12yr old Social Media Mogul

Young people just 'get' content creation, they do not want to just consume content but are hell bent on creating content as well.

Case in Point- Fashion Rookie

Tavi is
1. A Fashion Blogger (Style Rookie)
2.Already part of a blogger outreach program (Australia struggles to do outreach to Top 100 Bloggers, America is doing it to niche niche markets)
3.Has had articles published in NY Times Magazine
4.is a really great engaging writer


and is

5. 12 years old!!!!!! 12 years old !!!!! 12 years old !!! 12 years old!!!!!! 12 years old !!!!! 12 years old !!!12 years old!!!!!! 12 years old !!!!! 12 years old !!!12 years old!!!!!! 12 years old !!!!! 12 years old !!!12 years old!!!!!! 12 years old !!!!! 12 years old !!!

Tavi Fashion Editor of Vogue by 18?

For 19 years I grew up just being able to consume media, Tavi grew up being able to produce and consume media! What effect does that have on a generation?

Hat tip to Meg Rayner

P.S Thanks to Jye Smith the creative genius for producing my killer header banner. I am sorry to all those fans of my pixalated image I had before. :(

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2009 Game Changer in Aus SMM Revolution

I hate long posts, so if you are lazy just read the bold!

The American SMM revolution has been and gone, they are now booming and getting a massive head start on us in terms of innovative social media strategies. There is absolutely NO reason why the Australian market is behind. I do not believe for one minute the broadband argument! I know that some of my readers are of the camp that just let things take there course. However I think that we can help bring about the revolution ourselves.

In a sentence we need

AIM:
To get a CMO/CEO of a blue chip Company to state the success of an Australian Social Media Strategy in The Financial Review.


You may ask why?

1. A Blue Chip Company

It is great for Jim and Marie Butchers in Woodend to have a success with social media but they do not drive the business community in Australia, there is about 20 companies who run this market.

2. CEO/CMO

We can talk till we are blue in the face but it is only when someone with credibility/high profile in the mainstream business market states their success with social media that the rest of the community will follow suit.

3. Australian Financial Review

Although I would love to think that Sol Trujillo reads my blog….it probably does not happen.

4. Social Media Strategy
To me a social media strategy has got to be an example of a company responding to conversations happening in the social media environment. I think we need a Dell Hell, or a company to employ a Social Media Response Unit or a Idea Storm.

I think that we can help this happen. I came close with Connex, I had a seat at the table in front of their CMO and Corporate Affairs but because of unlucky circumstances the meeting didn’t go ahead. However I am not giving up on that as well.

I think that as a community we should really work together to find a Blue Chip that we should aim at talking too with the aim of implementing a strategy.

I also think we should view this as an investment in our future. I was willing to volunteer my time to help set up a Connex employee to respond to the social media environment because I saw the time/costs as a long term investment.

Who is with me?
Which Blue Chip should we help?
How should we go about aiding them and imparting our knowledge?

A 2 min Vlog on why we should work together!


UPDATE 29/08/08
David Gillespie made a great comment countering my video blog, he suggests that we should not be trying to compete against someone else (aka Management Consultants) because that is when you actually loose the game.

He is right, Management Consultants are not the competition marketers not knowing how to get involed with online communities and how it affects businesses is the barrier we must overcome. What I think stays the same is that we must be trying to inform marketers about social media.

Having the aim of getting a CEO/CMO to come out and state the success of their social media strategy in a credible publication is still paramount to achieving this goal.

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Viral Rockstars (You Create the Content, The People Decide)

Jye, Scott and I decided to give a lesson to all those Advertising/Digital Agencies who keep telling us that they have created a 'viral'. Ad Agencies claiming a 'viral' is kind of like an amateur musician claiming that they are already a Rockstar.



Hightlights
O:54 Julian: Did you hear about the secret show on Myspace?
Old Man: *Sheepishy shrugs* Nope...(We don't believe him)

1:07 Jye: Would you like a photo with me?
Girl 1: Yep
Girl 2: That is going on my wall!

Teenage girls dropping Facebook references. Priceless!

As part of the Market Cross (I really need to write a post on this here) everything that I slag off on my blog, I try to give constructive criticism on how it can be done better next time.

Hint to Advertising Agency
If you really believe that you are going to have a ‘viral’ on your hands, instead of just saying it is ‘viral’ tell the journalist what is so remarkable about the product that is going to make the thing spread. If it doesn’t sound strong enough to the journalist how do you think people are going to pass the message on???

You create the content, the people decide whether it is ‘viral’

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Young Guns to lead Australian SMM forward

Although the Australian Social Media Marketing industry (is it even bigger enough to call it that?) maybe trailing the USA and Europe. It is definitely promising looking at the up and comers practitioners in our market.

I think it is very exciting this new trend of students (Zac Martin, Simon Oboler, Rick Clarke, Michael Lanyon) and industry young bloods (Tait Ischia, Jye Smith, Josh Strawczynski, Zoe Scaman, David Gillespie, Matt Granfield, Paul Young) starting to blog their worth/knowledge. We are setting ourselves up for a very interesting next 5 years. Take a long hard look at these names because they will very likely make up the protagonists in the next chapter of Marketing in Australia.

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BMF 'We be viral before we launch'

This little gem in The Australian on Tuesday.

The site has not even launched and BMF have the balls to call the Meet the Locals site Viral?!?

By the description how could this not be viral? Who wouldnt want to send their friends a video telling them to get a haircut!

FAIL!

Simon Corbett just has an amusing rant on this very topic that is worth reading.
BMF maybe it is time you hire Zac Martin or read his Viral Marketing Blog

Constructive Criticism:
Do not claim to be viral before you launch.

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84 Australian Marketing Blogs and counting

Well, I am compiling the second edition of the Top 50 Australian Marketing Pioneers Blogs. Here is the list of Australian Marketing Blogs*, If you know of anymore to add to this list that would be great.

A perspective
A blog about Digital Media
Adnotes
Adspace-Pioneers
Amnesia Blog
Angus Whines
Arrow Internet SEO
Australian SEO blog
Australian Small Business
B&T
Bannerblog
Better Communication Results
Blackwatch
Brand DNA
Campaign Brief
Copywrite
Corporate Engagement
Creative is not a department
Current Issues in Marketing Strategy
David Wesson Digital Entertainment
Death by Digital
Diffusion
doingwords.com
Duncan Riley
Duncans TV Adland
EcioLab
Elbow Grease
Ettf
Falkayn
Filter Media
FRANkThoughts
Free Beer
Fresh Chat
Get Shouty
Gruen Transfer
Hothouse
I hate ads
I like to sneeze
In My Atomosphere
Innovation Feeder
Josh Anstey
Latin Ocean
Laurel Papworth
Layman's Term
Lexy Klain
Mark Neely's Blog
Marketing Easy
Marketing Magazine
Media Hunter
Mobilista
Mokum Marketing
Oneplusoneequalsthree
Online Marketing Banter
Online marketing sydney
Personalize Media
Peter Sheanan
Pigs Don’t Fly
Pixel Paddock
PR Disasters
Problogger.net
Publicis Digital
Publicity Queen
Quintessentially Digital
Ross Dawon's Blog
Ryan's view
Send Up a larger room
Servant of Chaos
Simon Reynolds
Simons Says
Slice Media
StickyAds
The Digestif
The Flasher
The Gloo
The Jason Recliner
The Marketer
The White Agency ffffff
Three Billion
Tick Yes
Tim Longhurst
Uneven Distribution
Write across media
Young PR
Zakazukhazoo
Zebra Bites
Zero Budget Marketing Ideas

I know there is a little debate at the moment on lists and the effectiveness of them. I agree that they are a quick sure fire link love builder but I also think that they are good for uncovering a lot of blogs that people might not see. I kind of like thinking of it as shining a light on the dark and mysterious Australian Blogosphere and finding the lay of the land of Marketing Blogs in Australia.

What do you guys think, should I just do the Top 50 or should I do scores for all 80+ blogs??

*Published in the last 3 months

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Julian Cole + MacBook = Adspace Pioneers Vlog

I have decided to try my hand at video blogging. I am planning to keep the episodes bite size at under 2 minutes and they will act to complement my written post that I currently write. Positive and negative feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Introduction to Adspace Pioneers Vlog


Batman vs. Captain Planet (Social Objects as Relationship Builders)

-Check out Episode 70 on Marketing Today Podcast where I talk in detail about Public Assembly with Peter Wagstaff and Cori Hodge.
-Here is Linda and Ceri's site Public Assembly

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My friend Meg Rayner the $20,000 Influencer

My friend Meg Rayner is a journalist at The Courier in Ballarat (Victorian Country Town). In March, Meg reported about an upcoming auction for a local girl Layla Wright who has been battling cancer for the past 2 years. Through Meg's article she turned the projected small auction into a grand event which helped raise $20,000 for Layla, this allowed Layla to achieve her one wish of going to Disneyland and help pay for her chemotherapy. Meg last year was a university student, this year she raised $20,000 for a child in need, WOW!!!!

As Bloggers we are in fortunate position to have the time and reach to a large audience which sometimes can rival traditional media. What we do with this ‘time/reach’ is up to us.

Some blogger that are already giving back is Gavin Heaton and Isadore for Article 39 Concert and Body Shop Activist Blogger Adam Valvasori who blogs purely about bringing about social and environmental justice.


What other bloggers do you know who are giving their time to promote great causes?

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30 companies doing Social Media Marketing

This is gold! 30 examples of big companies doing Social Media Marketing. We are lucky in Australia to be 12 months behind the United States in terms of adoption of Social Media, therefore this acts as a great resource to help clients see what Social Media can do.

In this clip Joseph Jaffe speculates to why the Australian Market is currently ranked 15th in terms of social media in marketing. This is part of an interesting series that is going on at Marketing Magazine at the moment. Thanks for the tip off Scott

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Hatching the Australian Social Media Revolution w/ Joseph Jaffe

My new BFF Joseph Jaffe (sorry Zac) is coming to town. The king of the Social Media will be sitting down and helping us hatch a plan to start the Australian Social Media Marketing Revolution.

There will be some local heavyweights there too, Gavin Heaton (arguably the leading thinker in Social Media Marketing), Scott Drummond (Online Editor of Marketing Magazine) and I am sure Top 10 Aussie Marketing Bloggers Laurel Papworth and Katie Chatfield will be attending too.

So in the famous words of Australian Hip Hop Juggernauts Hilltop Hoods,

‘ We have a whole lotta superstars on this stage here tonight.‘

The stage is set, Blue Hotel Bar Woollmooloo,Sydney, the time is set Tuesday August 19th (9:30pm), come along and help shape the revolution.


Hilltop Hoods - The Blue Blooded

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12 Historical Social Media (Marketing) Moments

1. Amazon Review Section May 15th 1997*
One of the antecedents to ‘Web 2.0’ people were given the facilities to produce content online, in the form of reviews for products. This little application would change the way that people would buy products and the way that marketers communicated their products.

2. Friendster March 22 2002
The launch of the first of the big social networking sites, the site was modelled on dating sites and lost its popularity when they started banning music bands and fictional characters from creating profiles. Myspace encouraged bands to create music and the fans moved with the decision.

3. Technorati 20th November 2002
Technorati launched and helped to create a metric that goes beyond traditional measure of effectiveness of media channels (reach measures). They help to measured the influence of a media channel (blogs) through how many people were speaking about a person ideas (Authority), a very BIG step in the right direction.

4. Mysace Fox Interactive Media pays $580 million for Myspace July 16th 2005
Booyah, Social Media is worth money! ... or is it?

5. The first viral Youtube clip - Evolution of Dance April 06 2006


6. Jaffe Juice holds Curry to ransom September 7th 2006
Jaffe Juice holds Adam Currie to ransom for not giving any link love to Jaffe after Adam appeared on his show and made no mention of the episode in his own podcast. Only Joseph Jaffe could peform such a stunt and get away with it. Read story here

7. Transmedia Planning: Idea Propagation October 3rd 2006
Not really about the content (which is an amazing piece) but through the propagation of the message, he published the idea on his blog in the form of a post and it spread across the internet like wildfire!
October 3rd 2006

8. Dove Evolution Viral wins Cannes Ocotber 7th 2006
Dove Evolution helped to show that social media was valued by the old advertising heads picking up the Grand Prix Cyber Lion.

9. The first flog:Fake McDonalds Monopoly winners blogOctober 31st 2006
One of the first cases of abuse of Social Media by a Advertising Agency. The interesting thing was not that marketers would do such a thing but the punishment that was dealt to McDonalds at the hands of real bloggers. People now have more power to make your mistakes visible.

10. Dell Ideastorm launches February 16th 2007
Dell capatalised on the power of masses to help innovate and develop new ideas for Dell products. Social Media is now seen to change the research and development stage for businesses. The product was a creation of Salesforce who created the platform for themselves first with Salesforces Ideas

11. The Age of Conversation March 22nd 2007
The post between Drew McLellen and Gavin Heaton which was the catalyst for the book The Age of Conversation. Taking the Dell Idea one step further and created a product from the collective content of social media participants.

12. Power 150 ranking moves to Ad Age August 7th 2007
Todd And Power 150 moves to AdAge and boasts over 700 blogs now, a huge step in connecting the Marketing Community.


Anyone got any other great moments to add?

13. Time Magazine announces YOU (Social Media) as the 2006 Person of the Year December 13th 2006
Thanks for the hat tip Mike Kuhl

*May 15th 1997 was the launch date for Amazon, not the date that the review section was created.

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20 friends who changed my life

Really exciting change is happening in my life at the moment, I have decided to move on from Naked Communcations and Monash University to embark on a really exciting project. I will reveal more when I can.

However I just thought it would be a great opportunity for me to thank the people who have helped me to get to where I am today. I will be indebt to you for providing me such great value/lessons/opportunities in my life.

I really hope that I can show you, that the time that you gave me was not wasted and that you can see that you made a valuable impact on someones life.

Thank you to the following people

Naked Communications
Mat Baxter – Was able to recognize my talent
Adam Ferrier – The reason I started at Naked
Mat Topfer – A great boss and role model

Monash University
Peter Wagstaff – Gave me confidence in my knowledge, helped me make the right decision
Cori Hodge – I will always be his protégé
Irene Powell – Helped me produce a great thesis
Emily Greco – Student Rep Camps helped me with great personal development
Marcus Phipps – PHD Workout mate (Mind and Body)
Zac Martin – Helped take me to the next level
Hunter Simmons – Pushed me to be better than the average
Natalie Khoo – Gave me my first big break as Editor

Outside
Jeremy Smart – Number 1 Work Mentor
Scott Drummond – Gave me a great opportunity with Marketing Magazine
Katie Cincotta – Best god damn journalist friend ever
Laurel and Gavin – Although they don’t know it yet, they provided great Australian blogging role models
Faris Yakob – First blog I real religiously
Sheryl Allen – You showed me to follow my passion
Susie Cole – Made me make my own opportunities
Mr. Wallace – Made me love maths

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Writers Block? 6 Topics to write on when you have Writers Block

Chris Brogan to the rescue!

This is a great post on 50 Topics Marketers can talk about for your company. But I think you should also look at yourself as a brand and how some of these could be written about you.

From Chris' list I have picked these 6 gems that I think any blogger can write on to help define their brand and distinguish them from the blogger clutter that is going on.

1. A little bit about us.
2. A walk in our neighborhood
3. Giving back to the community: our plan
4. What we think is unique about us. Do you agree?
5. Video - a tour of the plant, and a day in the life of your product
6. What we worry about over the coming year

Funnily enough I did as Chris suggested and made a video of my workplace about a year ago.

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Pimp My Kettle, Fantastic Noodles and Clemenger BBDO FAIL at Social Media

3 reasons why the Pimp My Kettle will FAIL.

1. Social Networking around a false hobby
Where the hell is the consumer insight in this one? When have people ever tried to Pimp their kettle. We already have a social networking site, it is called Facebook, why do we want another? People created Nings around social objects/niche passions people have(no one loves pimping kettles)

2. Fake people
Kill me now, this is reminiscent of Skip Harder, why don’t you do a bit of research find someone who actually does do this and use them as your poster boy, Instead of trying to pull the wool over your dumb target markets eyes(I am in this market and find it offensive)

3. Google Pimp My Kettle
Where is your site? Do you think everyone is going to remember and type your site URL straight in. Who the hell launches a site and does not even get the SEO.

Why am I laying into this campaign so hard?
Because it is these sorts of campaigns that wreck the name of Social Media Marketing for the people who actually know what they are doing.

Here is some advice;
Clemenger BBDO get someone in who knows what they are doing, or stick to above the line! It is good to see your creatives are stealing their ideas straight from Youtube too.

This clip was produced a year before the Fanatastic Noodles campaign

Fanatastic Noodles when Clemenger tell you they have had success with the social networking side of things. Have a look at who has joined, all the profiles (there is only 49 at last count) are from Adelaide, is this any coincidence that this campaign came out of Clemenger Adelaide?

Bloggers call out these rubbish campaigns because if we don’t they will just tarnish the reputation of Social Media Marketing.

I am not alone here either;
Matt's(Zakazukhazoo) interpretation of this rubbish
Zac thinks PimpMyKettle is wrecking his future as well

This comment by Tait Ischia was in the comments section but it is so insightful I decided to publish it in the body of the post. Check out the comments section for the great discussions about this campaign.

I think the core issue is that the idea to incorporate social marketing into the media mix seems to have come from a need to reach the target rather than extend the idea. I can't really be bothered going into how terrible the site is; I just don't think it warrants any critical perspective. These things happen all the time - think recent Vegimite campaign.

What I found interesting though, is the giant lift-out I found in this month's Vice magazine. Vice got Ed Woodley from China Heights (and Oxford Art Factory) in Sydney to pimp a kettle for the campaign. It's fucking cool. Which means it could have been done well. It was actually a fairly OK idea. Although it was a 'rip-off', so was the Honda 'Cog' Ad. And everyone loved that. Some call it appropriation and others copying, but whatever people say, execution is the biggest difference between the two. And if the execution is done well, then ripping-off becomes referencing and everyone's happy.

Conclusion: Poorly executed campaign mixed with social media being chosen too late in the process. There are other things as well - just to name a few: A confused selection of media placement eg. poster in Vice, terrible use of irony in street posters, a mainstream look trying to target an underground populace, and not to mention a great list of (hopefully well-payed) artists that the vast majority of the mainstream gen-y audience will not give two shits about.

The big agencies don't really get it. Not to mention most creatives thinking they're cool and hip-to-the-scene but in fact being complete wannabee douche-bags. I have no problem in saying that because I see it all the time. Although I must say the guys at Publicis Mojo are the antithesis of that statement. A little less so after Toby & Serene left for Fallon a year ago. Sad, but as an industry we need more of those people.

I wholeheartedly agree we need more critical perspectives on campaigns like this so that others don't fuck-up social networking for the rest of us who are trying to do it properly.

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NAB Spamming: A story of a Maverick Blog Personality

BACKGROUND A post by Duncan Riley a few months ago alerted me to NAB leaving commercial unrelated comments on a number of blogs. When questioned their PR agency (Cox and Inhall) defended their position suggesting it is a public space. I thought I would help illustrate what they had just said by going into banks and spamming my blogging message.


For NAB response from spokesperson Felicity Glennie-Holmes check out Jim Stewart video interview.

For the full story over the NAB spamming debacle head too Marketing Magazine indepth post on the issue.

A comment that came up in the MarketingMag Forum by Gerry McCusker caught my attention

‘Julians branch spam stunt adds nothing to the debate but may work as a profile-booster for Colesy as a maverick blog personality’

and here is another quote about the video from his blog

'It’s not very funny, but does say a lot about how one blogger approaches self-promotion.'

I actually respect Gerry cause he has challenged me a number of times (He is not a fan of self promotion through the Top 50 Australian Marketing Blogs either).

You gotta love the complement of ‘Maverick Blog Personality and added nothing’. However I think that Gerry is being a little short sighted in thinking that this is the only benefit.

Trying to explain the blogosphere to people who have never published or commented on a blog is a hard challenge. Being able to give analogies of what it is like is a very important learning tool. If my video has made one company think twice about blog spamming (The Marketing Manager thinks what it would be like if they came to our store and did it) then I think you could not argue that I have added nothing to the debate. At the very least I allowed more people to get involved or engaged in the issue.

However if you were trying to say that I have not added anything constructive to NAB, I have to agree with you.

I am a firm believer in constructive criticism and that is why I have offered Felicity Glennie-Holmes NAB Media Manager a ticket to the upcoming AIMIA Advertising and Marketing through Social Media Event (disclosure: I will be speaking at the Conference). I think that this Panel (Andy Jamieson, Andrew Cordwell and Nick Cummins (my old boss)) will give valuable insight too NAB on how they should get involved in social media in the future.

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Why Twitter still loses!

This is in response to Chris Brogan post Why Twitter Wins
Also works for Facebook Status Addicts as well

Your friends drive your social media choices. Don’t believe me? Answer the following two questions.

1. What do you prefer to use Facebook Status or Twitter/Plurk?

2. What platform are most of your friends on?

The answer to the two questions will have the same answer.

I was in a critical meeting the other day with someone who was testing my social media knowledge. He started indirectly questioning me about Twitter and my Twit friends.

I walked away from the meeting feeling a little pissed off. This guy was going to measure my knowledge of social media by my low involvement in a social media channel.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

At the end of the day Social Media comes back to the people who are driving it, which are your friends. In my case all off my offline friends are on Facebook, only a select few of my marketing friends are on Twitter.

I know that a lot of the social media/marketing community is on Twitter and Plurk and I try to make an effort to stay in touch but I find it hard because it is not my number one form of microblogging and information sourcing, I use Facebook Status and my RSS reader for that.

Social Media succeeds by being 80% Social (Friends), 20% Media (Technology Innovation)!

Twitter has not failed it just has not grabbed the critical mass of my friends yet, therefore I don’t use it.

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