t get from your competitors. If you’re looking for ideas for online PR in particular, Read David Meerman Scott’s “The New Rules of Marketing and PR”.

Get active in social media - If you are in B2B make sure you are on LinkedIn. If networking is the lifeblood of most B2B marketing, than you have to invest time in continuously building your network online. A LinkedIn account with two contacts is useless. A LinkedIn account with 50 or 100 is starting to get pretty powerful.

Start a Twitter account and use it wisely; contrary to popular believe, your customers won’t give a toss if you’re stuck in an airport, you’ve just divorced or if you’re playing with your kids. (Yes, all of these have come through in my Twitter stream of professional contacts) What you DO want to do is use it to follow your customers, (if you can), post links back to your blog, or to other sites your customers might be interested in. Or to promote a special, only to your web followers. Your Facebook page can be automatically updated with your Twitter update too.

Experiment with Google pay per click advertising, BUT spend the time researching the best possible keywords, the same keywords you have used right throughout your website content. If you have extra cash, use an agency. In Melbourne, I’d use Salsa
Be as local and specific as you can, and use the phrases that describe your specific niche and your local market as much as you can.

It’s going to take time -Whatever you do, online or off, it is going to take time and as the saying goes, the best time to start is yesterday, but today is the second best option.So, what are you waiting for?

Did I miss anything?

Tags: online marketing, content marketing

1. Jen Clark
2. Scott Middleton
3. Mandy

Congratulations, thanks HP for donating your wireless HP officejet pro 8500 a909.
I’ll contact you via email to get your delivery addresses.

This was fun.

(Since you’re winning this, and not paying for it, it shouldn’t matter, but it did get a pretty flattering review here; lots of features, environmentally friendly etc, etc)

Clearly, the good people representing HP believe that there are enough small business/micro business readers of this blog, and that you would value the opportunity to win a free all in one printer, so who am I to argue.

Now for the fun. We’re not going to make this complex; write in the comment space below and tell me what the top three topics are that you think I should write more blog posts about, and most importantly tell me why. I’ll select the top three and each will get one of these wireless all in one gadgets. Can’t be too hard. I’ll notify the winners by email and they’ll get delivery directly to their doorstep.

Closes in exactly one week - 11 July 09.
Good luck!

Tags: small, business,, competition,, HP

The sales force are your story tellers - Individuals, who often work largely autonomously, often hired because they are “hunters”; people with the ability to go out there and with little more than their own drive and skills open doors and meet quota. Their individualism, and ability to get things done with limited support is celebrated.

And there is the dilemma. Managers sweat over the precise wording of the value proposition, positioning the brand away from the competitors, highlighting their leadership in their niche. They carefully craft language to connect with the audience.

Then it is handed over to the sales team, and a game of Chinese whispers starts. The story is often interpreted in as many different ways as there are sales people.

So the questions is does it matter, and if it does, what can you do about it?

Does it matter? - I think it does. In most markets today, differentiation is hard enough to achieve. So whatever that differentiation is, articulating the story effectively can be the difference between success and failure. How complete is the story told, how passionately, how it is made relevant to the customer.

What can you do about it? – make sure there is broad agreement that the story is the best it can be. If there are sales people who don’t buy in to it, deal with it in one way or another. If it is because your story doesn’t stack up, adjust. If it is because someone can’t or won’t get on board, you’ve got another problem. It’s in everyone’s interest to help sales people tell the story in the best possible way. An investment in ongoing, two way communication with the front line will not only help you get the story out, it will also give you the feedback you need to adjust when the market changes.

Why not use the same tools you might use externally, (like the web, video, podcasts) to engage your sales team. If you invest the time to listen, you also have the right to expect people to pay attention when you ask something in return.

In the end, customers will determine what your brand is, and they will determine whether your story stands up. But amplifying your story consistently will have an impact. What else would you do, or have you done?

Tags: storytelling,, brand,, sales

In Australia the groceries business is largely controlled by two players, Coles and Woolworths. There are many things wrong with that. For example, you can imagine the negotiating power these guys wield over their suppliers. Or their motivation to give you the best products possible.

As a consumer, I care mostly about the quality of what I buy and the price I pay for that quality. Woolworth and Coles are falling over themselves to tell me that they are fresh food people (just like me, the recently told me in an ad). But I don’t see it.
Then we discovered (through word of mouth) that there is a crowd called Aussie Farmers Direct, who decided that there may just be an alternative to dancing to the tunes of the big boys.

They believed that there was room in the market for an old fashioned milkman, who delivers not only milk but juice, bread and fresh vegetables. We’ve started using this service and now get a weekly delivery of all the stuff that you need to get fresh. The only proviso is that they select the fruit and veg that go into the box, but if you like variety, that’s ok. At pretty much the same price as the supermarket, but at superior quality.

Who would have thought that while they are taking the last remaining bit of service out of the supermarkets (they now want you to scan your own stuff), there is a good business in home delivering high quality produce?

So what are the magic marketing ingredients?

Good model – cut out the middle man, direct to the consumer

Good positioning -  “Helping the Australian farmer” - “The Milkman is back”

Differentiated offering – home delivery, no more lugging the heaviest part of your groceries

Quality – no more good-looking but crappy tasting fruit and veg..

Word of mouth promotion – as a result of all of the above

Who says you can’t differentiate in a commodity market?

Tags: differentiation, strategy, brand, marketing

My use to date has been to post little video’s of my kids. I had a bit of fun and dubbed “Dance little lady, dance” by Tina Charles over a video of my (then) 3 yo dancing. It’s had about 3,000 views (because of the title, I presume).

I had a look at it again last night, and I noticed some options to the right of the screen for “video owners” one of which was “insights”. I clicked and got to a dashboard of analysis tools:

The next thing I clicked on what the “hotspots” button, which allowed me to see which part of my video people found more interesting than others:

Imagine how this can help you improve your communication over time? It tells you what people like with their actions, without having to provide any feedback. It allows you to continually improve your video, based on what people like and don’t like. I must be dreaming. Awesome.

Tags: video, youtube, metrics, testing

Now imagine you are launching a new product. A good launch is one of those rare moments when you can get the media’s attention and a good launch will probably play a significant role in your products’ success. So you target the right media, you write compelling stories hoping they get picked up by those hard to reach technology writers. If you represent a big brand, you’re company may even advertise in the media you are hoping to get favourable reviews from them…

But of course they are not “the media” anymore. There are an increasing number of “other” media outlets. The people that create this “other” media tend to write out of passion or to demonstrate their thought leadership and generally share a couple of important characteristics:

• They don’t get paid by a media company that relies on advertising
• They are often very passionate
• They are often not generalist “technology” writers but people with a very narrow interest/specialization

They are free to write what they like, they are likely to know what they are talking about, and they probably have a narrow group of readers who are equally focused and who are looking for unbiased, knowledgeable critique.

A real world example

Here is an example of such a product review by Stephen Few, from Perceptual Edge, a consultancy assisting companies “design simple information displays for effective analysis and communication.”
The blog post is called “ Xcelsius Present – Fast Track to Nowhere“; a 1,700 word review of the latest version of Excelsius from Business Objects. Now, I have no idea if he is right or wrong, but this is a little piece of the conclusion:

“Business Objects is a leading business intelligence vendor (based on sales), but its products consistently demonstrate that they don’t understand analytics and haven’t a clue about data visualization. A vendor that claims to be the best, which Business Objects unabashedly claims (just like every other major BI vendor), should be ashamed of selling such moronic products.”

Ouch. Not exactly what you’re hoping for. But the difference with traditional media is that it doesn’t stop there. The conversation is about to start.

44 comments and a great discussion
There are 44 comments posted, and it is a lively discussion including an exchange with what appears to be a representative from Business Objects (although not identified as such). Either way, good on them for participating, as it provides potential buyers of the product not just one take on the product, but many.

Now Google “excelsius review, business objects”.

So just before you start to believe that social media is just about Twitter, (and I don’t blame you) it is the fragmentation of media and the increasing number of very narrow, niche blogs, wiki’s etc that increasingly will come to the top of the search results when potential customers do their product evaluation. Search “excelsius review, business objects”  and the review by Stephen Few is on the first search page, just under ZDNet. If I was in the market to buy, I’d probably read it. Rightly or wrongly.

So what can you do?

Without pretending to write a strategy, here are a few simple things you could do.

1. Know who the people are outside the “traditional media” that publish on your subject.
2. Engage with them. Maybe give them an opportunity to preview your product and ask questions. It won’t mean you’ll get a positive review, but you might just be able to ensure there is no misunderstanding about your product (which there seems to in this particular example)
3. Participate in the discussion, using not only the comment section of their blog, but also your own. (What do you mean, you’re company doesn’t have a blog?)

What else would you do?

Tags: social media, product reviews, b2b marketing

Let’s make it a cracking 2009. Merry Christmas.

Good information, but the post was 1,400 words long without sub-headings. So I thought I post a comment, generally supportive but making a point about the importance of being brief in email marketing and effective use of headings.

But I didn’t. I unsubscribed. Does that make sense, or was that the right thing to do? Probably not. He made a good point after all and I should have given him the feedback he deserved. Fact is, I don’t always do what is logical and right. Nor do our customers.

Tags: \\\\\\\\

The topics people have written on are broad ranging, so there is a nice mix.

• Manifestos
• Keeping Secrets in the Age of Conversation
• Moving from Conversation to Action?
• The Accidental Marketer
• A New Brand of Creative
• My Marketing Tragedy
• Business Model Evolution
• Life in the Conversation Lane

I’ve chosen Business Model Evolution; here is a short bit of the intro:

In B2B, there is more often than not a lot of careful evaluation before any purchase decision is made. After all, a bad decision could potentially harm your career, or cost you your job. You look for recommendations through personal networks and word of mouth. Now, through social media, there is a network at your fingertips that is easier to access, and more powerful than anything you’ve ever seen. Suddenly, as a buyer you have more knowledge, more choice, more power and higher expectations.

All the proceeds are going to the Children’s charity, Variety. If that alone is not enough reason to buy a book, consider this:

The 237 people who have participated are all passionate about the changing face of marketing. Some of these people are now recognised by the wider business community as experts in the rapidly evolving field of digital marketing/pr, social media, whatever tag you like to use. Some are not, but maybe they should be.

So what do you get for your money?

For $US 12.50 you can buy the e-book here.

For US$ 19.95 you buy the soft cover here, or the pretty hardcover for US$29,95 here.

A great effort again by Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton for organising this. An enormous effort for charity.

Check out the list of contributors:

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G. Kofi Annan, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw and James G. Lindberg, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Tags: Age, of, conversation,, b2b, Marketing,, Variety,, collaboration

Of course it is important to understand your competitors. After all, customers see you in this context and make their choices accordingly. You can’t position your brand or solution in a vacuum; you position your brand in relative terms to others.

On the other hand, there are some real risks in putting too much focus on it.

Time – you have only a limited amount of time which needs to be divvied up between a broad range of marketing/business activity. If you spend most of it analysing others, you won’t get much done.

Focus – you could end up following your competitors instead of leading the market, becoming a me-too provider and loosing the reason why people chose you in the first place.

Confidence – your customers don’t just buy features, facts and figures. They buy on trust and you are an advisor to them. If your head is full of reasons why your competitors could be better, you’ll lack conviction and confidence and people will pick up on that.

So what’s the right balance?

That depends on how competitive your market is, but the first rule is to track and review with a purpose. If your purpose is to ensure your product/service development is in tune with market developments, do a quarterly review of your competitors offering and vital business stats.

If your purpose is to sell more effectively, focus on the information that is most important to your customers. Stuff that is either important to position your brand, or make to the sale. For your main competitors, write down the key reasons why your customers choose you over them, so you have a clear picture how you are positioned against each one. Equally, write down three arguments they use against you, and have a solid response. Not having to think about it when a customer asks you is in itself a pretty powerful statement.

In the end, competitors will always have features you don’t have, but how often is that feature making or breaking the sale?

And how many brands do you know (and use) with products and services that may not be the best or the most complete, but you choose them anyway?

Tags: competition, marketing information, competitor analysis

Google’s Chrome browser needs more polish - BizTech - Technology - theage.com.au
“The browser was released this week after Google accidentally sent a comic book explaining Chrome’s features to a blogger a day early.”

Really? accidentally? Some online marketing strategist would see “leaking” a release to a blogger as the most effective way to ensure that the rest of the blogosphere would jump on board. Instantly reaching a hard core of “amplifiers” who like nothing more than a scoop. I’m a little surprised that this journalist didn’t consider this scenario to be honest.
By the way, how smart is it to use a comic to explain utterly boring and dry stuff like Multi Process Architecture? How is that for an alternative to a press release and a brochure?

Tags: pr, strategy, google, marketing, product launch

Ok, following closely in the footsteps of fellow Australian blogger Stan Lee from BrandDNA, you can now read this blog a little easier on your mobile: http://marketingandbranding.mofuse.mobi

Browse there from your mobile and save it as a favourite. Tell me if it is working for you!

He said: “All those hours, all that work. Where did the time and effort come from?”

Here is my issue:

This thinking presumes that spending more time online changes people’s behaviour from entertainment seekers to contributors to worthwhile intellectual activity.

I think that the vast majority of people who used to watch Baywatch or cop shows now watch Youtube and play Warcraft or play a quiz on Facebook. Not contribute to Wikipedia.

The reason I raise this point is that I believe that Seth Godin fell prey to a fundamental marketing trap: he drew a conclusion about the world based on his own bias. Seth doesn’t watch TV. I actually believe that if there had been no TV he would probably have spent his nights reading books or writing another one. But that’s not what the majority of people would necessarily do.

Largely, people watch (or watched) television to be entertained. I’d argue that they now substitute watching TV by going online to be entertained. That’s not black and white of course; there will be people who have actually changed their behaviour and now contribute to Wikipedia or another worthwhile exchange of ideas. But in general terms, the internet has simply provided a richer, more diverse and more interactive substitute for television.

For me, it reminds me of the fact that it is easy to draw conclusions about people, their preferences and their behaviours based on your own bias, and the slippery slope it takes you on. Timely reminder for me, as I work to understand a new set of customers in my new role with Aconex.
PS:I’m not having a go at Seth here. His contribution to clear marketing thinking is second to none and I recommend anyone to read his blog/books.

Tags: marketing, bias, seth godin, strategy

So why does it matter, beyond making me feel good?

It’s great to see someone make the effort and look around in his own backyard. We’re probably all passionate about the opportunities today’s web offers to share ideas and collaborate.

I’d like to see more Australian organisations get involved and take advantage of the fantastic opportunities today’s web offers.

To spread the word, we need to connect in the “real” world as much as online

The thing is that to spread the word to the people who are not participating, we often need to go”offline”, because that’s where the audience is. They’re conversations over a coffee, or a presentation, or articles in the print media or other traditional media.
that top 50 list of people are probably all doing exactly that. And that’s why local is important.  We need to be on the ground, face to face or in the local media as much as online. So that’s the other reason I’m excited about this list. Thanks Julian.

See the full list here and check out some great blogs.