courtney lambert |marcomms stuff you should know

Deloitte - Technology, Media & Telecommunications Predictions 2012

2012-01-23T14:27:00.001+13:00

Deloitte - Technology, Media & Telecommunications Predictions 2012

Full report and versions also here:

http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_GX/global/industries/technology-media-telecom...

16264A_TMT_Predict_sg6.pdf Download this file

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Deloitte - Technology, Media & Telecommunications Predictions 2012

2012-01-23T14:23:00.001+13:00

Deloitte - Technology, Media & Telecommunications Predictions 2012

This marks the eleventh anniversary of Deloitte’s Predictions. What started in 2001 with ten predictions about mobile telephony has evolved and grown into one of Deloitte’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications group’s most anticipated research publications, covering all three converging industries.

Deloitte_-_Technology,_Media_&_Telecommunications_Predictions_2012.pdf Download this file

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Untitled

2012-01-23T14:03:00.001+13:00

Rework-by-Jason-Fried-and-David-Heinemeier-Hansson-Excerpts.pdf Download this file

Every word on your website is marketing. Every time someone uses your product, it’s marketing. According to authors Jason Fried and Daven Hansson, founders of software firm 37signals.com, Marketing isn’t a department. Accounting is a department.

Thisbook is a speed-read of reality, like “Bernbach on Advertising.” It is an energetic exhortation to develop fast, lean programs and products and to resist the temptation to complexify. If your biggest client wants more bells and whistles in the software, let your customer outgrow your product. Don’t make it more complicated to appease one customer because that customer will eventually move on and you will be left with a bloated product that lost its original charm. Small is good. Fast is good. Big companies wish they were nimble. Stay nimble.

They believe in creative solutions rather than using a bigger hammer. They don’t think the customer is always right. They quote Henry Ford, “If I had listened to my customers, I would have built a faster horse.” As for creativity, ideas are a dime a dozen, execution is everything. But inspiration, that moment when you can see the path clearly, is perishable. When you are on a roll, don’t stop. Just make sure you are working on something that is important.

You can download a PDF excerpt of the book at http://37signals.com/rework/ Recommended.

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The Kult Of Karl Drinks Its Own Purple Cordial

2012-01-22T16:40:00.001+13:00

I really like how they kicked off the Karl /Net-a-Porter launch at Le Web with this amazing video of Karl Lagerfeld sketching on the iPad and showing off his four iPhones. Pure genius and dripping with effortless cool. (It's kind of long but well worth a watch. The man is amazing and takes apple fan-dom to a whole new level.)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2JI_FUrf6M

Now it looks as though the cheesy digital agency has kicked in and are telling everyone that there is a 'social media frenzy as confidential preview leaked" on the Net-A-Porter website.

Just to be clear Kult Of Karl.

1. It hasn't been leaked. You put it on your website.

2. It's not confidential. You have release dates on the site.

3. There is no 'social media frenzy'.

Stay classy Net-a-Porter.

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Nielsen 2011 U.S. Media Consumer Usage Report

2012-01-09T12:54:00.001+13:00

http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/reports-downloads/2011-Reports/StateofMediaConsumerUsageReport.pdf

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Occupy Auckland Is Doing It Right

2011-12-12T17:13:00.001+13:00

The main objection I hear from people about Occupy Auckland is ‘they aren’t doing it right’.

They aren’t doing what right?

Supposedly, there is a certain way that you do protests and they aren’t abiding by what people are used to seeing so it must be a bad thing.

There is no leader!

There are no demands!

They all have different agendas!

Who will think of the grass!

The global Occupy movements are redefining what it means to protest. The rules of engagement are changing and that’s why authorities are getting so frustrated by it.

Chairman of Google Eric Schmidt touched on this in his Le Web address. Online communities are redefining society and the way that people organise and interact with each other. The way that the government structures society is not necessarily how people want things to look any more. To me, Occupy is a wonderful symptom of global change in civil rights and the power of the individual-fuelled by the Internet.

The fact that it doesn’t follow Protesting For Dummies 101 is what makes it so powerful and why we should all be paying attention and not writing protesters off as a bunch of unemployed deadbeats.

But what do they want?

People asking what they want are actually asking ‘how do we make them go away?’

Because they haven’t specified what they want, Occupy can’t be drawn in to a negotiation they will lose. Sounds a bit backwards but it’s also quite clever. They are actually getting more attention and conversation because the authorities are working off an old rule book.

So what’s the solution?

Leave them alone. Yes monitor them and make sure it’s hygienic and safe and all that but the security levels I’ve seen in Aotea Square are no more than what you see on a boozy Friday night with drunk teenagers. Surely, this is a more worthy cause and most certainly a more significant story in world history.

It has definately made me think about what things are important in life and what type of society I want to live in. One without poverty is pretty high on the list. More power to them.

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Thank For Your Feedback (Arsehole)

2011-12-08T13:55:00.001+13:00

One of the most important things you can learn is how to give feedback properly

When I say properly, I actually mean ‘without being a complete arsehole and having everyone hate you.’

As a recovered (recovering?) blunt, scathing, insensitive giver of feedback, I will now pass on the ‘Wisdom I Have Learned.’ (alternative title: The Wisdom Of Arseholes’).

Wisdom One: There is a Transactional Outcome and an Emotional Outcome

One of the best sales lessons I learned early on was that that there are two outcomes: a transactional outcome and an emotional outcome.

The transactional outcome is getting what you want. The emotional outcome is getting people to a win-win where they want to deal with you again. Most people focus on the transactional outcome and ignore the emotional bit. If you have to stomp all over people and be a dick and have a tantrum; you’ve lost. Always be aware of the emotional temperature around you.

Wisdom Two: The Two Thirds Rule

(I think this is a Jack Welch thing but he probably nicked it from someone else so I can’t be bothered attributing it properly).

Basically, when you’re giving feedback, say two positive things and one ‘constructive’ thing.

E.g. “That was a fast turnaround. Thanks for doing it so quickly. I think we’re nearly there. We may just not be able to use a naked picture of Lindsay Lohan for our Christmas cards this time year. Can you please take another look at the creative and maybe stick to Santas and reindeers. ”

Always start with the positive first and make a big deal about it. It’s easy to find fault and criticise.

Wisdom Three: It’s Never OK to Scribble Crap All over Other People’s Work

I once had an adland creative spazz out at me because I scribbled all over the proofs with a black Sharpie pen. There were arrows and lines and asterisks and scribbles. He was furious. In hindsight, he was right. It is disrespectful to other people’s work. I now get very stabby when I get feedback in the form of dramatic pen slashes, giant question marks (you might as well just write ‘WTF?’ on my work) and huge chunks of angry crossed-out-ness. I’ve noticed that good editors have a very light touch and put dainty dots and dashes in pencil as ‘suggestions for your consideration.” It’s nice and I want to be one of those friendly respecters of people’s work.

Wisdom Four: Find Out Why

If you’re not getting the result that you want; take the time to find out why. Get the person to explain their thinking to you before you make a call if the work is ‘a bit shit’ or ‘that guy’s lazy.’

Look at yourself first and try to figure out if you have explained things properly and given enough information. Just because the picture you have in your head is different, it doesn’t mean the work is necessarily wrong. Is this something new you could adapt? How much experience do they have and do they know less or more than you about what they’re producing?

Wisdom Five: Do Unto Others

My Big Boss gets a lot of things right and this is one of them. Think about why there are certain people that you are happy to work with and do things for and certain people that you dread being in the lift with. Why is that? Often, it because of the emotional outcome stuff. That person has been a pain, given you some rough feedback and been unreasonable. Work to NOT be that person. Model yourself off the people that you do like working with and think about what makes it different.

That’s about all I can think of for now. Feel free to add your own. I look forward to your feedback (in pencil).

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Why I'm Not A Huge Fan of Social Dashboards

2011-12-06T11:36:00.001+13:00

Guess what?

Organisations had communications functions BEFORE social media.

The way that some people talk about the moon landings they are experiencing in this ‘whole new world’ of social media I really do wonder what the hell they are doing that I’m missing.

I’ve worked pretty much 50/50 across marketing and communications my whole working life and one thing I don’t do is sit in front of a dashboard all day looking at metrics.

I’ve assessed many different social media dashboard type products for various companies and always seem to come to the same conclusion: “this one is good at this thing, not so good at that thing. I probably wouldn’t really use it.”

Many of the systems being peddled have been rushed out by agencies desperate to lock in retainers with their marketing clients. The ‘reveal’ sessions are seen as a way to pitch social into a company and trigger further consulting work through regular reporting and talking a load of nonsense about ROI. They are not designed as tools for the practitioner on the shop floor.

It seems to be a shared sentiment across people that I know and respect in the industry. They aren’t ‘dashboard’ sort of folk. Good communicators are generally ‘people’ people and they like to look humans in the eye and discuss ideas. They will pull a big piece of data for a specific project but, day-to-day, most people understand the news and media landscape and have an instinct for issues.

There are other human beings that work where I work and usually I have meetings with them and try to understand what they’re trying to do and where I can help. I write briefs for agencies, approve things, write communications and talk on the phone.

Yes I look at research and media monitors much in the same way I always have. Standard issue for a marcomms function. No great giant leaps for mankind over here I’m afraid.

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Who Owns Your Social Media Identity?

2011-12-02T12:01:00.001+13:00

I seem to be pretty much on my own with this one and I'm not sure why.

People all seem to be comfortable with the idea of having a work email account and a personal email account.

So why are social media accounts any different?

If you are on company equipment, on company time, using company infrastructure; then clearly it is easier to define a ‘work account’. If you are mucking around talking to your mates about lolcats then do that on your personal account. Same as email. The ‘work account’ then becomes and online asset that is the property of the employer. If @DaphneTalksBudgies leaves the pet shop then the account can be changed to @CherylTalksBudgies and the community that the pet shop has invested resource in can continue.

Instead, we seem to see this horrid hybrid of “I’m Captain Awesome In Charge at Some Epic Company ---views are my own and not my employer’s.”

People then proceed to talk about hot topics in their industry (often on company time and equipment) and then try to pretend that a token “views expressed are my own” will wash their hands of any responsibility.

As a communications panda trained in the ‘old way’ of having defined company spokespeople who are trained and briefed as experts on specific topics I find this ridiculous.

To me, that would be like Paul Reynolds having a spray about telco deregulation on Twitter and then trying to claim that it had no relation to his job at Telecom. You can’t shape shift like that.

One of the few social media policies that I have seen take this matter seriously is the news organisation Reuters. Employees are encouraged to have a clearly defined work social media account that follows a company standard and remains the property of the company. The account is approved by the person’s manager for work use so it’s all out in the open. Personal accounts are left well alone, same as a personal Gmail account.

I’m very conscious of what I send through my work email account and readily switch to my personal account if I’m ever in any doubt. As our maturity around social tools as professional work spaces develops, hopefully more people will start to adopt this approach.

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Qantas Luxury: What I Would Have Done

2011-11-23T14:40:00.001+13:00

Last night I jotted down some thoughts as the Qantas Airways #qantasluxury crisis churned away online.

I can see exactly how #qantasluxury happened.

The executive team at Qantas would have been churning out BAU (business as usual) messages to rally the troops in light of the negative media they have been receiving around flight groundings and union standoffs.

So, BAU they did.

Marketing person fires up the Twitter with her brief to position Qantas as a full-service, flagship brand up against price-fighter Jetstar.

Giving away free merch on Twitter generally works very well for big brands and you get good, positive engagement results.

So, marketing person rummaged around in the corporate swag cupboard (I have one myself) and bundled some gear to throw on Twitter as a wee promo.

All very unremarkable and very common business practises. BAU.

So where did it go wrong?

Qantas is not trading under BAU and it’s naive to think that they are. People don’t forget the weeks of negative coverage. It’s the national carrier. It employs heaps of people. It is a very high-touch, high-engagement brand and business.

Qantas misread the sentiment and the generally higher educated and politically aware, news savvy people that are on Twitter gave it back to them.

I’ve been involved in a number of crisis comms situations (mainly offline in traditional media) and the difference between a train wreck and a ‘whew I can’t believe we got away with that’ is often the ability of the comms manager to step back and not panic.

Only someone who has been on the frontline can relate to that sickening feeling you get when your phone rings at 6pm on a Friday night and your project is going to be front-page news in the weekend papers for all the wrong reasons.

What I would have done

First port of call for me would have been to the CEO. The ‘Houston-we have a problem’ moment that drains all the blood from your soul.

Second, I would call/email the entire executive team and tell them not to comment to media. This would include legal and possibly an external public relations firm if you have one too for investor relations.

The message would be “don’t comment. Act dumb. Say you haven’t seen the #qantasluxury hashtag and you’re not the person that talks on those things.” Put everything through to the comms manager who can protect people and buy time. That’s what they are there for.

Third, I would order everyone out of the pool on and offline.

All social media accounts are to stop publishing including personal accounts. Go dark. (note: this is very controversial and I have never been able to convince any company to do it. However, I see public domain comment by employees online as a risk in a crisis situation).

An email/ yammer to all staff with an equal measure of “it’s under control” and “if you talk to media we’ll bloody fire you.” Serious. I’ve had these chats before.

Be aware that, especially when you are in a change management process like Qantas, disgruntled employees may forward the messages to media so write for the public domain.

Fourth, I would call an analyst to start mining the data across on and offline media.

I certainly would not be talking to anyone without seeing a top-line level of sentiment activity. Remember-when you are trending at number one on Twitter Australia your job is containment. Trying to send clever “hey guys thanks for entering” tweets is like trying to put out a bushfire with a garden hose. What topics can you provide clarification on? What arguments will you never win? Is it targeted at the CEO, unions, service, food, groundings, offshoring? I was very surprised to see mainstream news outlets publishing comments from interviews with Qantas people in the middle of the event. Far too knee-jerk.

Fifth, I would assess the data and come up with a written statement. The recent Telecom “abstain” statement is an excellent example of this working well. The tone is “whoops we messed up, we tried to be funny but we weren’t.” It’s a big step back. Don’t try and be tricky. Comments suggesting that ‘any publicity is good publicity’ are absolutely ridiculous, lazy and unsophisticated. Bad media ruins brands in the same way that good media makes brands.

With emotions running high, bad decisions can be made out of ego, blame, and sheer panic.

Good crisis responses whether you get caught in a rip at the beach or responding to a natural disaster require planning, systems, trust and leadership.

That’s what I would have done.

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Cookie Monster Explains #occupy

2011-11-18T11:57:00.001+13:00

Anyway, here's a burst of Cookie truth that should be copy-and-pasted everywhere all across the Internet. Today, we are all Cookie Monsters!

Yes, there always going to be rich and poor. But we used to live in country where rich owned factory and make 30 times what factory worker make. Now we live in country where rich make money by lying about value of derivative bonds and make 3000 times what factory worker would make if factories hadn't all moved to China.
Capitalism great system. We won Cold War because people behind Iron Curtain look over wall, and see how much more plentiful and delicious cookies are in West, and how we have choice of different bakeries, not just state-owned one. It great system. It got us out of Depression, won WWII, built middle class, built country's infrastructure from highways to Hoover Dam to Oreo factory to electrifying rural South. It system that reward hard work and fair play, and everyone do fair share and everyone benefit. Rich get richer, poor get richer, everyone happy. It great system.

Then after Reagan, Republicans decide to make number one priority destroying that system. Now we have system where richest Americans ones who find ways to game system -- your friends on Wall Street -- and poorest Americans ones who thought working hard would get them American dream, when in fact it get them pink slip when job outsourced to 10-year-old in Mumbai slum. And corporations have more influence over government than people (or monsters).

It not about rich people having more money. It about how they got money. It about how they take opportunity away from rest of us, for sake of having more money. It how they willing to take risks that destroy economy -- knowing full well that what could and would happen -- putting millions out of work, while creating nothing of value, and all the while crowing that they John Galt, creating wealth for everyone.

That what the soul-searching about. When Liberals run country for 30 years following New Deal, American economy double in size, and wages double along with it. That fair. When Conservatives run country for 30 years following Reagan, American economy double again, and wages stay flat. What happen to our share of money? All of it go to richest 1%. That not "there always going to be rich people". That unfair system. That why we upset. That what Occupy Sesame Street about.

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Burson-Marsteller Asia-Pacific Corporate Social Media Study 2011

2011-11-14T16:19:00.001+13:00

<div style="width:477px" id="__ss_9867062"> <strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px">Burson-Marsteller Asia-Pacific Corporate Social Media Study 2011</strong> <div style="padding:5px 0 12px"> View more documents from Burson-Marsteller Asia-Pacific </div> </div>

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Apple Brand Architecture

2011-11-08T08:40:00.001+13:00

Excerpt from Richard McManus post

Jobs was ousted from Apple in 1985 in a failed leadership battle with the CEO at the time, John Sculley. In 1997, he returned to Apple and one of my favorite Jobs stories comes from that time. On his return, he reduced Apple's bloated computer product range from about 40 to just 4. This passage, set in an internal meeting, describes how he did it:

He grabbed a magic marker, padded to a whiteboard, and drew a horizontal and vertical line to make a four-squared chart. "Here's what we need," he continued. Atop the two columns he wrote "Consumer" and "Pro"; he labeled the two rows "Desktop" and "Portable." Their job, he said, was to make four great products, one for each quadrant.

via @readwriteweb

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Social Media Is Nearly Dead And I've Got My Mojo Back

2011-10-25T13:05:00.001+13:00

I’m back. Didn’t last long did it?

There are a couple of reasons.

First of all, when I wrote my previous post I guess I was pretty fatigued by the whole thing. I had spent so much time with companies and individuals writing up strategy documents, training, planning and they just weren’t getting it. The decision to go back in-house after eight or so years as an independent was a biggie. I knew it would inevitably mean I had to colour inside the lines and be more careful about what I said.

I guess I thought it would just be easier to shut the whole thing down. One less thing to worry about.

I was wrong.

Having a voice and giving others a voice is fundamental to who I am as a person.

It is fundamental to my faith. It is fundamental to my political ideas. It is the most powerful agent for social change as we’ve seen recently in the Middle East with dictators falling and the peasants taking back the keys to the palace via mobile phone.
People around the world and around the corner here in Auckland are occupying what is rightfully theirs. People are being encouraged to speak up and demand accountability and respect for all human beings. Suckers like me that were taught macroeconomics at university by right-wing professors bought the lie that it would all just ‘trickle down’.

I read this article about two weeks ago and magically, I got my mojo back.

I realised that I am very lucky to be alive at this point in history and that the changes going on around me personally, globally and spiritually are not to be feared. I realised I need to lift my eyes away from guru spats and rubbish like ‘gamification’ and think about what my Big Boss is doing up in the iCloud. He’s giving people a voice.

Change is in the wind. Social media as a concept is dying. People whose thinking I admire such as Kiwi Andy Lark (Dell and now Commonwealth Bank of Australia) are all heading back to safe harbour to regroup and prepare for battle. Brian Solis has announced the end of social media 1.0 in his latest book. It’s going to be a wild ride and I have no idea what is going to happen next.

So I’m going to draw a little line --------------------and everything before it was me and everything after it is still me just with a bit of “views expressed are my own and not those of my employer” etc etc. You know the drill.

God wants all of us to have a voice. Me included.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Cue The GoodNight Kiwi Music

2011-09-01T12:13:00.001+12:00

A few of you have been asking what I've been up to lately as the prolific blogging has stopped being prolific and has turned into a black void of darkness that makes your soul weep with lonely.

That's not actually true. And when I say a few I meant one person. And that was my Mum.

The FOR REAL version is that I have decided to put my big girl pants on and go back in-house to work as permanent employee. Permanent like Vivid but not so permanent like a tattoo because, as my good friend Jo explained to me, it's not like having a kid: you can undo it.

Some people have been surprised at my decision. Some people have been frightened by my decision. The thing is, I never went out to talk about and advise in Social Media. I've studied marketing and business. I first vanity web published for a wonderful little site called Home Biz Buzz in around 1999 and started blogging on Typepad not long after. I've always loved amateur publishing and I saw that most of the discussion about social media was being had by folks that either came from a tech background or worked in smalll business. Nobody was really talking about the environments that I worked in everyday- big business and government departments.

I set up a little Blogger account and started writing into the abyss. Turns out a few ad agency guys around NZ saw my stuff and got me along to help them with some ideas. That's how that happened.

Do I think there is a future in social media advisory? No.

Do I think there is a future for dedicated social media agencies and services? No.

Will there be a demand for people that can produce ideas, work strategy and generate content for paid/earned/owned media models? You betcha. Big demand.

Did I take a permanent role for financial reasons? Short term: No. Maybe in the long term yes because I don't think social media advisory is sustainable.

It's been fun but I'm changing course a little bit now and working on more of a fun thing just for me over at http://mylifewithme.co.nzThe walls are pretty bare at the moment but I'm really looking forward to writing about stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with marketing, social media or business for a while (I'll be doing plenty of that during the day).

So on that note, I hang up my SMEG badge and hit PUBLISH.

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How Much Do Artists Get Per iTunes Download And A Pirate LolCat

2011-07-29T11:56:00.001+12:00

So while you're all getting exciting about streaming music services, think of the poor-arsed artists.

Artist payouts per stream:

Spotify=0.2865 cents

Pandora=0.0102

iTunes/$.99 download payout = 70 cents

By Glenn Peoples (@billboardglenn), Nashville

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/digital-and-mobile/business-matters-did-you-know-48-streams-1005282722.story

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Don't Try

2011-07-11T14:20:00.001+12:00

"What do you do? How do you write, create?"

You don't, I told them. You don't try. That's very important: not to
try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if
nothing happens, you wait some more. It's like a bug high on the wall.
You wait for it to come to you. When it gets close enough you reach
out, slap out and kill it. Or if you like its looks you make a pet out
of it." Charles Bukowski, American poet and novelist.

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OMG:Justin Bieber Won't Fix Your Zits

2011-07-06T13:32:00.001+12:00

When I was a teenager I had horrifically bad skin.

The nasty bright red scarring variety that is impossible to cover over
and makes you feel like one of the lepers that star in the Bible.

Well meaning folk told me I was eating the wrong things, using the
wrong skin products and just generally- doing it all wrong. What an
awesome boost to the ego when you are already feeling crap about your
self-image as a teenager with braces on your teeth and a lumpy body
that you’re growing into.

I bought every zit remedy from every snake oil marketer. Janola-based
junk that torched my skin and made it flake and feel like sandpaper
with a light salad dressing of oil.

When I was 17 I finally went to a doctor and was told that I had
‘small pores’ and that my skin could be easily cleared up in four to
six weeks with the right medication. He was just a GP, not a
dermatologist and I didn’t have to take steroids or any of that
hardcore stuff like Roaccutane.

It worked.

The reason I’m thinking about this is because I saw a teenage girl on
the train today with the same nasty skin that I had at her age. I
could see the yucky dry patches and crusty cover-up makeup splotches
that I used to also battle with. I wanted to go up to this stranger
and tell her that it wasn’t her fault. That her skin was just made
that way and that she would be grateful when she was older because us
‘small pore’ freaks age really well (according to my nice doctor man).

I didn’t have the guts to do it but it did get me thinking how we can
go through life beating ourselves up about things that are outside of
our control and not your fault. I was born with the skin I was born
with (no this isn’t a Lady Gaga song about sexuality -little
monsters). Sometimes, you’re just not getting very good advice and
well meaning people in your life can actually send you down the river.
Sometimes you need to step back and really qualify the advice you’re
getting and ensure that shoot–from-the-hip stuff isn’t making you
miserable.

PS: If you’re the girl on the train. Go to your GP and stop buying
crap from the supermarket or those Justin Bieber Proactiv ads. He has
naturally great skin.

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There's A Customer And She Wants Some Service

2011-06-29T16:00:00.001+12:00

Yesterday, I had a really good service experience.

Shocking I know as blogs are usually vehicles for passive aggressive
rants about emo staff and business processes that have been designed
by a mentally challenged ostrich.

So what made it so good?

1. Listening: The consultant sat down with me and asked me open-ended
questions about my own lifestyle, needs and expectations. She then
relayed back to me what she had understood so I had the confidence
that I’d been heard.
2. Preference: At all stages, I was asked what my personal preferences
were and I felt in control of the situation. Preferred contact method,
preferred drink, and preferred time of the day for an appointment.
The experience was being customised to my needs.
3. Expectations: My expectations were managed all through the
experience. I was given three pricing options and asked about my
budget. I was told how long it would take and what results I could
expect. I was then given time to make a selection and assured that
there was no pressure for me to take the most expensive option.
4. Good business processes: Before the appointment, I was sent a text
confirming my scheduled time and the location and contact phone number
if I needed directions or help. I was greeted on arrival by first name
and sent a thank you email with a request for rebooking or feedback
when I got home.
5. The people were 'people people': Most importantly, the staff were
all friendly, could make polite conversation and were attentive to
basic things such as making sure I was comfortable, had a drink and
that I had found the place OK.

Simple things, executed well, and I walked out the door with a
reasonable dent in my bank account and yet still, a plan to return.
The owner told me they had a 90% customer retention rate so the payoff
speaks for itself.

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The Top 100 Social Media Brands By Industry

2011-06-21T13:20:00.001+12:00

from Sumit

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Untitled

2011-06-15T13:12:00.001+12:00

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You're In The Army Now: Message Force Multipliers

2011-06-09T13:36:00.001+12:00

Want to multiply your message?

Try some army-issue ‘message force multipliers’.

In 2008 the New York Times again returned to the issue of hidden public relations agendas with a series of stories in which Barstow showed how the Pentagon was using retired military officers to deliver the miltary’s message on the war in Iraq and its counterterrorism efforts.

Barstow described how the officers were presented on the news programs and independent consultants offering unvarnished opinions.
After being stonewalled by the Pentagon for two years, the Times eventually sued to obtain records about the Defense Department’s use of retired military officers.

Barstow found evidence that the officers’ appearances on television were not happenstance, but a carefully coordinated effort of what the Pentagon called ‘message force multipliers’.
Sullivan, J (May/June 2011), ‘True Enough: The Second Age of PR’, Columbia Journalism Review.

Horribly unethical? Makes you think who you are really listening to on the news doesn’t it?

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Like Twitter Jail Except More Like Real Jail

2011-05-31T13:08:00.001+12:00

To the person who tweeted me and asked me ‘Are you dead? I’m most
certainly alive and well and back at the keyboard, ready to light some
more fires that may get me in Twitter jail but hopefully not in the
real one.

In real life, my lag is over and I’ve been released from Mt Eden
prison after a fascinating few months in the Big House.

(Just to clarify: It was a Department of Corrections job, not a court
order that put me down in the men’s jail).

Security restrictions mean that you don’t have a cellphone inside the
wire (that’s prison talk), and I must say after a few years in on-call
media relations, it’s been nice having a breather from ringing phones,
beeping text messages and constant emails.

I’ve never heard more fascinating work stories and seen more
interesting things in all the places I’ve worked. From the ghost in
the abandoned cell to escape attempts, riots, a guy who though he was
Elvis, hunger strikers, homemade tattoo guns and five year-old kids
that ‘gang sign’ to their Dad in visits; it’s certainly been an
eye-opener.

Corrections Officers are fantastic storytellers and they love to shock
and entertain you with dramatic tales no Wellywood scriptwriter could
ever concoct. People are naturally fascinated with the Underworld
(count how many police/crime/gangs shows there are on TV) and I’m no
exception. My behind-the-scenes look was like wandering around inside
a Discovery channel doco. Old Mt Eden prison is like nothing you’ll
ever see again in this country and I feel privileged that I’ve
experienced it as a working jail and met some of it’s characters. My
attitudes toward crime and punishment, treatment of prisoners,
forgiveness and rehabilitation have also been radically challenged but
that’s a bit heavy and I’ll get in to that another time. Anyone who
thinks being in prison is like a holiday park is obviously going to
some pretty grim holiday parks. Prison is shit and I certainly never
want to be one of Corrections “clients”. It's nice to be able to walk
out the front gate at the end of the day.

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Will ‘Like To Enter’ Kill Your Facebook Fanpage?

2011-03-29T06:07:00.001+13:00

If you think a ‘like to enter’ competition on your company Facebook
page is a cunning way to grow your follower numbers you are probably
right- in the short term.

There seems to be a proliferation of the little thumbs up competitions
rolling through New Zealand at the moment and excited marketing
managers are finally ‘doing’ social media. Or so their agency tells
them.

The promotional mechanic is not new. It’s the modern version of
putting your business card in a bowl for a $50 bar tab draw. As
customers, we all know how this goes down. They company will then add
your details to their database and send you offers via email or text.
Continuously. To the point where you can’t take their noisy crap
anymore and you unsubscribe. Or, in Facebook’s case, hit the ‘hide’
button.

If companies continue to treat Facebook as a loyalty database they
will end up with the same problems that direct marketers have fought
with since Claude C Hopkins first started busting out coupons in the
1920s.

Getting the balance right between engagement and spam requires people
driving the accounts to understand their community and have a sense
for what they will tolerate (in commercial messaging) versus making
them find your company unbearably annoying.

You need to keep an eye on the stats running in the background of your
Facebook fan pages and keep an eye on your exit and hide rates; not
just your engagement rates (likes and comments). All standard issue
loyalty marketing stuff that you need to report on as you would with a
Farmer’s Beauty Club or a Flybuys card database. Watch your campaign
flight planning and make sure you aren’t fatiguing the community with
stuff that is exciting for you e.g. ‘check out our new TV ad!’, but
that is of no interest to your punters.

In the tips for new players category, read the Facebook competition
terms of service and stick to them. Big brother is watching you and
they will kindly send you a warning email that you should kindly
comply with or your fanpage will be disabled. ‘Comment to enter’,
‘upload to enter’ and ‘like to enter’ have to be setup a certain way
to meet Facebook legal requirements and it pays to educate yourself on
what’s in and what’s out.

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Air New Zealand's Bizarre Higher Ground

2011-03-21T13:55:00.001+13:00

It seems people affected by the tsunami aren’t the only ones
clambering to higher ground.

Air New Zealand’s Robbie Fyfe has decided to waggle his finger at a
few news organisations for alleged sensationalist coverage of the
Japan nuclear issue.

Not only is it a boring and petty issue that a CEO at that level
should not be entering into; it opens them up for criticism of some of
their own media management. Finger-pointy-glass-housie-stone-throwing
is not cool. It might even cause a cynical Monday morning member of
the typing pool such as myself to question the company's jealous
outburst at Mike Pero for daring to take some of the sunshine off
their media gush-fest to Erabus in 2009?

Or perhaps their stage-managing the return of Air New Zealand plane
crash victims in full view of the media complete with soundtrack? A
nice touch or a publicity stunt?

Shouting down 'The Listener' for daring to criticise the organisation
in an editorial piece? Clever campaigning or corporate defensiveness?

Take your hand off it Air New Zealand and keep your top talent out of
handbag arguments.

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Bring The Noise: Social Media and Contact Centres

2011-03-13T13:06:00.001+13:00

http://www.scribd.com/full/50615617?access_key=key-2uzppp92nsca57krb4x

A few comments from yours truly on the mega-topic of social media channels and their interaction with call centre. Excellent analysis and write up by Keith Newman.

Newman, Keith. Telecommunications Review, February 2011.
Social media transforms the business feedback loop and contact centres geared up to deliver customer service through these channels will leave their competitors in the digital dust.

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Is it easier to be liked as a man than as a woman?

2011-03-11T11:47:00.001+13:00

Prince Willy is a likeable toff and I’m quite excited that he’s coming
to New Zealand next week to waltz around in a high-viz and kiss a
few babies in Christchurch.

John ‘smile and wave’ Key and Saint Bob Parker will be completing the
royal flush of warm fuzzies. The golden triangle of current media
darlings. The three nice guys of news and current affairs.

I’m a fan of all three but it has lead me to think: does it make a
difference that they are guys?

Is it easier to like a man in a leadership scenario than a woman?

Note I said ‘like’. Not ‘respect’ or ‘admire’ or ‘submit to’. To
genuinely like them.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Premier Anna Bligh did an excellent
job of fronting the Queensland floods issue and I was impressed by
what they did. But I can’t say I get the ‘awwww didn’t he do well’
factor I get with Saint Bob.

Is gender a contributing factor to likeableness or is it just a matter
of personality?

If we subbed out Lady Diana for Prince Willy would the Christchurch
like-fest have continued? Probably. If we subbed out Helen Clark for
John Key would we still be as enamoured? Probably not. Julia Gillard
cried during the floods and got mocked for faking it. If John Key
cried, every woman in New Zealand would probably rush to Christchurch
to give him a hug. Women look quite silly in hard hats, look frumpy in
flat shoes and can come across as being bossy when issuing key
messages. Everything just seems to work against us.

As a child raised on a diet of Women’s Weekly royal covers, Disney
handsome prince movies and TV1 6pm news, maybe it’s just how I’ve been
socialised and the familiar makes me comfortable.

I’m just pleased Willy’s won’t be bringing that tart that ruined my
chance of becoming a Princess.

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Why Virtual Workforces Are Virtually Impossible

2011-03-10T19:21:00.001+13:00

"This trend will, in turn, encourage the increasing virtualization of the

organization. As 24/7 connectivity, social networking, and increased

demands for personal freedom further penetrate the walls of the

corporation, corporate life will continue to move away from traditional

hierarchical structures. Instead, workers, mixing business and personal

matters over the course of the day, will self-organize into agile communities

of interest. By 2020, more than half of all employees at large corporations

will work in virtual project groups." Roman Friedrich, Michael Peterson, and Alex Koster, Generation C at Work

The concept of virtual workforces is very appealing yet highly unlikely.

In some industries, it works well and online collaboration ensure that the best

heads are put around a project regardless of their geographical location.

For the most part, I don’t see employees ‘self-organising into agile

communities of interest’ mainly because existing power structures are still

locked into a 1960’s mentality of spending 8am to 5pm, bolted in a cubicle

with half an hour for lunch.

One of the most frustrating scenarios that inevitably crops up with the project

work I do is the ‘where were you?’ conversation or worse still, the ‘what time

do you call this?” conversation.

I make it very clear to all my clients that I’m contactable 24/7 but don’t expect

me to sit at a desk and pretend to look busy for eight hours per day.

(If the meeting is at 10am, I’ll turn up at 10am, not 8am and then read the

paper and fluff around and have a coffee until 10am).

What’s the point?

The reality is, most of the people that sign my invoices (and their employees)

ARE required to clock in like good little factory workers and they don’t see

why I should be treated any different.

Often, the C-suite have been with the organisation their whole career and

have come up through the ranks by being the first to arrive, the last to leave

and aspiring to climb the corporate ladder. The complete opposite of a flat,

egalitarian, trust-based structure that virtualisation requires.

Human beings are naturally competitive and any opportunity to tar a

colleague with the ‘slacker’ brush is often taken by middle managers trying to

make themselves look good in the ascent.

Some people make their whole career out of crowing about how busy and

important they are and making sure that the other bees in the hive know

about it.

You just need to go to Friday night drinks at a large corporate to hear ‘ Jason

had two hours for lunch today’ or ‘Sue is always on the phone organising her

house renovations’ moans of injustice.

Virtual workforces are a nice idea, but a long way off and certainly not

something I expect to see dominating in the next 10 years. What are your thoughts and experiences?

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Are You A Sheep, A Shepherd Or A Dog?

2011-03-08T14:57:00.001+13:00

If it’s one thing that the recent uprisings in the Middle East have
taught us it should be the shocking price individuals and society pay
for fear.

Perceived power rules the world.

Perceived. In reality individuals such as Mubarack or Gaddafi or even
John Key started out with no more or less power than anyone else.
Gradually they assert leadership, gather authority over others and
create power structures with money, armies and political regulation.

We, the sheep, go along with things and take our instruction from the
shepherd and the dogs he employs to bark at us. In reality, if the
sheep get organised, they could easily roll the shepherd and trample
the dog but our individual fear keeps us running. And it's often not
in the direction we want to go.

After watching the uprisings and the terrible scenes from Christchurch
it has made me think about how important it is to really get into life
and not let perceived power stop me from doing things. Some of the
things I asked myself were:

What am I afraid of?

Who am I afraid of?

Who or what is asserting authority over my life that is causing me fear?

Who are the people speaking fearful words or warnings into my life? Is
it useful or is it holding me back?

Where could I be using my power more effectively to change things? Am
I a sheep, a shepherd or a dog?

Tony Robbins uses the phrase “design your life or someone will design
it for you” and I’ve found the process of pondering and consciously
removing the sources of fear and perceived authority quite
fascinating. It’s made me realise how much power I have and how much
energy I waste being afraid of silly things and letting people impose
their fears on to me.

Staring down power structures is strangely, empowering, and it's
energised me to kick down a few doors, laugh at a few people and laugh
at myself.

Give it a go. If the shepherd doesn't have your best interests in
mind, ignore him and his barking dog.

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Have You Got Social Media in Your Emergency Comms Plans?

2011-03-04T11:37:00.001+13:00

Many New Zealand companies and organisations have rushed onto Twitter in the scramble to communicate through the Christchurch earthquake.

Thankfully, the large enterprise angst around social media policy and usage was outweighed by a genuine need to help people that were (and still are) in real trouble.

The lack of experience is obvious on some accounts but that really doesn’t matter. Real-time communication is critical during an emergency response and I’m pleased to see that corporate hand wringing hasn’t stopped people keeping the flow of information going.

I hope this has proven the case that social media tools aren’t for kids and early adopters. I hope that people can see that including social channels in emergency response planning is not just a gimmick and that it is as important as press conferences and media alerts. I’ve written a few emergency management communication plans in my time and not yet have I been able to include a line for social media response. Empowering people to connect and help each other at a hyperlocal level is critical and saves lives.

Use the tools that are there and make sure that it's tabled at your next EOC meetings.

Hang in there Christchurch; we’re thinking of you.

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Pizza Hut Social Media Team Live Superbowl 2011

2011-02-11T15:33:00.001+13:00

Thanks Jeremiah Owyang

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What To Do When 'Shit Happens'?

2011-02-09T14:21:00.001+13:00

If you haven’t seen the Channel 7 ‘shit happens’ video, you are missing out on one of the most awkward and bizarre political interviews you’ve probably ever witnessed.

The odd, trembling, bobble head motion and raw agony of one minute and ten seconds of dead air is horrifying.

Time and space are suspended as Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott has an outer body experience and watches his political career being swept out to sea.

The interview with Channel 7 reporter Mark Riley screened yesterday and had Tony accused of making the insensitive ‘shit happens’ remark while being briefed about the operation that lead to the death of Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney while on a visit to Afghanistan in October last year.

The catch-phrase instantly went viral online with Twitter and Facebook users delighting in the leader’s gaff. Some vented their rage at Riley for perceived entrapment and using a soldier’s death for media attention. Some shared designs for Tony Abbott ‘bobble head’ merchandise designs.

So what went wrong and what should Tony Abbott have said and/or done?

Was Mark Riley being a scummy reporter and was the interview an ambush and bad taste as some suggested?

Would Tony Abbott have punched Mark Riley in the head if the camera wasn’t rolling? (I say yes).

It is believed that Tony Abbott’s office had worked for three months to prevent the release of the video so it can be argued that they knew the questioning was coming. Abbott came very close to becoming Prime Minister last year so I have limited sympathy; he really should be able to handle hard questioning, even if caught on the back foot.

Tony obviously knew he was sunk and stopped talking, hoping that the Channel 7 interview grabs would cut out the dead air. But the supernatural shaking death glare just made such entertaining telly and it was left in.

So he tried to play the standard ‘out of context’ line. You can get away with that on a 30 second radio grab, not when there’s a full video of the exchange.

‘I’m sorry’ would have been my first port of call. There’s no doubt he was busted and said what he said. Humble, grovel, apologise.

“I didn’t mean to cause any offense and any I have caused etc etc.”

Extend sympathy to the family. Chastise yourself for being stupid. The full naughty puppy that just pee’d on the carpet deal.

Easy to say in hindsight, but again, when you run for Prime Minister you need to gear up for the thunderdome.

All sorts of shit can happen.

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Brave New World: Social Media Takes Down Egypt

2011-01-31T11:40:00.001+13:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

I love this first image showing a lone, stone-throwing protester going up against an armored vehicle.

An anti-government protester throws objects at a riot police vehicle in the port city of Suez, about 134 km (83 miles) east of Cairo, January 27, 2011. Police fired rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators in Suez on a third day of protests calling for an end to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-old rule. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El-Ghany.

I've gone through and grabbed a couple of screens I saw throughout the night as the overthrow continues.

New sources use a Tweetdeck screen and Trendsmap to show citizen journalists reporting live.

The Egyptian government cuts internet and mobile phone access yet Al-Jazeera is determined to keep Tweeting; broadcasting through landline conveyed messages until their satellite is restored.

Someone offers medical assistance via Skype and users share screens so that locals can see international, non State-controlled media via the web.

Egyptians organise around Facebook groups and the world supports their profiles with messages of solidarity.

User mock the Eqyptian regime and work to restore communications and send out information.

Welcome to the brave new world of social media.

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How Many People Are On Facebook In New Zealand?

2011-01-28T11:22:00.001+13:00

courtesy Facebook NZ Jan 2011

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User Generated Content: The Unicorn Poop of Social Media

2011-01-24T13:22:00.001+13:00

Nothing you could ever possibly create inside your company is as important as something your users create. Everrrrr.

User generated content is the holy grail of social conversations and I’m always shocked to see page admins dismissing photos, videos, comments and interactions that their users take the time to capture and upload.

It’s as rare as unicorn poop so embrace it and thank the social media powers for gifting you with such as amazing blessing from above.

Interactions on your pages should have you climbing out over the firewall and pashing your users- with your tongue.

Most recently I heard the story of customer Jane Username who experienced a product for the first time (no it’s not me). Ms Username had a positive service experience, took a photo, edited it in Photoshop, uploaded it to Flickr and shared it with the company on Facebook and Twitter.

Page admin (let’s call him Senor Droppedonhead) responded by saying ‘that’s nice but ours are better’ and sending Ms Username a link to commercially shot catalogue imagery on his employer’s website. What a dumbass.

Ms Username got sniffy, pulled down her images and vented at people like me about how stupid Senor Droppedonhead and his stupid company was. I think we can call that a fail and a massive ‘missing of the point’.

Thank your users, encourage them and the unicorns will flourish and spread their germinating dung of awesome on your company lawn.

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We Love You Steve Jobs

2011-01-19T21:15:00.001+13:00

Prayers and wishes are with you and your family Steve.

You are our tech leader and you have touched everyday people in an amazing way.

We want to see so many more years out of you and your genius.

Written on iPhone

We got you Steve

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Oprah Drives By In Melbourne

2010-12-13T10:40:00.001+13:00

http://extrafirmhold.tumblr.com/post/2162390146/a-friend-of-a-friend-just-sent-this-to-me-oprah

A friend of a friend just sent this to me: Oprah drives by her in Melbourne - you can’t hear it in the video, but apparently she yelled “I’m in MELBOOOOUUURRNNEEE” as she sped off. MWHAHAHA AMAZINGGGG.

Thanks Marshall Lorenzo ;)

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I Hate iTunes10

2010-12-05T23:08:00.001+13:00

It's not that hard to file mp3's but due to your crap; you insist on making it hard,

Unknown album, unknown artist is of no use to me senor dick head Steve skivvy Jobs.

Just do a simple database tree you stupid nerds.

Stabby McStabby

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

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Good, Bad Or Otherwise: Sentiment and Communication Goals

2010-11-29T14:57:00.001+13:00

As more companies in New Zealand start to run social media listening tools, it’s important that you keep sight of the communication objectives and don’t drown in the tech.

Sentiment analysis is one area where I’ve seen web analysts cranking out large complicated reports that are really of limited use to the communication teams.

For example, I worked on a project recently where the listening reports all showed ‘heavy negative sentiment’ even though the media management team had done an excellent job.

The goal of the communication was to let customers know about planned business disruption so many of the traditional and new media comments showed people being frustrated about getting the news that they would have to ‘expect delays’.

But they got the ‘expect delays’ news so the messages were communicated accurately and received. Job done.

Social media listening software can’t interpret this kind of scenario so you need human media analysts that can link back to company objectives. Let’s not forget that clippings and media activity reporting has been around for a very long time and you have people in your organisation that can offer more useful insight than a software package.

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Overwhelmed by your kind messages. Thank you. RIP Pike River Miners

2010-11-25T19:58:00.001+13:00

Please support the Pike River Facebook group

http://www.facebook.com/PikeRiver/posts/168351463199005

#pikeriver

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Prayer For The Missing Pike River Coal Miners

2010-11-21T19:19:00.001+13:00

I've just been to a church service and prayed for the Pike River Coal missing miners.

My great-grandfather, grandfather and Dad have all worked in mines. I never imagined in this day and age something so terrible would happen in New Zealand.

It's very heart wrenching and I can't imagine how hard it must be for the families.

Our prayers are with you. Please be safe.

Faith and hope in God,

Courtney

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Twitter Promos: Something to Tweet About

2010-11-11T12:14:00.001+13:00

The 'Something to Tweet About' STA travel campaign caught my eye the other day with huge retail window posters with the Twitter birdie all over them.

They look very nice and the thinking is sort of there but one thing needs some work...it's nearly impossible to see the STA Twitter address.

While I was being a smarty pants and pointing out to someone that their Twitter campaign had no Twitter address I did find it at the foot of the poster @STATRAVELNZ and I see the follow buttons are at the bottom of their website. I went looking for them because I'm a nerd and have no life but most people wouldn't.

If your call to action is to Tweet or follow on Facebook, make it stupidly easy for people to connect.

Thanks for giving me something to Tweet about STA travel.

By the way, Twitter have released a style guide for all of their trademarks (Twitter bird, follow buttons etc) so a good idea to keep an eye on them as I;m sure they are going to start cracking down shortly and getting all Apple about everything. http://support.twitter.com/articles/77641-guidelines-for-use-of-the-twitter-t...

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Now I Know Why Hamilton Loves Richard O'Brien: Rocky Horror Show

2010-11-10T12:19:00.001+13:00

Me with the Riff Raff statue to Richard O'Brien's Rocky Horror Show, Hamilton

Hamiltonians flip out over Richard O'Brien and now I know why.

Last night I went to the opening night of the Rocky Horror Show at the Civic Theatre and joined the cow town fan club.

The real life version of Richard as narrator seemed so right and his naughty, dark spooky voice makes you want to go camping with him and sit around telling ghost stories with a torch.

The sound and lighting blew me away as the cheesy Happy Days characters dissolved into a parallel universe with fishnets, Adam Lambert makeup and some seriously 'intimate' rumpy-bumpy deflowering bedroom scenes.

Yes I did stand up and do the Time Warp at the end.

Well, I think I started off doing something more like the Macarena crossed with Wiggles Big Red Car but my creepy Transylvania show hands were fabulous.

I wish I had known more song lyrics as the mother and daughter combo seat dance sing-a-longing the whole way through in front of me were off their heads with joy; shrieking at the entrance of ever character and exploding into applause at pretty much everything like crazed Justin Bieber tweens.

The whole thing is clever, spicy, ridiculously creative and a bit risque. Expect to see some epic performances (Riff Raff's voice is amazing for one) and some muscly men in high heels and animal print budgie smugglers. Heaps of fun.

Richard O'Brien is a legend and well worthy of his bronze statue on the main street of Hamiltron -City of The Future.

PS:If you are Ned Flanders, I advise you stay at home and watch the Wiggles. Definitely R18.

Statue

http://www.riffraffstatue.org/

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Women At Work: Like Men Only Cheaper

2010-11-09T14:12:00.001+13:00

The discussion around gender pay parity blips up every 12 months or so and it seems to have done another loop.

I did my thesis on this kind of stuff so I'm a bit reluctant to to turn the 'on' button on here because I will bore both myself and you but if there's one message I have for chicks in the workforce it's this: learn to play the game.

Don't get me wrong. The fundamental issue is still one of biology and the reality is, women have babies and women are generally the primary care giver and women tend to want to have babies in their prime career establishment window (28-40 years).

But I do think that women need to learn to stop being so petty and channel their competitive energy for horizons broader than tearing the crap out of the women that sits at the cubicle next to them. I would love to republish here an email I was shown last week from two women having a catfight in a department. It was appallingly catty and walked dangerously close to ballooning into a major HR bullying issue. Very silly and I hate to say it but there's no way a man could have conceived of yet alone written the emails.

Women (myself included) struggle to distinguish between public and personal and tend to get over-involved and not maintain a professional distance while still networking and building strategic alliances and partnerships that benefit their development.

I'm part of a networking group of women in senior communication roles that has formed organically. We have all worked together at some point and actively support each other to aid our careers. It's taken us along time to figure out and feel comfortable with doing this and some people have dropped out. It seems having someone round to your house for lunch and then mixing up contract talks with a review of the new curtains is a bit close and icky for some.

Trust becomes a problem. Is this person being nice to me because they like me or because they want something from me? Training yourself to not overthink it means that you won't fall prey to your insecurities. Do the two have to be mutually exclusive? Isn't it true that people choose to do business with people they like?

In my opinion, men naturally move between private and public better; hence 'the old boy's club' and the Wednesday golf outings.

A bit simplistic I know and there are plenty of other factors (discrimination, lack of flexible arrangements, organisational structure) but it's something to think about and you can see the results in senior role statistics. Put the claws in and dial up the long lunches.

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Don't EVER mention your Twitter followers in a meeting

2010-11-05T18:24:00.001+13:00

Never EVERRRR!

It's super awkward turtle when the person sitting across from you (ie: me) knows you joined two weeks ago and have a rubbish feed.

Don't do it. Ever. Twitter follower numbers are a sham and should never be spoken of out loud. It's about influence, connection and community; not numbers.

If anyone ever mentions Twitter numbers in a meeting, shut it down. It's rubbish.

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Rowing Your Own Boat

2010-11-02T12:59:00.001+13:00

I happened across a little documentary over the weekend about the history of New Zealand rowing.

Hosted by the world champion men's pair Eric Murray and Hamish Bond, it gave some interesting insights into performance culture and talent development.

One part of the story that struck me was the rationale behind New Zealand Rowing shifting their focus from large, eight-man boats to smaller, single sculls and pairs (I don't know much about rowing so I hope I've got the terms right). Basically, it was the discovery of world and Olympic champion, Rob Waddell.

Rob Waddell was far outperforming all the other rowers and his talent would have been lost in a team of eight. So they put him in his own boat where he could excel.

There are times in an organisation when you need to follow the slowest ship but to achieve true excellence and top levels of performance, you can't be afraid to let your stars shine. I don't think companies do a very good job of this and it leads to frustration, staff turnover and tolerance of mediocrity. It leads to a culture of 'average' as everyone has to plod along in the middle of the bellcurve.

Team work and stakeholder management and consultation are important but don't be afraid of a little competition and letting people win. Otherwise everyone loses.

Maybe there are some people in your organisation that need to be given their own boat?

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Rant Of The Day: Student Loans Moaners & Phone Number Hiders

2010-11-01T12:40:00.001+13:00

1. People that moan about student loans.

You are investing in your brain you stupid girl. Moaning about a $17,000 student loan when you would be more then happy to spend the same amount on a mid range Japanese two-door hatchback with an MP3 player. Or a house. "Investing" 300k in a house is fine but spending 50k on your brain that will give you future earning potential and that you will have forever? I have an impressive student loan and you don't see me moaning about it. Best investment I ever made. Get some perspective.

Article: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10684474

2. Receptionists that don't give out mobile phone numbers

Even after explaining that I'm a client, I have his card with the number on it (somewhere) and it's urgent I cancel a meeting a not waste his time? After two seconds of Google stalking I found the same number listed on the company website. It's a company phone number, not a personal one. Annoying. He's not Obama.

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Oops! Yes I've Been There. An Interesting Lesson In Media Calls

2010-10-20T17:00:00.001+13:00

I thought this was a really interesting insight into how a media call goes.

Most people talk a big game about press releases and media relations but the conversation outlined below is the reality.

I'm a big fan of Kim Knight; she is an experienced and talented writer for Sunday Star Times.

Check out the convo. This could be you. Even the most experienced players get caught up.

STAY ON MESSAGE>!

__________________________

WHEN the Sunday Star-Times phoned last week, the one-time Breakfast presenter's "no comment" ran almost five minutes. On the same day his former TVNZ boss Rick Ellis went to Government House to make a personal apology about Henry's comments on the governor-general's ethnicity, this is the conversation Henry had when he wasn't having a conversation.

SST: Is there any chance that we could have a catch-up?

PH: Look, I really haven't got anything to say to be honest. I've made the decision that, unlike Chris Carter, I will go quietly.

SST: So there's no book?

PH: No, there's no book.

SST: One of the reasons I specifically wanted to call was that last year when we did that interview you intimated that you supported a few charities and things that people might have been surprised about. I just wondered if now was the time to show another side of you.

PH: You know, it might be, but I'm not really interested in it. I'm happy that I do it myself without other people knowing.

SST: Right.

PH: I think I'll just sort of shuffle off quietly.

SST: The other thing is in that interview when we actually discussed whether or not you were racist, you made the statement that everybody is a racist to one degree or another.

PH: Mmm.

SST: And obviously I've got all those notes still on file. I just wanted to give you the opportunity to elaborate on that.

PH: No, cos see, like I say, I don't want to say anything. I think there's been a huge amount of publicity and it's just time to let it go.

SST: Will be there be a women's magazine story?

PH: I certainly haven't got one planned at the moment.

SST: Have they approached you?

PH: Yes.

SST: How much are they offering?

PH: They haven't spoken. Well, that's not entirely true, two of them have spoken to me, not spoken to me, left messages, and one of them has suggested an amount of money.

SST: Is it a lot?

PH: Umm. Not to me.

SST: Is it enough?

PH: Is that a good answer?

SST: How much? How much?

PH: No, I can't tell you how much.

SST: Right. Are you considering those?

PH: No, I'm not considering, like I say, at the moment I'm not considering anything. If I were to do anything at all, it would be one thing only and that certainly isn't no

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SST: Right. Would you consider doing that one thing only with us [the Sunday Star-Times], down the track?

PH: Yeah, I could possibly consider that, yeah.

SST: How do we need to make that approach in a formal ...

PH: Why don't you make an approach in a couple of weeks. I'm definitely not considering doing anything at all for the next few weeks.

SST: I'm sure other people have offered you this as well, but if you wanted to write something, that's another opportunity that we could offer you.

PH: From my point of view, I have no interest in getting even or setting scores straight or anything like that. I just think from the point of view of the phenomenal response. I mean, I'm very hard to humble, quite frankly – but it has been damn near a humbling response. I cannot believe the literally tens upon tens of thousands of people who have actually taken the trouble to, one way or the other, have gone to the effort to either write, or join a Facebook group, not that that's much trouble, or something like that, so it's actually because of those people that I just, in the back of my mind, think maybe, just before I disappear forever, I could say something. But, like I say, that time isn't now.

SST: "Just before I disappear forever" – do you think we're not going to see you ever again? I mean we just heard this morning that Tony Veitch has got his job back (as Radio Sport breakfast host).

PH: Yeah, yeah, he might need a job more than me. Look, you never say never. All I can tell you is how I'm feeling right at the moment and I can't imagine I'll be doing anything again in the public eye but, like I say, that's, just, I can't imagine it.

SST: What is the job that you deep down want to do?

PH: This isn't an interview now, is it?

SST: Well, I'm taking notes, but I am curious given money is no object ...

PH: It's important to me that I don't, I don't want to say anything now, I don't want this to turn into an interview.

SST: Well, we didn't say we were off the record.

PH: In which case there's absolutely no chance that you would get the interview (laughs).

SST: So aren't you happy for me to quote...

PH: Clearly this is an interview now so I'm going to have to end it because I don't want to give an interview.

SST: Well, let's just go back over what you've said. You haven't ...

PH: No, I don't want to give an interview and I made that quite clear at the beginning.

SST: Nooo.

PH: So, well, we'll just leave it there, OK?

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Read This Article --It's Awesome

2010-10-17T19:40:00.001+13:00

If you know me you'll know that I frequent the 'private sector library' aka Borders on a Sunday and read the horribly expensive imported magazines. I spill coffee on them and tear up their pages and then leave. Bad customer.

I read this article today and it is super awesome.

Please read it.It's fabulous.

I can't tell you much more because it will ruin it.

I love this article at so many levels.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/11/101011fa_fact_ephron

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How Many Germs Are On My Cell Phone?

2010-10-13T22:38:00.001+13:00

<p>Created by Oatmeal</p>

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My First Job

2010-10-13T15:45:00.001+13:00

Image: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

My first job was at a New World supermarket.

I was hired as a 'packer'. Packing groceries. Hence the name of the job. Supermarkets are pretty awesome and creative like that with naming jobs and things. Guess what they call trolley boys?

The guy that owned the supermarket decided pretty early on that I was retarded. It may have had something to do with me packing pool chemicals in a bag with someone's silverbeet once. They rang and complained because the pool chemicals leaked all through their silverbeet and they could have died or something.

After being tagged as a low-performace lemon with no promotional opportunites, I was given the job of looking after the toilet rolls, tissue boxes and paper towels. Sometimes I would make a fort out in the warehouse with the pallets of paper towels and have a little 20 minute power nap. I didn't mind stacking the toilet rolls. It's just like a big game of spongey tetris without the architectural challenge. We had to wear this fugly light blue 50's housewife smock with a red zip. Thankfully it was pre-mobile phone days so no images exist of this horrific sight and therefore, it never happened. My manager was called Wendy and she was angry all the time. Probably because she worked full-time doing something that a punk 14-year old kid like me couldn't even be arsed doing.

I don't know why I'm telling you this.

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Don't Treat Your Customers Like They're Stupid

2010-10-07T14:07:00.001+13:00

It seems that most companies do. For sure a lot of professional services companies do. I'm not really into 'pitching' for business. Rolling up to the executive team and telling them how to run their business seems all a bit silly. How can I possibly know more about the business goals and brand strategy of a company than the people that do it all day long for a job? Do you seriously think brand managers don't know their target market, competitor positioning or customer media consumption? If they don't, they are either a) new or b) not very good at their job.

Sitting down with the executive team, hearing some of their current issues and working through business cases with them is far more effective and to be honest, I just enjoy it more. Often the company knows what they need to do, they just haven't had the focused resource to do it. Sometimes they just need some more buy-in from offshore budget holders or other parts of the business.

I'm not sure if it's just because I've done more time on client side then agency side and just got tired of the patronising glitter and unicorns presos.

When I see some of the presentations and conference agendas (especially around social media) it just makes me cringe. To me it shows that you clearly don't understand the industry and the people that work in it.

Most of the people I work alongside are smart, love what they do and take their profession seriously. They are often human Google databases on media stats, campaign budgets and market behaviour.

Listen, ask lots of questions and work through real-world business challenges rather then conceptual candyfloss. Your customers are probably quite smart and they'll respond a lot more positively to you if you listen, ask lots of questions and don't tell them how to suck eggs on their area of specialty.

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Paid Vs Earned Media: Exhibit A

2010-10-05T13:24:00.001+13:00

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How Massive Is Google?

2010-10-03T13:48:00.001+13:00

<p></p><p>Infographic by computer school.org</p>

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Dilbert: The Social Media Marketing Manager

2010-09-17T13:23:00.001+12:00

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Recruiting Your Social Media Team

2010-09-16T16:42:00.001+12:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLa_kJInuZo

Chats with Bede Ashby Momentum Consulting

The myth of the 'digital native'

The need for accountability to reduce brand risk

Skills and experience required

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PODCAST: Marketing & Channel Strategy For NZ FMCG

2010-09-14T12:38:00.001+12:00

Download now or listen on posterous

14_09_10 11_56 AM.m4a (3940 KB)

Get your channel strategy sorted before you spend any money on identity and promotional marketing strategy.

Talk to people and be prepared to hear how hard it is to go from a small business into big retail and grocery.

Fancy marketing can't make up for a broken channel strategy. You need to be making sales to keep the business spinning.

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Christchurch Quake: Closed Due To Damage Restaurant #WIN

2010-09-06T11:57:00.001+12:00

Reads:

CLOSED DUE TO EXTENSIVE EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE

ALVARADOS IS UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT (and has been totally remodelled).

Was a must for authentic traditional style Mexican Cuisine.

New menu out now! (if you find it blowing around on the street, could you return it please?)

Was fully licensed and BYO (wine only).

Was open Tuesday - Saturday from 5.30pm

Alfresco dining apparently isn't an option. Something to do with the lack of access, water, power and hygiene.

http://www.alvarado.co.nz/

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Why The Wisdom of Crowds Is Not Always Wise

2010-08-24T14:50:00.001+12:00

It may shock you to hear this but sometimes I make comments on things I know bugger all about.

Sometimes I make comments in the media on things I know bugger all about but I say it with authority and concerned eyebrows so that's the main thing.

Today, I met a dude that worked on a thing that I commented on and told him what I said.

He said, “well actually that's not right but it was too hard to explain to the public so we just let people think that. You actually came to the right conclusion off the information you had.”

An interesting idea.

So he set out to explain the real reason that the thing that I commented on happened. With many diagrams and hand gestures and some very good explaining, I still didn't really get it and there was commercially sensitive stuff and personalities at play to ensure it was really messy.

There were legal issues and regulations and stakeholder management conflicts and inherited issues from legacy systems and the moon being out of alignment.

I kind of saw his point. Media people want all the information in thirty seconds and companies run the risk of having issues oversimplified and misrepresented if they don't provide a soundbite response. So the company saw a popular theme coming through in blogs and forums and let the idea stick rather then correcting it. Politicians do it all the time e.g. War on Terror but is it evil spin doctoring or is it sensible communications management? The company wasn't trying to misrepresent anything they just had a gut feeling that the whole thing was too complicated without all the pieces of the puzzle and the pieces were in themselves, complicated. He was quite open and happy to sit down and explain everything to me properly when he had more time and could paint the full picture.

So maybe the wisdom of crowds isn't so wise after all?

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Courtney's Friday Dating Advice

2010-08-20T09:41:00.001+12:00

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Why Most Clout Measures Are Bullshit

2010-08-17T19:04:00.001+12:00

I have no time for your metrics based on follower numbers and facebook friends.

Here's why.

If you were given the keys to a new Toyota Corolla to test drive and blog a review then you would have some authority. People with large follower numbers can retweet but it doesn't mean anything if the community has no engagement and clout.

What if Jeremy Clarkson turned up and commented on your post?

He could have no followers on Twitter and no friends on Facebook.

He is probably the most influential person in car marketing.

Your metrics won't see this.

You need to understand the complete media landscape and not rely on a computer. It can give you some pointers but can never show you true influence.

You must understand the full media mix.

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If I hear going viral one more time...wisdom from Brian Solis

2010-08-17T11:19:00.001+12:00

In my experience, the social objects created solely with the goal of “going viral” will consistently underperform and reduce the likelihood for earning relevance and resonance. Those objects incentivized by thoughtfulness, value, and perhaps even empathy, will gain traction and encourage response and sharing, transitioning from relevance to resonance. And, the ingredients for resonance are readily available for those businesses that pay close attention to the recurring themes in customer conversations, actions, and reactions.

Brian Solis

http://www.briansolis.com/2010/08/social-media%E2%80%99s-critical-path-relevance-to-resonance-to-significance/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

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VID Steven Slater JetBlue Asian News CGI

2010-08-12T15:39:00.001+12:00

I especially like the bedroom scene.

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The Power Of Pointing

2010-08-11T15:12:00.001+12:00

In the random things I learned this week file, the oddest thing that has stuck with me came from a Time article on animal intelligence and communication.

It seems there are only a few species that point to draw attention to things. Dogs inherently know how to point from hunting in packs and humans are big pointers. Great apes, although one of the most communicative species, don't naturally get pointing but those raised in captivity by humans soon figure it out.

By learning how to point, Kanzi the 'talking ape' now has hundreds of words in his vocab he can use to make sentences based on a chart of symbols. My favourite is his word for cabbage: 'lettuce' symbol + 'slow' symbol. 'Slow lettuce' because it takes him longer to chew. Genius!

It's a bizarre concept that we take take for granted and yet it's probably one of the most powerful tools in human communication.

People often get very confused when I try to explain the practical side of the social web and the difference between hosting and sharing information.

For example, if you film a little video, you can upload it to somewhere like YouTube where it will be hosted. You then share the link to the YouTube video out across other networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or your company website.

Sharing is pointing.

Pointing is getting attention.

You are pointing people back to your information and saying 'look at this'.

Picture yourself for a moment as an African Wild Dog out hunting in the Sahara. If you pointed out a dude with a gun to your pack so they didn't get shot then that would be useful pointing and people would want to listen to you more. If you keep pointing out inane stuff like 'wow look sand!' then the other African Wild Dogs would think you were stupid and irritating and stop listening to you.

You also need to make room for other people to point out their stuff and get attention. They also want you to listen and look at their stuff like videos, blogs, websites or boring holiday photos.

I love this earlier quote from Kanzi's human friend Bill Fields:

“Kanzi was raised among humans, he has a powerful desire to communicate with the humans in his world He wants to share, he wants to do things with people. He wants people to know how smart he is. He wants people to know what he can do. And occasionally he'd like to be able to tell people to do things for him that he can't do for himself, like go down to the Dairy Queen and get him an ice cream with chocolate on it."

Seems we're all pretty much the same.

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5 Tips For Setting Up Company Branded Social Media Accounts

2010-08-05T15:04:00.001+12:00

More fun then untangling iPod headphones, company social media account lock outs are hours of fun for all the family.

The usual cause is a well meaning, over-excited punter that has a rush of blood to the head during a social media workshop and charges off to be super helpful and configure (see also take control over) all the accounts.

Leadership in the company need to make it VERY clear that any branded accounts are controlled by the organisation and need to be setup accordingly. You need a centralised point where all the accounts sit and can be administered. No renegade accounts for sub-brands and dinky blog concepts until the bones are in place.

Five ways to make it easier:

1. Create a new company email address for all social media accounts e.g. socialmedia@widgetinc.com

2. Agree on a naming structure and make sure it's consistent and available across the applications you want. e.g. http://twitter.com/widgetinc, http://youtube.com/widgetinc. Use http://namechk.com to make sure.

3. Delegate a social media administrator for the company and one or two other senior people to oversee your new socialmedia@widgetinc.com email address. That's it! More people can be added later but keep it tight at the start until the strategy is setup. For example, the Managing Director and one or two others. Think long-term as individuals come and go.

4. Register the accounts to the socialmedia@widgetinc.com email address using standard naming conventions and standard passwords. Keep it simple.

5. Have a spreadsheet with all the accounts and passwords and enter all the details as you go to create a master list. Make the list read-only and publish it in a really obvious place on a shared drive or an intranet so if someone is sick or leaves, you won't get locked out.

It's no fun sitting on the doorstep and having lot's of junk accounts coming up against your brand in search. Keep it simple, standard and centralised.

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Hey Radio People!!!

2010-07-20T20:11:00.001+12:00

There's not many things I love more than radio.

I love radio and think it is the most powerful thing to get messages out.

The work I'm the most proud of is my radio work and I totally respect all radio types.

Here's a thing.

Don't schedule your ads on the hour like all the other radio stations. Get clever..mix it up. Peeps channel flick for music and swerve ads. Be clever. Sounds/ad swerve/sounds..c'mon ..think about your users.

Just my $0.02.

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Courtney On The Couch

2010-07-19T21:09:00.001+12:00

I've never republished of my 3News blog but today I think it's important you know me.

MON, 19 JUL 2010 1:26P.M.

"Giving laws, wanting improvements, making things easier, has all become wrong and evil. May each one seek out his own way, the way leads to mutual love in community. Men will come to see and feel the similarity and communality of their ways." – Carl Jung in The Red Book.

I went to a party of 'normal' people on Saturday which quickly turned into a focus group about why I’m so weird.

I am very weird. Very insecure, probably didn't get enough attention as a child and have daddy issues. I fear rejection, seek performance based affirmation, have abandonment concerns and don’t eat five plus a day fruit and vegetables in palm-sized portions. All of which I’ve self-diagnosed from my Frasier box set series seasons 1-11.

To be fair they didn’t actually say "why are you weird?" they said "I just don’t get what you get out of all this blogging and tweeting and vlogging and stuff. I guess you make money out of it."

Many people give me far too much credit for strategically doing things online for financial reasons. I wish I was that clever. Most of the social media work that I do now is for global brands briefed overseas and you won’t see it here or know that I worked on it. It sits in big ugly two hundred page media reports that I use to prop up my monitor and is activated by in house teams. The companies I work with have no idea about my personal activity online (I think?).

The reason I clatter away so much on my personal accounts is that it gives me a voice and it make me feel important. Also, I work by myself a lot and online is my virtual workplace where I chat to Dennis in accounts. Whether anybody is listening or not doesn’t really matter, it’s cathartic for me and it’s cheaper than therapy. I feel involved and part of something. Online communities self-regulate, it’s opt-in or out by your choice and you can connect with people across ideas. Sometimes when I spend the day talking to real-world people about breastfeeding and the new tiles they got in their kitchen and their wheat allergies (interest level zero) I need to go and look at Jake and Amir dot com and Failblog to wash all the boring off. Some people say hyperconnection is a bad thing. I say it is awesome.

I read a New Yorker article on the weekend (yes I read the New Yorker…bite me) about a 16 year old girl who escaped from North Korea into China. She had had never heard of the Internet and was terrified abut talking to the American reporter Barbara Demick because “Americans are evil and our enemies.” All the press is government controlled and little things I take for granted like asking John Key on Twitter what time he’s going to drop my new panda around would have me in front of a firing squad. The freedom for people to express ideas freely sounds all a bit sop but it made me feel quite grateful to be around at this time in history and not have to listen to Newstalk ZB anymore for Joe Punter drunken 3am opinions. And not get shot for being a smart-arse.

I'm no Che Guevara but I’m not so hot on hierarchy or authority or people creating industry associations and making themselves the Chairperson of them to be important. Someone suggested we need an association like WOMMA in New Zealand- the whole idea makes my skin crawl and is anti the grass roots democracy concept that makes two-way communications an exciting area. Maybe I’m just a stereotypical Gen-Y who expects respect to be earned because I really don’t care if you’re the CEO or the Grand Poobah of anything (but I don’t believe in that ‘generational’ theory, lazy market researching).

I think I lost the ‘normal’ people at the party around the ‘Frasier box set series 1-11 part’. They just blinked at me and walked away and said ‘you’re probably going to blog this crap aren’t you?”

Yes.

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News Ltd reveals readership details of newspaper sections

2010-07-19T14:23:00.001+12:00

News Ltd reveals readership details of newspaper sections

News Ltd has today released details of its study into how readers consume various sections of its publications.

The Sectional Reader Study was based on an online questionnaire of 14,108 respondents across Australia. It was conducted by Newspoll, which is co-owned by News Ltd, late last year.

The study covers News Ltd’s five metro groups – Sydney’s Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Melbourne’s Herald Sun; Adelaide’s Advertiser and Sunday Mail; Brisbane’s Courier Mail and Sunday Mail and Perth’s Sunday Times – plus The Australian.

According to the study, the section most likely to be read are news pages on a Sunday, with more than 90% of readers saying they always or mostly read them. Least read are Sunday business pages with less than 30% of readers saying they always or mostly read them – the weekday figure is fractionally higher.

Among the metro highlights according to the study:

Average time readers perceive that they spend reading the metro papers: Weekday – 42.8mins; Saturdays 57.1 mins; Sundays 62.3 mins;
39.5% say they read or leaf through all or most pages on a weekday; 25.8% about three-quarters; 19.5% about half; 8.9% about a quarter; 5.1% less than a quarter;
Around 90% always or mostly read the news pages;
Just under 50% always or mostly read the sports pages;
55.3% say they always or mostly read the Escape travel section; 24% occasionally;
54.8% say they always or mostly read the Body + Soul section; 22.4% occasionally;
Around 40% say they always or mostly read the Confidential showbiz section; about 30% say they do so occasionally and 30% rarely or never;
71.4% say the always or mostly use the TV guide;
About 30% say they always or mostly look at the metro papers’ business sections; a further 30% or so do so occasionally; 40% say they do so rarely or never;
36.1% say they always or mostly read the personal finance pages;

Highlights of The Australian:

33.1% say they read most pages; 25.5% read “about three-quarters”; 21.7% read about half; 11.7% read about a quarter; 6.4% read less than a quarter;
Readers say they spend an average of 44.7 minutes with the weekday edition of The Australian and 61.9 minutes with the Saturday edition;
The most read weekday section of the Australian is the news section, which more than 80% say they always or mostly read. More than 40% say they always read the business section, sports section, IT section and wealth section. About 37% say they always or mostly read the higher education section.
If it was surveyed, The Australian has not revealed the readership of its media section.

Tony Kendall, director of sales for News Ltd said: “Some of the results of the study were a surprise.” He claimed: “More women read Confidential than the leading weekly women’s magazines. We also found that health and beauty is important to male readers who spend over ten minutes on average each week reading Body+ Soul.”

The move by News Ltd comes as debate continues to rage of readership metrics.

Newspaper Works – which is funded by newspaper publishers – has beenattempting to set up a rival readership study

to that run by Roy Morgan Research. Up to now it has insisted that it too will offer sectional information.

Kendall said: “The market place asked for accountability and we’ve invested heavily in this national study.”

Further sectional information will follow later in the year.

via http://mumbrella.com.au

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Moaning Doctors And Farmers

2010-07-16T11:17:00.001+12:00

If there’s two groups of people that love to moan it’s doctors and farmers.

Farmers complain that it rains, that it’s sunny, that the government needs to interfere, that the government is too interfering, that can only replace their Commodore every three years now instead of every two years.

Doctors and med students are again moaning that their student loans are too big and they feel undervalued. Boo hoo. I came out of uni with a fair whack of a loan that I’m still paying off. I run a business and have no guaranteed income (unlike most doctors that are paid by the government through taxation). That’s my decision. I’ve got nothing against doctors or farmers but I know plenty of people that have struggled over the last couple of years, been made redundant and worked in hard conditions through restructures and felt undervalued. Many are tertiary qualified but they don’t seem to share the same sense of entitlement and bang on about their student loans.

If you want to play with cows or broken people for a job that’s your decision and you knew that when you signed up. That is all.

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Paper Tweet #iWant

2010-07-09T10:58:00.001+12:00

Emergency candles, canned goods and paper tweets for when the Fail Whale strikes.

Awesomeness from http://www.knockknock.biz/

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How Many Hours Per Week Do You Work?

2010-07-08T18:36:00.001+12:00

People often ask me how many hours a week I work? Then they tut tut and make themselves feel better that they have better work/life balance than I do.

How silly.

Work is not a bad thing that I avoid. I'm self-employed and I love what I do. I'm extremely lucky and my 'work' time is not something I begrudge.

I am my work and my work is me. I don't differentiate the two.

I don't strive for my four weeks annual leave and have no idea about public holidays and weekends and stuff.

If you're suffering in your work that's a terrible thing. There's nothing worse than spending 40+ hours per week not being happy.

Work is a great thing and sometimes it frustrates me and I want to be someone or somewhere else, but for the most part, I'm happy.

Don't subscribe to this 'work/life balance' nonsense. It's a myth. Enjoy what you do and it's a non-issue.

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What Is A Consultant?

2010-07-07T20:17:00.001+12:00

There seems to be some confusion.

A 'consultant' is someone that has expert knowledge that contracts in to an organisation.

A 'consultant' has expert knowledge from years of working inside certain industries and companies. Like 10 years..not 6 months or a degree because we've all go those.

A 'consultant' has specialist skills within your industry. They're not bored and thinking they might 'consult'. It's a step up not an opt out.

A 'consultant' that has never had a job is 'someone that lives with their Mum'. They are not a 'consultant'.

Please refer to LinkedIn and check your 'consultant' 's experience.

You may want to look for qualifications, a job, and brand experience.

Hope this clears it up.

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EXCLUSIVE: Former Hacker Lamo On Iraq Leaks

2010-07-06T11:02:00.001+12:00

I blogged on WikiLeaks

yesterday over at 3News and ended up down a rabbit hole of hacker drama. Former hacker

Adrian Lamo, mentioned in the article, tweeted and emailed me after reading the article, confirming some of the claims I outlined.

Let's be clear, I am not anti WikiLeaks or its founder Julia Assange and my main interest comes from the activity I've seen on the WikiLeaks Twitter account and the Khatchadourian New Yorker article.

I'm just curious and not an expert on such things. Hell I’m not even a journalist.

Lamo called me an hour or so ago from San Francisco to make me aware of the response he wrote to the Salon.com article The strange and consequential case of Bradley Manning, Adrian Lamo and WikiLeaks.

In the article, Greenwald claims Lamo simply seeks media attention and ratted out Bradley Manning to be at the centre of a media storm.

Maybe I’ve been sucked in but either way, Lamo and I chatted for about an hour and it was interesting to hear his side of the story. He sincerely believes that he did the right thing by reporting Bradley Manning to the authorities for the alleged leaking of a detailed Army chronology of events in the Iraq war and a database of 260,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables. Lamo has himself been arrested for breaking into The New York Times, Yahoo and Microsoft and stands by his version of events in the original Wired article.

Lamo claims that Greenwald has refused to run his response over at Salon.com so here it is in full. I’m not taking sides but it makes for interesting reading and I’ll leave you to make up your own mind.

STARTS

Blinded By Contempt

“The difficultly one has in writing about the Manning/WikiLeaks story is the blinding contempt one has for what Adrian Lamo did.”

— Glenn Greenwald, Twitter | http://bit.ly/9k5wMN

“Frankly, (Greenwald's) assertions sound bizarre, even lunatic, to anyone who has ever met a journalist or a newspaper editor.”

— TheAtlantic.com | http://bit.ly/9mu0BQ

“Deceive, inveigle, obfuscate”

—The X-Files | http://bit.ly/bTXKP2

On 06 June 2010, Kevin Lee Poulsen & Kim Zetter of Wired News broke the story that PFC. Bradley Manning had been arrested in Iraqfollowing online discussions with me, in which he confessed to what could most charitably be called mishandling of classified information. Someone less charitable could call it espionage – the deliberate leaking of classified information to Wikileaks.org. A few weeks later, Salon.com reported the same basic facts... up to a point.

From there the facts flew out the window as the Salon.com reporter, Glenn Greenwald launched into a long-winded narrative, in essence, accusing me of not only Manning's incarceration, but for lies, conspiracy with the government, and black ops to take down Wikileaks. It was a clever attempt to turn the tables – to put my reputation on trial before the public.

It was not, however, much of a surprise. You see, Mr. Greenwald had showed his unshakable bias long before talking to me -- or even initiating correspondence -- in an interview with Democracy Now in which he slammed me as being “mentally ill,” a strong pejorative. It seemed strange for someone who claims to have a passion for the truth to make such personal attacks on me, without having first given me a chance to share my perspective. But Greenwald seemed to have no qualms about hurling vehemence at me -- in a following Twitter post, Greenwald expressed his “blinding contempt” - and as we see here, his contempt appears to have been blinding indeed.

This is not the first time that Greenwald's love/hate relationship with the truth has attracted attention. See the references I provide later in this piece to better understand my severe skepticism of Greenwald's ability to handle facts.

Greenwald certainly claims his report to be propped up with scores of unnamed sources – and at least one (and only one) source willing to go on the record. In an e-mail to me, he writes:

“As I'm sure you know, I could fill a mid-sized phone book with the names of other people who say exactly the same thing as Appelbaum said about you.”

The Appelbaum in question is Jacob Appelbaum, who on the face of things is an independent source concerned for the common good, and coincidentally that only source from that mid-sized phone book willing to go on record. In the Salon piece, he acts as Greenwald's hatchet man, remarking:

“He basically destroyed a 22-year-old's life in order to get his name mentioned on the Wired.com blog,” and characterizing me as a “low-level, inconsequential hacker with an insatiable need for self-promotion and media attention ...”

Unfortunately, the appearance of that source turned out to be suspiciously convenient. Described in the Salon article as “a well-known hackerof the Tor Project who has known Lamo for years,” Appelbaum has other associations – namely as a high-level volunteer for Wikileaks.org, who has personally met with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange (who started the site with documents stolen via the above-mentioned Tor Project) and has been tracked to the same location as Assange as recently as this year. And it's clear that Assange and Appelbaum share a huge vested interest in trying to discredit me and exonerate Manning, with Assange even allegedly sending Wikileaks.org lawyers to try to defend Manning.

Greenwald's failure to properly research and disclose this conflict of interest on the part of a source – a source that I hadn't socialized with for the better part of a decade – is less surprising when you consider Greenwald's apparent history of deception. He defends himself saying:

“His relationship with WikiLeaks and Assange is and was both unknown to me and totally irrelevant to the point on which I quoted him, and his work for the Tor Project, though equally irrelevant, is something I cited.”

Irrelevant, perhaps, if not for the use of Tor to acquire classified documents in the founding days of Wikileaks. The associations are suspicious to say the least. It would appear the only responsible operational security policy would be to limit Appelbaum's access to Tor infrastructure until his loyalties can be vetted. And one would perhaps naively hope that any journalist using him as a source would research these ties before rushing to print.

The first time I heard of Salon.com was almost 11 years ago to this day, when I was contacted by a reporter for the site who had questions about an Internet presence I ran called Inside AOL. Looking back on the story today, the article quaintly relates pulling up search results on Hotbot.com, a search engine I only vaguely remember. I'm also fairly sure that my dad has more hits than the 440 Salon cited then for “AOL Sucks” (today Google lists 158,000.)

I felt that article was fair and balanced. I was left with a positive impression of Salon. (http://bit.ly/cExRdQ)

Four years later, I was sitting in an uncomfortable chair in Salon's conference room in San Francisco, explaining to them how I'd hacked their premium subscriber database, helping myself to all their passwords and subscriber information. (That information has since been destroyed to protect the confidentiality of Salon subscribers, but I have no reason to believe that my security suggestions were taken seriously.)

It'd be a novel idea, I suggested, for Salon to report on their own hacking. Salon enthusiastically agreed, only to welch several months later. They were having cash flow problems, they explained. To me the unspoken message seemed clear -- transparency on this issue would not be helpful in solving those problems. So Salon.com never told its readers that it failed to prevent the compromise of their secure data.

Against my personal judgement, I kept their secret until now. It would be another seven years before the words “transparency” and “Salon.com” were to prove as hard to mix as oil and water once more.

Seven years later, Greenwald, who has a passion for Brazilian culture, travel, and fiction, went on to demonstrate that his allocution of blinding contempt for me was seemingly one of the most honest things he's said in print on this issue.

Greenwald writes that in the course of chatting with PFC. Manning, I “then proceeded to question Manning for days as he met with federal agents, leading to Manning's detention.” Manning, in fact, did most of the talking, as the published logs readily indicate. I was at no point coached or instructed by federal agents – the conversations took a natural course, with occasional manifestations of my innate curiosity. But this allegation, too, is excusable; those not acquainted with the truth are rarely equipped to recognize it.

Indeed, this projection is evident in Greenwald's statement that

“A definitive understanding of what really happened is virtually impossible to acquire, largely because almost everything that is known comes from a single, extremely untrustworthy source: Lamo himself.”

There are two major problems with this statement. First Greenwald certainly pretends an understanding of events that he wasn't present for, leading me to wonder who exactly gave him such a trustworthy accounting – Manning not being available due to exigent circumstances.

Secondly, Greenwald has decided all by his lonesome that I'm untrustworthy, and then proceeds to run with the concept as though an actual trustworthy source had presented the idea as fact. Were I to say that Greenwald is a pathological liar, I'd at least have source material to point to. Also, see my source material stating the same in the references below.

In fact, any reader can review the thousands of articles which have cited me as a source, and not find any reference referring to me as extremely untrustworthy (unless they were quoting Greenwald's attempt to manufacture reality.) Not even moderately untrustworthy. Or even prone to mild exaggeration.

Greenwald, on the other hand, who holds himself out as a journalist, is in reality a writer of opinion, according to several published sources. And at least one of these sources has accused Greenwald of making up source material. As seen at http://bit.ly/drXCqM, one blogger writes of one of Greenwald's posts:

“Absolutely none of this rubbish is in evidence in my post. Greenwald, purely and simply, lied. Made up a fantasy. Attributed to me imaginary feelings that I do not have, and statements that I did not make. L. I. E. D. I’d call it a straw man argument, but it doesn’t even have that much integrity.”

At http://bit.ly/atmh73, Greenwald is called a “nihilist provocateur” for allegedly dividing the Democratic Party with his would-be journalistic op-ed pieces. I mean, seriously folks – to get back to the topic at hand, the original article writes like it thinks it's serious journalism, yet only manages to cite a single source, one that is tied to the offended party – and bases the rest on innuendo and conspiracy theories. This is the guy you'd start edging away from at the party if he began spouting this sort of stuff. For instance, he goes on to claim:

“... exactly what the U.S. Government wanted to happen in order to destroy WikiLeaks has happened here: news reports that a key WikiLeaks source has been identified and arrested, followed by announcements from anonymous government officials that there is now a worldwide "manhunt" for its Editor-in-Chief.” This language seemingly infers that the whole thing was staged. That I colluded to conspire with Kevin Lee Poulsen, the federal government, and who knows who else to somehow engineer this entire affair in order to give Wikileaks a black eye.

Greenwald's wildly paranoid theories, which he voices in the article, seem to presuppose the U.S. government to be incredibly stupid. Really, if the government wanted to set up Wikileaks, would using two of the most infamous ex-hackers in the free world exactly be the most subtle way to do it?

Let's clear this up now, friends and neighbors. I am not now, nor have I ever been, in the thrall or employ of the federal government, be it as a confidential informant, a special agent, or a janitor.

If anyone was engineering plans here, in fact, it seems likely to be Greenwald. As described at http://bit.ly/daTCUg, Greenwald has a noted history of using “sock puppets”, or fake accounts, to defend himself and praise his own work. Who's the deceptive one here, again?

Glenn Greenwald first contacted me via Twitter, attempting from the get-go to play me as the original rube. The blinding contempt post was a good thing, he asserted. His public bias encouraged transparency, Greenwald alleged.

I would hear a lot about transparency, but encounter precious little of it. He's refused to answer my questions about somehow, out of all the sources in the world, ending up with a Wikileaks staffer on the phone explaining to him why the guy who outed one of Wikileaks' agents-in-place was the bad guy.

During an hour-long phone conversation, I politely explained the events of the Manning case. Little or none of my explanation ended up in the finished article. What parts did, were spun like a tweaker on payday.

I invite readers to listen to the audio of the interview and use Google to research me. Draw your own conclusions. Don't let them be drawn for you by a man who was discussing how he'd judged a man well before he ever spoke to him, and wasn't about to let facts get in the way of a good hatchet piece. Think for yourselves. Watch my documentary, Hackers Wanted. Read articles with some actual neutrality. Research Greenwald's character for yourselves. But above all, judge based on facts, not innuendo and manufactured reality.

I wish I had some pithy signoff to put here. I don't. I'm just a guy trying to set the record straight – a pissed off guy, to be sure . But if some of you were willing to listen, then putting this to paper will have been worth it.

Thanks for reading.

/s/

Adrian Lamo

San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.

03 July 2010

Research & Fact-checking by Jason Mick (jason.mick@dailytech.com)

—————

ENDS

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Steve Jobs: You're Doing It Wrong

2010-06-29T10:29:00.001+12:00

via Engadget

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Open Door Policy

2010-06-28T13:22:00.001+12:00

Much like pushing envelopes and raising bars and thinking outside of squares, keeping doors open is something that every manager who has read a pop-management book claims to do.

I’m a big fan of open plan offices. I’m probably hugely annoying to work with as I tend to provide unwanted commentary on the days events and get up and down about 16 times to make my 16 times cups of coffee. Moving around different offices you notice things. One thing I’m sure of, solo offices are a very bad thing and guaranteed to burn productivity.

Hot desks with lots of group spaces like little meeting rooms and coffee spots are the best. How to test my theory?

When you leave someone’s solo office after a meeting simply ask, “Would you like me to keep the door open, or should I close it?”

Solo office dweller will hesitate and say “ummm, yes..sure, open is fine” (because their pop-management books says that’s cool), wait till you leave and then quickly shut the door so they can keep looking at http://failblog.org

Peer pressure is a powerful thing. Every noticed how you jog much faster when you cross another person out jogging? Open plan offices self-regulate and create a healthy, egalitarian environment that minimises your risk of evil Napoleon dictatorships. Open plan offices also ensure that manager’s see the good and bad of processes and workers so they are realistic about how long things take, challenges and who really does what in a team.

The only way to have true open door policy is to have no door.

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iPhone

2010-06-27T13:39:00.001+12:00

http://www.semanticfoundry.com/#about

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How to not spazz out when you're not making progress

2010-06-22T15:14:00.001+12:00

Don’t go into a meeting like you’re going into battle or your head will explode and you’ll make a dick of yourself (see image)

Don’t back off and think your ideas are wrong because other people aren’t sold. Trust your instincts and explain your logic and position.

Just because you get something doesn’t mean that everybody else does. If you start to feel that creep of angry frustration just tell yourself “It’s my job to make them get it. I just need to explain it better, they will get this eventually”

Toys must stay in the cot at all times. It’s cool to be cool.

Try and find out what the objections are and where (or who) they are coming from.

One of my favourite quotes is by former GE CEO Jack Welch: “I was afraid of the internet... because I couldn't type.”

Don’t shoot the messenger. Often managers are ham-strung by their bosses. Empower managers to sell upstream. Offer a presentation to their manager, reports, documents, research or examples of previous work. Generally, the bigger the organisation, the longer things take to get done and the more complexity you’ll have to wade through. Slow down and follow the process.

Beating your head against a brick wall very often results in a sore head but rate your ideas, tease out the objections, explain, explain, explain and you’ll crack through

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I'm shattered!

2010-06-18T13:20:00.001+12:00

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Facebook CEO Turns Into A Facecloth

2010-06-10T10:35:00.001+12:00

http://video.allthingsd.com/video/d8-video-under-mark-zuckerberg-hoodie/F403BCCE-661B-451B-8BC8-12536D12A82A

If you are brave, watch the interview. You may want to clear all spillable liquids from your desk first. Close the door- you might scream. It's terrifying.

Now push play. Hit pause, look away, push play again, pause, look away.

I had to have about five goes at it.

It's a heart wrenching cringe worthy trainwreck. Worst than anything you might see on Dancing With The Stars.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg turns into a soggy facecloth.

Forget the Oscars, developer conference D8 2010 pulls the big cats with Steve Jobs' skivvy (Apple), Bill Gates' Coke glasses (Microsoft) and Jeffrey Katzenberg's shiny domehead (Dreamworks) all making an appearance.

Mark Zuckerberg has the iconic black hoodie. Like what hoodrats wear to steal stuff at your local supermarket.

Said hoodie betrayed him and sweated him into a puddle of gingerish vulnerability on the world stage with the most obnoxious tech trolls all parked up, watching and vlogging and tweeting and flickring.

Mark Zuckerberg was the main attraction and looked suitably nervous as he was jammed in a Star Trekish bright red leather evil dentist chair to be grilled by Pointy Beard Man reporter and Serious Eyebrows Woman reporter.

Things start off well with some pedestrian stuff about privacy settings (surprise!) and lots of use of the words 'misperception' and 'resonating'.

The seminal donkey kong sweats moment occurs around the three-minute spot when Serious Eyebrows Woman asks him how he's coping with all the attention and backlash .

Clearly, 'Bookface PR Inc' messaged him up the wazoo about privacy and forgot the fact that it must suck having the whole world hate you and that Zuck is a person and actually has 'feelings'.

Mr 26 shrinks back to Mister 6. You can see his neck go bright red and a wave of emotional sweat + tears juice rush for his eyeballs and forehead. The tap turns on and he turns in a soggy facecloth.

The worst part is the stall.

You can see his whole world stand still for a microsecond. It's quite disturbing. It would be Oscar worthy if it wasn't real.

Serious Eyebrows Woman suddenly goes all Mumsy and asks if he wants to remove the omnipresent hoodie (then throws in a stupid comment about 'for the girls in the audience ..hahhaha' as a bit of a lifeline). Frazzled by the offer he initially declines ( I mean- Steve would never remove the black skivvy) then admits to himself that he's running as hot as an Icelandic volcano and that his mental CPU is getting fried. Water is pouring down his chin...drip..drip.

Mumsy Serious Eyebrows woman the ask him if he wants help with his hoodie in much the same way you would help a three-year old pull down their dungarees to go pee-pee. At this point I would just like to remind everyone that Zuck is the most powerful man/boy in the global media business.

It gets weirder. Serious Eyebrows Woman helps him out of the hoodie then shockingly reveals its Facebook official blue silky capping-gown lining complete with bizarre Illuminati graphics. (Very hard to describe..Google it.)

Serious Eyebrow's Woman “It's like a cult!” exclamation probably didn't help.

Industry pundits went nuts. Calling for Zuck's resignation and holding his sweaty facecloth wobble up as evidence that he should step down and that he needs to be wearing long pants if he's going to run the company. Others called it a 'Nixon moment' or one of 'the most important moments in Internet history'. Not quite.

After five attempts and much breathing into a brown paper bag I finally made it through to the end of the clip. I actually think it's quite awesome.

Through the stammers and frustration he was trying to get across that he was just a kid at uni and they invented this program and then his life went all Dr Who and that he doesn't have all the answers. And if he does need to step down and put in a 'proper CEO' (whatever the hell that is) who would you suggest? AOL's Tim Armstrong who's just had to bail out of the $800 million invested in Bebo? Telecom's Paul Reynolds might look good in a hoodie. His arms might be a bit long though. We could do it like Chatroulette and each Facebook user could have a week at running it. I like hoodies and imagine how cool your status updates would be: Courtney is ...”selling your browsing data suckers! Lolz :)”.

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PODCAST: BP Oil, Quit Facebook Day & Tweeting Journos

2010-06-08T14:42:00.001+12:00

Mornings » Courtney Lambert - New media consultant Courtney Lambert talks to Mornings host Ed Swift about Facebook privacy mistakes, BP parody Twitter accounts Mike McRoberts and John Campbell

More at

http://plainsfm.org.nz/podcasts/programme/mornings/

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Jake & Amir: Conchords Interview

2010-06-05T13:41:00.001+12:00

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1763342

Well actually it's just Jake but then you wouldn't know what I was on about.

Two of my favourite things ---'Jake and Amir' and 'Flight of the Conchords'

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The Man Behind @BPGlobalPR

2010-06-03T13:22:00.001+12:00

Dearest Media,

My name is Leroy Stick and I am the man behind @BPGlobalPR. First, let me begin by explaining my name.

When I was growing up, there was a dog that lived on my block named Leroy. Leroy was a big dog with a disdain for leashes and a thirst for blood. He made a habit of running around our block attacking anything he saw, biting my dad and my dogs basically whenever he had the chance. He chased me a few times, but I always escaped because I was/am an amazing tree climber.

Anyhoos, after Leroy’s second or third attack on my dogs, it became clear that the police and Leroy’s owner weren’t going to do anything to stop him, so my dad took matters into his own hands and came up with a brilliant invention: the Leroy stick.

The Leroy stick was, you guessed it, a stick. My dad carried an axe handle and I carried a plunger handle. My dad told me two things about carrying the Leroy stick. First, if Leroy came near me or the dogs, I should hit him. Second, if I hit Leroy with my stick, I would not get in trouble. Was it legal? Probably not. Was it right? It sure felt like it. We set the example and soon a lot of our neighbors started carrying Leroy sticks as well. Soon enough, Leroy and his owner saw everyone carrying sticks and Leroy didn’t run free anymore.

If you think the point of this story is to beat dogs with sticks, then I’m guessing you probably still think I work for BP as well.

The point of this story is that if someone is terrorizing your neighborhood, sometimes it’s alright to grab a stick and take a swing. Social media, and in this particular case Twitter, has given average people like me the ability to use and invent all sorts of brand new sticks.

I started @BPGlobalPR, because the oil spill had been going on for almost a month and all BP had to offer were bullshit PR statements. No solutions, no urgency, no sincerity, no nothing. That’s why I decided to relate to the public for them. I started off just making jokes at their expense with a few friends, but now it has turned into something of a movement. As I write this, we have 100,000 followers and counting. People are sharing billboards, music, graphic art, videos and most importantly information.

Why has this caught on? I think it’s because people can smell the bullshit and sometimes laughing at it feels better than getting angry or depressed over it. At the very least, it’s a welcome break from that routine. The reason @BPGlobalPR continues to grow is because BP continues to spew their bullshit.

I’ve read a bunch of articles and blogs about this whole situation by publicists and marketing folk wondering what BP should do to save their brand from @BPGlobalPR. First of all, who cares? Second of all, what kind of business are you in? I’m trashing a company that is literally trashing the ocean, and these idiots are trying to figure out how to protect that company? One pickledick actually suggested that BP approach me and try to incorporate me into their actual PR outreach. That has got to be the dumbest, most head-up-the-ass solution anyone could possibly offer.

Do you want to know what BP should do about me? Do you want to know what their PR strategy should be? They should fire everyone in their joke of a PR department, starting with all-star Anne Womack-Kolto and focus on actually fixing the problems at hand. Honestly, Cheney’s publicist? That’s too easy.

BP seems to only care about maintaining their image so they can keep making money, two things we have blatantly avoided. I don’t have an image and I’m not making any money AT ALL for myself. Every penny we make from the t-shirts goes to the Gulf Restoration Network. Just a few hours ago, we made our first official $10,000 donation to healthygulf.org from the money we’ve made selling free “bp cares” t-shirts in one week.

So what is the point of all this? The point is, FORGET YOUR BRAND. You don’t own it because it is literally nothing. You can spend all sorts of time and money trying to manufacture public opinion, but ultimately, that’s up to the public, now isn’t it?

You know the best way to get the public to respect your brand? Have a respectable brand. Offer a great, innovative product and make responsible, ethical business decisions. Lead the pack! Evolve! Don’t send hundreds of temp workers to the gulf to put on a show for the President. Hire those workers to actually work! Don’t dump toxic dispersant into the ocean just so the surface looks better. Collect the oil and get it out of the water! Don’t tell your employees that they can’t wear respirators while they work because it makes for a bad picture. Take a picture of those employees working safely to fix the problem. Lastly, don’t keep the press and the people trying to help you away from the disaster, open it up so people can see it and help fix it. This isn’t just your disaster, this is a human tragedy. Allow us to mourn so that we can stop being angry.

In the meantime, if you are angry, speak up. Don’t let people forget what has happened here. Don’t let the prolonged nature of this tragedy numb you to its severity. Re-branding doesn’t work if we don’t let it, so let’s hold BP’s feet to the fire. Let’s make them own up to and fix their mistakes NOW and most importantly, let’s make sure we don’t let them do this again.

Right now, PR is all about brand protection. All I’m suggesting is that we use that energy to work on human progression. Until then, I guess we’ve still got jokes.

Love,

Leroy Stick (aka a guy in his boxer shorts)

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Poll: Media Spokes....? What?

2010-05-27T15:51:00.001+12:00

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I Invented The Post-it Note

2010-05-27T12:53:00.001+12:00

Everyone loves a random made up workshop game.

So as part of the yMedia Workshop series I hosted "Traditional Tricks For New Media" . Not only did we play "Oprah's Awesomest Fruit" (a game of immense skill and strategy where I get to be Oprah and you pitch me to get on the show..pear eventually won due to its ergonomic design and excellent use of mini-billboards by the pitch team...), we also played "I invented the Post-it note".

Punters had to use their communication tools (1 x Post-it, 1 x pen) and prove that they invented the Post-it note.

Here's some of the answers:

Dear loud obnoxious neighbours keep it down during the night heart ajay

I saw an envelope and thought—I can do something like that Adam

I invented the Post-it because you have no proof that I didn’t

Because they’re colourful just like me Tam

I was the one who invented the post it because I trademarked it and therefore I have the legal rights Nikki

I invented the Post-it as staples wouldn’t stick to my computer screen Seita

French invented everything so my invention was the post it Guillaume

I provided the glue for my community! Di

I invented the post it because you didn’t Jaymard

I know I invented the post it note because I’m an awesome genius (self belief goes a long way!!) Niamh

Invented the post it note for this message

Michael C

Graeme post Like to have reminders and named after family

Kurt Strong –inventor 3M

I invented the Post it because it helps me to think ‘outside the square’ Barbara

I invented the Post it notes because they are awesome for making origami with Emily

I invented the post it because you all need sticky, visible reminders Sandi

Jesus told me to Matt

Tired of writing on the bathroom mirror in the STEAM! Daniel N

I invented the post it note because my glue formula went wrong –I am always mucking up and have very little stickability Sarah

I realised the people are too lazy to put glue on pieces of paper

I invented the post it because everyone loves colourful sticky things Devon

I hate normal memo pads Jade

I invented the post it note out of necessity to remember things Cam

I needed to put notes on my work and I got sick of using cellotape to stick them on Eddy

I invented the post it note because I already had all other forms of colourful office stationery and needed more (written with my new erasable pen) Loretta

I needed to cover a hole in the wall Ajay

To make the world a brighter and happier and more colourful place..even if you have a boring office job! Tanya

And the winner: My mother was a paper maker and my father was a glue maker - Sarah

Applications for the yMedia challenge close on Monday 31 May. To find out more go to http://challenge.ymedia.co.nz/

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Time To Get Real On New Media

2010-05-24T15:25:00.001+12:00

Yet still there are those that doubt the power of new media tools such as blogs and social networking sites.

I have no idea why. I wish that I had invented such as fanciful gingerbread man or Narnia tale that would have made legendary man of awesomeness C.S. Lewis proud. Even Sir Peter Jackson (oh look at that smart girl she invented social media--what an imagination--give her an Oscar).

But no. I'm not that smart. New media just reflects what's actually going on. Actually going on. Not pretend.

Time magazine: Audience stats (see image)

http://jessicawatson.com.au

Jessica Watson arrived back in Sydney on Saturday after her solo around-the-world trip. Australia's newest celebrity was welcomed home by tens of thousands. The teen sailor's adventure appears to have captured the public's imagination, with her website scoring more than a million hits a week. Fans have followed her journey via social networking updates, blogs and Twitter.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/australiatalks/stories/2010/2896527.htm

Her manager actually claimed they got up to 2 million hits per week during the last few days of the journey. I tried to get on the site to wish Jessica well as she came into Sydney and the site had been tipped over and crashed with the huge traffic.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Brand Jacking Big Oil

2010-05-24T11:49:00.001+12:00

((I must admit I was stupid and thought it was for real. ))

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Four Campbells & A Website

2010-05-14T11:03:00.001+12:00

So last night His Worship the Mayor of Auckland City (John, not Campbell) went all ‘cyber’.

I can’t really be bothered reviewing the site cos it’s a typical large agency digital build and it’s all very nice and inoffensive and seems to do most things. There are a few bugs that they can figure out for themselves and it’s Friday and, yeah that’s why. So here's the link

I will say that anyone can hook up some social media accounts and drop some icons on a site. I would like to see some more experienced communicators driving the social messages (see earlier post) and I think it presents serious political risk. Just saying. </end rant>

The whole concept of John launching a website I found quite amusing. It kind of reminded me of the Dire Straits music video for “Money for Nothing” with old fullas jiggling around trying to be cool for MTV.

We gotta install microwave ovens

Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's

A certain ad man (not a Campbell) got proceedings underway by pretending that Michelle Boag convinced him to MC. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that his agency developed and built the site and doubly sure that certain ad man’s arm was twisted VERY hard because everyone knows that ad men HATE the sound of their own voice. That’s loyalty right there.

John then got in the saddle and delivered a speech that was clearly not written by him and that’s why it was very good and the highlight of the evening.

John (not Campbell) is notoriously difficult to message thanks to some stupid person that decided to give him his own show on the AM wireless back in the day. The disease of ‘I’m media, therefore I’m good at media management’ is an evil one that lulls its victims into a false sense of awesomeness. Very few can control the affliction (Tony Veitch) and move to the rockstar super spin hall of fame like Alistair Campbell (Campbell).

I can only suspect that John was packing himself about this whole cybernet business and trying to be cool and saying “Twitter”.

Nerves are a very good thing in speech delivery and the extra wee fire in John’s belly led to a solid little punchy talk.

There was talk of ‘conversation’ and ‘connecting’ and ‘following us on Facebook’. I was almost expecting him to say ‘iPad’.

And... fibre? Did I hear fibre for Auckland? John’s going to help us all pirate movies faster! Vote for John!

There was none of the horrible stabbiness and preaching that usually makes me change the channel when John gets on the telly (did you see the Transpower John Campbell (Campbell) interview...hideous), and none of that rubbish brown nosing to the National Party and local iwi and the Mt Albert residents association through cryptic secret code words and tongue clicks that litters most local government speeches.

So who wrote the speech?

Further investigation and a few false glory-hounding claims from Team John unveiled that “I suppose Scott would have written the first draft but a few of us had input.”

Scott Campbell (Campbell). The TV3 dude that is now spin doctoring to make John super. So I went and asked Mr Scott Campbell if he wrote the speech because it was very good and he said “um yeah... I suppose” which probably meant that he did because he wasn’t being a dick about it.

I think John should listen to Mr Scott Campbell more.

I had to run away early to the preview of “Avenue Q”. (It’s awesome. You have to go, thanks to the Josie Campbell (Campbell) @The Edge Events). Maybe I missed all the fun About Town carnage (please provide details in the comments section) and it obviously made zero impact on Bernard Orsman who got a front page today saying that John was getting smoked in a poll but all-in-all a good event and a credit to the Campbell name.

Now look at them yo-yo's that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV

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Marketing Myopia: Full Version Download

2010-05-13T11:15:00.001+12:00

Download now or preview on posterous
MARKETING MYOPIA.pdf (73 KB)

I go through phases of new media overload quite regularly. It's usually brought on my supposed experts writing inane post about 'revolution' and 'gamechanging' and 'stepchanges'.

It's always useful to step back and refocus in good, solid theory. So today, we're going back to 1960 and a seminal work that some say marked the beginning of the new marketing era following the 1920s glory days of Madison Avenue. ( I personally give this title to Hopkins, C (1924) "Scientific Advertising". You can download it free here. ).

Marketing Myopia is a Harvard Business Review Classic Top Ten article and a must read.

--------------

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ARTICLE

Marketing Myopia (HBR Classic)

by Theodore Levitt

Prod. #: R0407L-PDF-ENG

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading.

At some point in its development, every industry can be considered a growth industry, based on the apparent superiority of its product. But in case after case, industries have fallen under the shadow of mismanagement. What usually gets emphasized is selling, not marketing. This is a mistake, because selling focuses on the needs of the seller, whereas marketing concentrates on the needs of the buyer. In this widely quoted and anthologized article, first published in 1960, Theodore Levitt argues that "the history of every dead and dying 'growth' industry shows a self-deceiving cycle of bountiful expansion and undetected decay." But, as he illustrates, memories are short. The railroads serve as an example of an industry whose failure to grow is due to a limited market view. Those behind the railroads are in trouble not because the need for passenger transportation has declined or even because cars, airplanes, and other modes of transport have filled that need. Rather, the industry is failing because those behind it assumed they were in the railroad business rather than the transportation business. They were railroad oriented instead of transportation oriented, product oriented instead of customer oriented. For companies to ensure continued evolution, they must define their industries broadly to take advantage of growth opportunities. They must ascertain and act on their customers' needs and desires, not bank on the presumed longevity of their products. In short, the best way for a firm to be lucky is to make its own luck. An organization must learn to think of itself not as producing goods or services but as doing the things that will make people want to do business with it. And in every case, the chief executive is responsible for creating an environment that reflects this mission.

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Three Reasons Why You Need Your Stronger Communicators In Social

2010-05-10T16:10:00.001+12:00

I’ve been very pleased to see the companies starting to take their new media channels more seriously over the last three to six months.

Some have experimented with interns and student media projects as a way of conceding that they simply don’t have budget to dedicate. I must admit I am very nervous about putting junior communicators in the public domain. I stopped recommending this kind of approach about 18 months ago when a project I set up slid horribly sideways and the strategy work in place was wasted. It was bad advice.

I now recommend training existing middle, to senior level communicators to use new media tools. Driving social media accounts is teachable. Becoming a seasoned communicator takes time.

Now before you get defensive and accuse me of pushing my own agenda and being mean to young people trying to get ahead, please hear me out.

I am constantly frustrated by the ignorance and reluctance of communication practitioners to up skill and learn about new media channels and two-way communications. Some of you deserve to have your jobs taken off you by upstart little punks, and believe me; they will take your jobs.

However, there are three reasons why you need your stronger communicators in the driving seat.

1.     Commercial acumen- Organisations are strange places and I don’t care how smart or entrepreneurial or super assertive you are, it takes time to understand how businesses and organisational objectives hang together. You need work experience.

2.     Writing skills- I have been fortunate to work in teams with some very experienced and highly skilled written communicators. They would regularly destroy my work and tar and feather me for typos and grammatical crimes against humanity. You need to keep the quality of your organisation’s brand communications high. Especially when you are publishing on the fly in the public domain.

3.     Instinct- I rang an MP’s press secretary this morning for a “I just think you should know” update. It was nothing really but I could feel that he felt it too. The pause, the ‘hmmm can you send me the report’, the ‘I’ve got your cell number don’t I?” Online communities and commentators can turn on you very quickly. Your force needs to be strong or at least, not weak and helpless.

New media channels are not second-tier channels and if you can’t afford to resource them properly, then it may not be the best choice for you to move forward in them. The people driving your accounts are spokespeople and need to be taken seriously from both a customer and an organisational point of view.

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Privacy Commission Wary of Facebook

2010-05-04T09:20:00.001+12:00

http://www.3news.co.nz/Privacy-Commission-wary-of-Facebook/tabid/311/articleID/153945/Default.aspx

Article from 3News last night. Wee comment from yours truly and a very flattering shot of my clapped out laptop :)

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Facebook Isn’t Free

2010-05-03T11:25:00.001+12:00

Facebook Isn’t Free

Press Release: Monday 3 May 2010

Immediate

Courtney Lambert would like to support the extensive work carried out by the Privacy Commission and the social networking data made available in its report, ‘Individual Privacy and Personal Information’.

The report, which reviews New Zealander’s attitudes toward use of their personal information by businesses and government agencies, was released yesterday by Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff.

She says the Privacy Commission has some challenging decisions to make but from a public safety and privacy perspective, the results were very positive for New Zealand businesses and government agencies.

“There has been a lot of scare-mongering around social media websites, especially their use by children. Collecting accurate data so that people can come up with practical strategies to protect at risk groups such as children is the best way forward.

People need to understand that social media websites are not ‘free’. Users are engaged in a transaction with the service providers to share their personal information for loyalty schemes and advertising.

I was surprised to see that 57% of respondents thought their information on social networking sites was private. It’s not that case-it’s not how the business model sitting behind sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube work. You get use of their online tools; you share your user data. “

The report also indicates that 78% of under 30 year olds using social networking sites, compared with 56% of 30-44 year olds.

“We aren’t talking about early-adopters anymore and can only expect usage to increase. I am pleased to see the Privacy Commissioner doing work in this area to ensure that new media tools are safe for all New Zealanders. “

ENDS

Contact: Courtney Lambert

+64 21 650 798

Courtney at courtneylambert dot co dot nz

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cjlambert

Web: http://courtneylambert.co.nz

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Company Dog-Sniffing 101

2010-04-29T12:22:00.001+12:00

I hate being asked what I do.

It’s one of those dog sniffing things that we all do to make sense of the world and sort people into little piles of understandingness.

It’s up there with ‘what part of Auckland are you in?” (socioeconomic profiling) or by far the worst “what did your parents do?” (bloodline check-excuse me have we gone back 300 years?)

I fluff around and run a few words together depending on the company. Suited types call you a ‘contractor’, Chuck Taylor creatives call me a ‘freelancer’, the Company’s Office calls me a ‘director’, conference bios say ‘consultant’ and receptionists tend to call me a ‘temp’.

When I tell people what projects I’m doing they often question the role “yes but who do you report to? Do they not have a very big communications department? Do you have an agency as well -I suppose most of it gets outsourced to a ‘consultant’.” What would probably be more useful would be telling them the amount of projects that I HAVEN’T got. Literally hundreds. I’m serious.

Perhaps I’m the wrong gender, height, flavour, shoe colour or astrological sign but I’m not quite sure what a whatever- I- am is meant to look like but clearly it’s not how I roll out of bed most days.

If you get a chance, head over to Facebook and watch the video of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote at the F8 developer conference.

He’s a 25 year old nerd, in mom jeans, in a zipped up hoodie, with bad gingerish hair. He is also one of the most powerful men (boys?) in global media with bucket-loads of cash. He is a terrible presenter. The most surprising thing I learned from the keynote was that Mark has a girlfriend….go Mark!

See I do it too. We all want the quick and easy “are you a red one or a green one, poke poke” answer to socially organising people. It’s a bit like search engine tagging.

Watching the video made me think that if IT helpdesk sent some little nerd burger over to reset my password and we started talking about web apps, would I take notice? Would I listen to him or would I think “you’re an IT guy, you don’t know anything about media or communications or advertising. Go home and play World of Warcraft Mark Zuckerberg ITC co-ordinator person.”

It’s a very common organisational burn to discriminate by department and dismiss ideas because you feel threatened in your own little patch. It can be quite humbling having some little freak breezing through the job that you’ve been doing for 30 years, and it’s a very natural reaction to dehumanise someone by tagging and pigeon holing. I’m going to make it my new hobby to be a ‘Zuckerberg’ spotter. I’m sure there’s some vanilla, totally forgettable, ugly, mutated person out there that will cure AIDS or make me look like Rachel Hunter or create a cool web app. I’m pretty sure they aren’t the company stars or the person that has the most friends on Facebook. Maybe it’s the receptionist that asks me every morning “do you enjoy temping?”

I’ll go and suss her out.

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Pure Chocolatey Copywriting Genius

2010-04-27T11:25:00.001+12:00

Advertising is a business of words, but advertising agencies are infested with men and women who cannot write. They cannot write advertisements, and they cannot write plans. They are helpless as deaf mutes on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.

David Ogilvy

I tend to agree so when breathtaking genius like the Whittaker's "Fair Enough" TVC comes along it makes me very, very happy.

Hello chocolate lovers

Because Whittaker’s is a New Zealand company

We like things to be fair

So when you hand over your hard-earned money for our chocolate

We make sure that you enjoy only the world’s finest ingredients

That’s fair

Being a New Zealand company we like to make our chocolate here and employ locals to do it

That seems fair too

So when we were given the opportunity to source ingredients that are guaranteed Fair Trade and reward the local farmers with a fair price

Well that definitely felt like the fair thing to do

Whittaker’s creamy milk fair trade chocolate from Andrew and Brian Whittaker

Fair enough too

View the TVC "Fair Enough" here   (sorry flash so can't embed)

Saatchi & Saatchi Wellington. If anyone knows who the copywriter is let me know and I'll add their deets.

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My Chat With Ed Swift- Facebook: Privacy vs Sharing

2010-04-26T14:50:00.003+12:00

Chat with Ed Swift about the Facebook developments following the F8 conference last week.

PS Did you know Ed has been nominated for the New Zealand Radio Awards 2010!

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My Chat With Ed Swift- Facebook: Privacy vs Sharing

2010-04-26T14:50:00.001+12:00

Chat with Ed Swift about the Facebook developments following the F8 conference last week.

PS Did you know Ed has been nominated for the New Zealand Radio Awards 2010!

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Social Media Measurement Framework

2010-04-23T10:00:00.001+12:00

<img style="visibility:hidden;width:0px;height:0px;" border=0 width=0 height=0 src="http://counters.gigya.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.0NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEyNzE5NzI4NzQzMzEmcHQ9MTI3MTk3Mjg3Nzg3OCZwPTEwMTkxJmQ9V*ZfZW1iZWRfZG9jdW1lbnQmZz*yJm89YjY4/NjE3ZDM*NzdkNDQyY2IzMTFjNTBjMzExOWFjZmUmb2Y9MA==.gif" /><div style="width:477px" id="__ss_3818875"><strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px">Social Marketing Analytics: A New Framework for Measuring Results in Social Media</strong> <div style="padding:5px 0 12px">View more documents from John Lovett.</div></div>

I'll have a look through. I like this kind of stuff although please forgive my cynicism. There is a real land-grab for social media metrics, methodologies and expert frameworks at the moment to move the discussion out of the 14-year old kids on Bebo space. It's a good thing and I too am a bit of a theory geek. However, the more time I spend in real organisations and working on real issues I see more limitations of a purely objective approach and the concept that media can be 'measured' comprehensively is still not one I'm entirely sold on. Appreciate this work being out in creative commons. Some light weekend reading for me!

Links:

Altimeter Report: Social Marketing Analytics (With Web Analytics Demystified) « Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing

John Lovett

Jeremiah Owyang

Critique by Dennis Howlett on ZDNet

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Who Owns Copyright On Tweets?

2010-04-20T10:52:00.001+12:00

I’ve been wading through trying to make sense of this question.

My main query is around attribution and republishing.

Can you take my tweets and publish them in a book or article without my attribution?

Can you take my images and put them on your website or materials without attribution?

Most bloggers head back to the Twitter terms and conditions and pull out this phrase:

We claim no intellectual property rights over the material you provide to the Twitter service. Your profile and materials uploaded remain yours. You can remove your profile at any time by deleting your account. This will also remove any text and images you have stored in the system.

From this, the writer’s claim that therefore, you as the author own your content.

It doesn’t actually say that. It says that Twitter doesn’t own it. What needs to be proven if whether or not the content is copywritable in the first place.

To my limited knowledge, this hasn’t been tested in law yet (anywhere in the world) so it’s all a bit guess-workery (yes that is a real word).

So the main question becomes:

Is there such as thing as a copywritable tweet?

The legals seems to think that conceptually, there is such a thing as a copywritable tweet. Again, all yet to be proven.

Copyright attorney Brock Shinen has written an excellent post that goes further:

Twitter can’t tell you whether or not you create or own a copyright – it doesn’t have the legal ability to do so. So if you own any copyrights, it’s not because of Twitter not owning them, it’s because the law provides for ownership of them which initially vests with you, the author.

Hmm? So where to from here?

The Twitter terms of service also state:

Twitter also […] encourages users to contribute their creations to the public domain or consider progressive licensing terms

So I did today. I think? With http://www.tweetcc.com/

You can send a message to @tweetcc via Twitter including the words "I license tweets under CC Attribution Non-Commercial http://icnhz.com/cc-by-nc " ( or whatever progressive licensing terms you choose).

I've gone for attribution, non-commercial. So basically people can share and remix freely, attribute and if it's commercial I want to know about it.

Done. Whether it has any legal legs I have no idea. But it’s interesting to start thinking about.

Expect to see a lot more discussion on this on this one and maybe a few court cases as the attention economy scrambles for ideas.

Further references:

Original Mark Cuban post  "Are tweets copyright?" post

Good slideshare preso from SxSWi 2010 "Can you copyright a tweet?"

Twitter Terms of Service http://twitter.com/tos

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Icelandic Volcanoes Go Bjork #ashtag

2010-04-19T14:42:00.001+12:00

<p><a href="http://vimeo.com/10638288">Fimmfördurhals on Iceland</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/marcszeglat">Marc Szeglat</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

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The Mum Media Monitor

2010-04-19T10:31:00.001+12:00

Just had a wee coffee spill..fall off chair laughing moment...it's not that funny but it kind of is....the Mum media monitor...

Found when looking for reviews of note taking applications from Mashable:

Linda Roeder
1 year ago

I've tried some note programs, but never really got into it. I'd like to hear from some of you who use them and find out what you use them for.

Flag

Like

Suzanne
1 year ago
in reply to Linda Roeder

Linda,
I use Luminotes for everything--keeping tracking of recipes, planning events, coordinating grants, making notes of things to read or write, linking to relevant web sites.
I like how easy it is to link one note to another and how easy it is to share with others.
Suzanne
(Disclosure -- I am the developer's mother)

Flag

#Mummonitor #WIN

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