At iiNet we’ve always known that geeks are awesome but now that ‘geek is chic’ is mainstream, we want you to help us prove that not all geeks are created equal – there can be only one Top Geek.

How it works

Casting [now - 14 Jan]

It’s an open call for geeks and people can submit themselves or nominate a friend. Participants then need to rally support for their entry by getting people to vouch for their geekiness by seconding their nomination.

Selection [15 Jan - 30 Jan]

The 5 entries that rallied the most support automatically advance to the finals and iiNet selects the remaining finalists (they know a good geek when they see one!).

Finals [31 Jan - 28 Feb]

It’s a geek showdown where the finalists complete challenges, upload videos and rally support in a points race to become Top Geek.

The lucky[ish?] guy or gal named Top Geek wins an all expenses paid trip to the geek conference of his or her choice [SxSW, Comic-con, PAX or CES] – as well as some serious bragging rights.

Enter here.

There's stiff competition to become Top Geek.

Keeping up with the Joneses is a lot tougher in the age of overshare.

It’s not that conspicuous consumption is an emergent behaviour; as an economic theory it dates back to 1899 (first coined by Thorsten Veblen in The Theory of the Leisure Class) and people began buying for status over survival long before that. I guess what it must come down to is the influx of mobile apps and services that encourage checking in every aspect of your life.

Conspicuous consumption in the 80s

[*Disclaimer: I was just a wee lass in the 80's, so my assumptions are mostly drawn from various clichés and stereotypes, Google, The Yuppie Handbook (Piesman & Hartley, 1984) and fictional characters such as Gordon Gekko & Patrick Bateman.]

image source: http://www.bnz4bozo.com/2009/03/mb4jl-big-old-tard/

It was all about the power suit – perhaps you couldn’t discern which designer it was, but the fit of it told you it certainly wasn’t off-the-rack. He’d drive a Mercedes S-Class, which you knew was his by the custom number plates.

The sizable Rolex on his wrist might first catch your attention, but your gaze would eventually settle on the far more sizable cell phone in his hand.

If you were to lunch with him it’d certainly be at the trendy new restaurant, where he’d swill his Sancerre and pick at his tuna sashimi while telling you of his recent trip to Aruba. He’d order black current sorbet for dessert, audibly vowing to run 12 miles in his building’s health club that evening.

I’ve certainly gotten some of the details of that wrong (Umm, Mercedes S-Class? Please. It was all about having an SUV in the 80s), but luckily that’s not what’s important. The point I’m trying to make is that in the pre-digital era, conspicuous consumption was observed by personally witnessing it or through a personal recount (from either participant or observer) – as a one-to-one or one-to-few communication (assuming we’re not talking celebrities and such.)

Vs. conspicuous consumption today

What happens when you take a material girl boy and put him in a digital world?

The Internet eliminates time and space boundaries and let’s you connect with anyone and everyone. It gives you a soap box and lets you play publisher (translation: one-to-many). What are you doing? What are you working on? What’s on your mind? it asks with interest. And, as mobile technology advancements allow you to remain online while on-the-go, online and offline merge to create a land where check ins rule and there’s a nice little digital leaderboard to let you know exactly how you stack up against the Joneses.

Through Blippy (a social site where users share their credit card transactions), you can see that he’s just used his Visa Platinum debit card to snag himself a custom made Ermenegildo Zegna suit (a steal at just $2,892.14!). He blogs about the Lamborghini he’s currently dying for, but back in his Blippy feed you saw that not too long ago he bought XM satellite radio for his ‘Vette.

His latest Foursquare check in places him at Neiman Marcus and because he uses Social Currency (an American Express application that lets people share details about items they buy or want to buy alongside their Foursquare check ins), you can see that he just dropped $642.37 on 1,000 threadcount Egyptian cotton sheets.

At lunchtime, he checks in to Balthazar on Facebook Places and shortly after posts a picture of his petite filet mignon on Foodspotting (a site and mobile app that allows users to discover and recommend good food through photos) and tasting notes for the cab sauv he enjoyed on Cork’d (a social network for wine aficionados).

His Flickr photostream documents his recent trip to South Africa to catch a couple of the World Cup soccer games and you see that he’s got an upcoming trip planned to London through Dopplr.

You know that he’s a trim 165 lbs because he’s linked his Withings scale so it publishes to his Twitter feed – which he maintains by running an average of 10.6 miles a day as documented by Runkeeper.

He owns an iPhone, iPad and Blackberry – you know this because each time he emails you there’s a different little signature at the bottom telling you which device he sent it from. But, he’s not just about gadgets and gear – you see through Facebook Causes that just last week he donated $50 to cancer research and he used his CauseWorld check ins to offset carbon.

His highbrow taste in entertainment is evidenced by the selection of art house films, documentaries & world news that he checks in to on Miso (a Foursquare-like service for entertainment where users check in to the tv shows and movies they’re watching) and GetGlue (a similar entertainment sharing service) has any remaining leisure activities covered – the music he’s listening to, books he’s reading, wine he’s drinking and even the topics he’s currently pondering.

SignPost (formerly Postabon)

Redefining conspicuous consumption

In the wake of the economic downturn many declared the end of an era for conspicuous consumption; however, I disagree – it’s merely redefining itself and evolving with the status quo. The Joneses had to tighten their belt a couple of years ago so frugality replaced opulence as the ‘in’ thing… Hello, recessionistas – and services like SignPost, where users earn ‘karma points’ for posting deals and discounts they find.

Why do we call it ‘word’ of mouth? I can’t remember the last time somebody recommended a product or service to me with one single word; there’s almost always a story – and it’s this story (and it’s authentic delivery) that sells.

Think about the last time a friend suggested something to you… there was a story, wasn’t there? Maybe they didn’t tuck you up in bed and read it to you, but it was conversational and it contained hooks that resonated with you and convinced you they were a good company for you too.

"Please miss, tell us a story and we'll tweet it, promise."

The same is true of social media. If you expect people to be online brand advocates you need to arm them with your brand stories. The kinds of story that get told every day inside your business, but for some reason never make it onto the company website. You know the stuff that hasn’t been smoothed within an inch of its life, the real stories you tell new employees about the business, the reasons that make your people proud to work for you. These words of mouth start from within but quickly spread through social networks, become embellished along the way and ultimately become your brand proposition. Remember, your brand is only what people say it is.

Google is a great company because it delivers an excellent search product but so does Bing.  Google, however, is a brand we want to associate with because they have a great story, one that we love telling and embellishing. You know those stories, the one about the Google chefs that cook staff gourmet meals, the one about the allowance given to Google engineers to work on a project of fancy for one day a week, whether it’s commercially viable or not. The story that Google really does try to be fair, that they aren’t really into placing cookies on our machines and tracking the shit out of our web behaviours.

These stories, in turn, give us a story to tell – and oh how we love telling them. Sharing such stories now comes at the click of a retweet and boy do these words travel fast. So start thinking about the stories you have to share, just the process of thinking like this will open up your business, make you more authentic and give your advocates something worth talking about.

Marc’s post about the “c-word” inspired me to share how I go about starting a content strategy when the client is in a hurry (which is often!).

1. Gather all ye faithful – 9am

Set up a workshop with “surrogate users” – people in your organisation who talk to real users, all the time AND your business thinkers – people in your organisation who can offer strategic insight on the fly. So you’re talking sales people, customer service reps, CEOs, divisional directors, senior managers. Also include some bods from your web team and ask them to swat up on their web stats regarding current popular content (top pages, searches and referral keywords).

How long you need depends on the strength of your will (to whip sideline discussions into shape) and the number of audience groups you have, but considering everyones eyes will typically glaze over in a couple of hours, allocate 2-3 hrs.

Tip – coffee helps…

2. Identify your key peeps – 9-10am

Whip out your whiteboard marker and ask a fundamental question, who are we talking to? Keep it broad at this stage, don’t get bogged down in too much detail. You want to know who the key groups are, what are the fundamental characteristics that define them and what is the key reason they are visiting your site.

Identify at this point if there is a high level user journey or series of site visits that applies to this group – for example a typical process for a shopping site is establishing initial site / brand awareness, product desire and consideration, purchase, service, repeat purchase and referral.

Tip – Draw a box in a corner of the whiteboard labelled “the carpark”. Use it to jot down any ideas or other thoughts that are going off tangent.

3. Drill down into each group – 10-12 noon

Okay, start with your primary audience group, in case you run out of time. Draw up on the whiteboard a big matrix, a bit like the table below. Include user journey steps if applicable. Then ask the group to tell you about what the user is looking for at each step – product information? contact details? company background?

Quick & easy whiteboard template for a website content workshop

Now the important bit – use the group to identify some business goals for each step. They may be key selling points to get across, acquisition/lead capture goals, or a proposition statement, whatever is most applicable at that stage.

Tip – Don’t bother with note-taking, use your camera phone to snap a pic of your whiteboard musings.

4. Chillax – 12 noon – 1pm

Get some fresh air, go for a walk, get some lunch. Think about what you’re cooking for dinner. DON’T think about content.

5. Empower your inner huddle to inspire you – 1-2pm

Have a think about what is going to be the hardest content to come up with, and charge your fellow web/marketing team with the responsibility of scouring the internet for examples of how others have done it. Look broader than your competitors, think laterally – what other companies have similar products to you? similar audiences?

Tip - Use award sites such as the Webbys and FWA to find the world’s top websites.

6. Headphones on! – 2-5pm

Right, turn off your phone, put your headphones on, and start mapping content to user and business goals. I literally draw an extra column after the business goal column on the whiteboard matrix entitled content and list content ideas that match.

User Goals + Business Goals = Content Requirements.

Tip – I use a tool call SnagIT at this stage – a fancy screen capture tool that enables you to edit screenshots or pictures. You could do it in powerpoint or other picture editing software.

7. Vino – 5pm

Tools down, pour a glass of vino and let your content roadmap simmer over night. It gets better the longer you leave it – revisit every 24hrs or so.

I blame Jamie Oliver, Mario Batali and the little skinny dude off The Cook and the Chef. These modern day heroes have us discussing the secret to a good celeriac pure and how you simply must use a good shiraz in your red wine jus, because nothing else will do. I’ve been to dinner parties where the host has perfectly slow poached quail eggs for her crispy noodle and asian green salad but couldn’t manage to cook the rice properly.

Potatoes. Read on, I'll explain.

Let’s face it the world would have starved a long time ago if it weren’t for potatoes, rice and pasta. Man cannot live off coconut foam and micro-greens alone.

There is a lesson in this (it’s a stretch I know) for digital marketers currently obsessing with the finer frills of SEO, the engagement rates of their home page take-overs and the eCPM of their performance media buy. We’re forgetting the Internet (and it’s users) need feeding.

Cast your mind back to 2004, the Internet was very hungry. It was fed up with small portions of flash intros, gourmet brochure-ware websites and reductions of one-way communications. We demanded something bigger to chew on.  Comfort food finally came in the form of Blogger, Wikipedia and Co. who, in successfully bringing down the worldwide walled web, encouraged a new breed of chefs cooking up simple meals of content and conversations we could all digest.

It’s been 6 years since this wall came down yet big business is still struggling with getting simple well cooked content (user generated or otherwise) onto the menu. There’s little encouragement from the industry to change our ways. The ‘c’ word rarely gets a mention in agency land, maybe because there’s no award for “Best User Generated Content” or maybe it’s because, like potatoes, it’s hard to charge big dollars for.

All excuses to one side, it is time to put focus back on content. It is content that makes for great SEO, it is content that delivers great user experience and it is content that reduces bounce rates and improves conversion – nothing more complicated than that. So get back to basics, put ‘content strategy’ at the head of your brief and and give it the due time and consideration it needs. Don’t fear you can still add a touch of truffle oil at the end.

Prologue

Part 1 of this post outlined some ways to avoid a social media debacle; but, hindsight is 20/20 (…just ask Nestlé) so this second part looks at some ways of handling/diffusing an ominous social media shit storm looming on the horizon.

Be good.

Companies have always had naysayers and critics, but with social media they are much more capable of connecting, mobilising and plotting their attack. So, if your company isn’t doing the right thing (as related to fair trade, employment, the environment), now might be a good time to reassess.

This is obviously easier said than done (particularly when it involves modifying major components of a business), but just realise that if you continue using unfavourable practices that you’ll likely come under fire for it.

If you can’t be good, at least be prepared.

Don’t get caught with your pants down – know who your critics are, monitor conversations, anticipate backlash. (see part 1).

In either instance, be present.

Avoiding social media isn’t a solution – people will talk about your brand with or without your complicity. Furthermore, having your own presence actually gives you a home field advantage:

• you already have an open dialogue, which may serve as an early warning system
• you have a voice to tell your side of the story
• you’re able to put your best foot forward and share all the good things your brand is doing (the best offense is a good defense)

The Storm

What’s the real issue?

Sometimes the root of the problem is glaringly obvious (i.e. a customer’s had a bad experience with your company and is pissed off about it), but vague ranting, satire and trolling mightn’t be so evident. Take some time to make sure you really know what’s going on.

Stay in control.

It’s essential that you maintain control of yourself and the situation – don’t lose your cool, don’t get defensive and never let ‘em see you sweat.

Be personable.

Introduce yourself, use your real name, communicate like a real person. It’s much easier to fling poo at Mr. Anonymous Douchebag than it is Dave, a likable guy who lives a couple of suburbs away.

Welcome Utilise feedback.

Yes, you should absolutely welcome feedback and comments (particularly from a PR perspective) – but why not go one step further and actually do something with this intel. Lots of companies use social media as a ‘listening device’, but few actually do anything with what they hear.

Ignore & monitor.

I’m not saying that if you ignore Greenpeace they’ll go away. However, not all backlash is created equal so pick your battles. Suzie in Nebraska bagging your new product on her LiveJournal ≠ Greenpeace/mommy bloggers/other frighteningly powerful groups declaring social media war (check out Jeremiah Owyang’s backlash categorisation scale).

Collaborate on a solution.

If people tell you that some part of your business sucks, ask them to help you improve it. Not only does this make them feel like you’re really listening, it also refocuses their attention on something other than a smear campaign.

Epilogue

Image Credit: Lee Lowery Jr. (http://lowery.tamu.edu/)

Debrief.

After you’ve rode out the storm, spend some real time dissecting the situation. When did things start turning sour? How could you have better anticipated this? What did you do well? What needs to be improved? And, most importantly, how can you avoid this from happening in the future?

Use your findings to make real changes within your business. And for god’s sake, get some contingency plans and procedures in place!

My presentation on the business application of location-based service Foursquare from last week’s AMI FutureComms workshop:

My Kitchen Sucks!, an IKEA campaign we’ve been working on with Market United launched earlier this week:

Shoddy, dated or just not functional — tell us why your kitchen sucks and you could win an IKEA kitchen to the value of $10,000.

With my partiality duly noted, I’m still gonna say that this campaign is pretty damn awesome.

South Australians and West Australians simply own up to their avocado green appliances, stained and kettle-burned laminate countertops and harvest gold linoleum tiles for the chance to win a brand new $10,000 IKEA kitchen (one to be awarded in each state). Voting is open to the public, and entrants can earn extra points by uploading evidence (photos and floor plans) and by publicly shaming themselves (sharing their entry on Facebook, Twitter and email).

My Kitchen Rocks! is running simultaneously, the only difference being that S. and W. Australians tell about their ‘tasteful’ kitchens for the chance to win $2,000 to spend at IKEA. (But let’s be honest, this is really more about the suck – seeing people’s flash, functional and well-appointed kitchens is not nearly as much fun.)

Note the background image on Kevin's Twitter profile...

*By ‘some’ I mean a PR agency who you could argue has a profit motive for fear mongering; but nevermind that, I’m going for dramatic effect here.

Regardless of whether this prophesy comes true, I’ve seen many branded social media endeavours that have a definite lack of contingency planning, so a little extra prep won’t hurt.

3 things to help you avoid a Y2.01K crisis:

1. Plans

• add an addendum to your existing crisis management plan that outlines procedures, concerns and considerations that are specific to social media (i.e. public visibility, timeliness, communication channels)
• mobilise an internal response team; stack it to include a PR person with crisis management experience, a social media person who understands the space and a lawyer who can reduce the risk of you getting sued

2. Policies

• create 2 sets of policies:
  • Rules of Engagement: outline employees’ rights, responsibilities and repercussions of engaging in social media
  • Community Guidelines: set rules for users to follow if they wish to participate in any of your online communities (i.e. Facebook Page, forum, comment on your blog)
• ensure both sets of guidelines exist in document form (‘understood’ policies don’t cut it) so that they can be published, distributed, referenced, called upon as proof in a court case – you get the idea

3. Systems

• implement systems that monitor online conversations:
  • keep an eye on your critics and naysayers
  • watch for mood swings
  • create alerts to notify you when sensitive keywords are used in conversations about your brand (i.e. palm oil in Nestlé’s case)
• connect with / enlist your advocates; anticipate issues before they blow up

Prevention is key, but in my next post I’ll outline some ways you can diffuse a mounting crisis.

I traveled over 20,000 kilometers to attend SXSW interactive – a conference referred to by some as ‘spring break for nerds’. Two weeks ago, when I started writing this post (apologies for the delay, family emergency), I had this grandiose plan that I’d write one brilliant post summarising all that I’d seen and learned. I now realise that’s not going to happen because 1. I’m sober now, and 2. SXSW is more about the people you meet (usually over margaritas: see #1) than the panels and keynote speakers.

BUT, since that isn’t much help for the handful of you that weren’t there, here are 4 of my takeaways:

Photo credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET

Location, Location, Location
(no surprise here)

In the main event of the ‘Geolocal Showdown’, location-based-services (LBS) Foursquare and Gowalla competed against one another not only for publicity and check-ins, but also for top honours in the mobile website category of the 13th Annual Web Awards Ceremony (Gowalla won). Bragging rights and egos were put on the line as both companies hosted parties on the same night just down the block from one another (IMHO, Foursquare totally won for bringing Ashton Kutcher to the party).

At the same time, smaller LBS providers such as Loopt, Brightkite, Plancast and Whrrl quietly fought their own battles for attention in the geolocal space. This all sounds overwhelming, huh? Never fear, SimpleGeo launched Vicarious.ly which aggregates check-ins from all these services into one place! And for those that want to know before they go, two Digg employees launched Wheretheladies.at.

Everyone has their own loyalty, so it’s difficult to discern who came out on top. What is clear, however, is the fact that location is the place where everyone wants to be.

Who are all you people?

Apparently I’m not the only one who’s a sucker for hashtags and guacamole… the interactive portion of the conference attracted over 14,000 people (a 33% increase from last year), surpassing music in terms of attendees for the first time ever.

All the usual suspects from the NYC, San Francisco and growing Austin tech scene were there, but who were the rest of the people? Although the increase in size wasn’t all good (crowded hallways, overcapacity panels, way too long of a queue at the bar), it was interesting to meet the different sorts of people that attended – client side, agency side, academia – and of course the aspiring fameballs. I think Vanity Fair is partially to blame for the massive crowds. Or maybe it’s hip to be square, again.

It’s not all about the tech

SXSW is admittedly one big geek show-and-tell, but there was a strong presence from typically “untechie” consumer brands. Pepsi was all over the show, actually it seemed as though they pretty much owned the damn conference (I’m clearly still bitter about being unable to get a simple can of Coke anywhere near the convention center); Chevy sent 8 teams of digerati from across the US on roadtrips from their hometowns to Austin. And as far as swag goes, SoBe kept attendees hydrated and drunk by serving up unlimited free cocktails in the Lizard Lounge, ZonePerfect spruikers were on every street corner trying to ensure the waifish crowd could power through on only a few hours sleep (but we all know it was the free cigarettes American Spirit handed out that really kept kept them going).

Whilst everyone at SXSW wants to know who the new Twitter is going to be, I was also refreshed* by the number of discussions about big picture topics such as media democracy & journalism, online privacy and social change.

*damn you, Pepsi.

Is Twitter the new Twitter the new Twitter the new Twitter?

As you probably know, Twitter launched at SXSW in 2007. When 2008 failed to produce an equally major launch (and the Twitter craze continued), Twitter was proclaimed the new Twitter. Although Foursquare was born at the 2009 conference, it was a relatively quiet launch and Twitter again dominated the scene – making Twitter the new Twitter the new Twitter. Flash forward to SXSW 2010 – who is the new Twitter? Some say Foursquare, others say location-based-services in general, I say Twitter (mostly because I like saying Twitter is the new Twitter is the new Twitter is the new Twitter).

But in all seriousness, Twitter’s been doing some interesting things. During his keynote, CEO Evan Williams launched @anywhere – a framework for adding the Twitter experience anywhere on the web; it’s basically Twitter’s version of Facebook Connect.

In addition to this, Twitter began giving US users the ability to include location data alongside their tweets and revamped their homepage to make it more dynamic by showing real-time info about who is tweeting, trending topics and popular tweets (I don’t actually see this update, so I’m thinking it must be another US-only launch). Twitter added: All of our recent changes embrace the notion that Twitter is not just for status updates anymore. Zing, Facebook!

SO, Twitter’s having launched @anywhere, adding location data and giving Facebook the middle finger earn it my vote for being the new Twitter.