A Snooze of Politicians

Mick Atkinson Listening? Or Talkback radio addict?

The latest Political News coupled with other reports in the past few days leading to the Sth Aust election next month has prompted me to come up with a  Plural noun for them …   A Snooze.

First, there was the announcement of a TV/Print media (aka Heritage media) using ads to convince young people of the dangers of speed and irresponsible driving ….   The ad agency obviously forgot to tell them that their target audience aren’t interested in Heritage media or the tradition 30 sec Shock ad!!

Then the Opposition Leader announced her plans to control large donations to political Parties Election funds ……  maybe she doesn’t know that Barack Obama raised $500mill from $3 mill people with most donations less than $100 by making it easy for them to become engaged and mobilised in the campaign…. by seeking feedback and participation.

But then again the first rule of Social media is to Listen … the next Converse…. then Engage …. and the very last Convert..  while the Pollies still prefer to use traditional expensive ad campaigns to beat us into submission as soon as possible!!!

Clearly our Pollies don’t get Social Media Power as is evidenced by their sporadic and highly ineffective use of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogs.

Then today the ultimate in naivety came with the highlighting of some laws passed some time ago and supported by both parties as reported in today’s Adelaide Advertiser

SOUTH Australia has become one of the few states in the world to censor the internet under laws created by Attorney-General Michael Atkinson.

The new law, which came into force on January 6, requires internet bloggers, and anyone making a comment on next month’s state election, to publish their real name and postcode when commenting on the poll.

Spearheading the new “rules” Attorney General Mick Atkinson who still seems to think that Talkback radio is the way to reach the masses (judging by his incessant appearances there) refers to blogs as a “sewer of defamation” and “identity theft and fraud”.

While the Opposition Spokesperson’s comments highlight the Pollies’ complete lack of understanding of what has been described as the biggest revolution in communication since the invention of the Guttenberg Press in 1436

Opposition justice spokeswoman Vickie Chapman said yesterday while the Liberal Party had supported the amendment to the Electoral Act, she believed it would be too broad to implement if it included Facebook and Twitter and said Mr Atkinson should introduce a regulation to limit its scope.

“It is clearly not the intention of what we understood that to be,” she said.

I think these few examples form the past 3 days in Adelaide highlight the issue and one that faces most business people -  rather than try to understand Social media lest pretend it doesn’t exist or even better let’s try and ban it … as they did the Mobile Phone, Fax and Spreadsheets in many offices..a few years ago!

But with 355 million plus on Facebook and Australia now leading the way with the average amount of time per day spent of Facebook……Social Media aint going away!!

LinkedIn is the worlds leading Business Network, with 55 million white collar professionals, who earn on average over $100,000. It is now growing at the rate of 1 person every second of every day around the world…. with 1.2 million of us now in Aust/NZ.

What a powerful force and a great source of feedback, engagement and even donations.

Perhaps its time for the Snoozers on North Terrace (SA Parliament House) to take the blinkers (or is that sleeping masks) off and join the rest of us in the real world of today and tomorrow and stop hoping the past will come back!!

Perhaps if we put them in for 10 years they may have time to take a strategic view of the world rather than the constant focus on how to get back in again in 3/4 years time and covering their backsides along the way!

Richard James Carter

326b Magill Rd

Kensington Park SA

ph 0412 813 870

perhaps one of the snoozers on North terrace might even call for some professional advice.

Peek behind the curtains … before you knock on the door

Some great Apps on my iPhone that help me find what i am looking for in terms of nearby businesses and a recent article in the paper about the breakdown of communities got my brain ticking over.

It seems that most people have in the past promoted the Internet as a way to open up the world as a marketplace, which resulted in the local shop asking “well what’s in it for me?”  But now the tools of Social Media and the Moblie Net (used to be called a Mobile Phone) has given us a much more local focus.

On my iPhone I click the Google App and then say what I am looking for (eg Coffee Shop) and it will in seconds give me a list of the nearest coffee chops sorted in order of distance and include address, phone no, website link and in most cases a recent review.  And then there is another App – AroundMe  that helps me find the nearest Bank/ATM/Pub/Parking Station etc etc ..

I assume if your business Googles well these Apps will promote you but if you don’t you may well be invisible!!

The article I read talked about the breakdown of the neighbourly interaction that was a key part of society 10/15/20 years ago. It seems most people don’t know their neighbors, they don’t talk or socialise in any way.

And with all the stories about home invasions, domestic violence, drug labs etc in average suburbs, maybe we are a little scared of what we might find over the fence.

So is Social Media a way to rebuild the neighbourhood by letting people find our who lives nearby and what they are interested in, getting to know them and chat online before meeting.

It seems to work on dating sites, it certainly has worked for me on LinkedIn.  I now have lots of face-to-face contact with people I met as a result of finding them or them finding me on LinkedIn.

We talk about building communities using Social Media – in terms of people who support a brand, a business, a celebrity etc. but maybe we need to re-established the old fashioned neighbourhood interaction by first getting it going online.

Rather than knocking on the front door or even saying hi over the back fence perhaps Social Media will let us peep behind the curtains and get to know who lives around us.

But who will set up this neighborhood infrastructure online … who has something to gain from it … perhaps the Local Council … but I suspect most of us won’t live long enough for them to get around to something so radical.

Well who else wants to be seen as Mayor of the Local Neighborhood …  could it be the Local Real Estate agent … maybe … I think I feel another blog coming on!!!

Social Media – It’s a lot like cycling

Cycling

With Lance Armstrong and the Tour Down Under the centre of everybody’s attention in Adelaide, I thought I should write about a passion of mine – cycling!!

On some of my regular, long, sometimes enjoyable – sometimes painful rides lately I have been thinking about the similarities between cycling and Social Media. This has helped put the value of Social Media into perspective for many fellow cyclists.

Every Tuesday evening I ride with a group of 50 or so men and women ranging in age from 17 to 70 from Scuzzi Cafe in North Adelaide.  They are a disparate group that have one think in common – cycling – so we come to together and build a Community with a common purpose. Isn’t that what Social Media can do too??!!

In fact a few are now “LinkedIn” with me and exploring business opportunities as a result of finding out more about each others professions from LinkedIn.

During the ride, we, like all cycling groups (even the Pros in the Tour Down Under), provide support and advice for each other to help get the maximum value from the ride and ensure a safe and enjoyable ride … even though we are secretly competing against each other!!

The advice comes in the form of simple hand signals or short sharp phrases that warn of upcoming hazards (eg. glass on the road, a parked car ahead that those behind can’t see) or advice that it’s safe to cross an intersection.  A wave of the hand signals glass on the road, a shout of “car back” warns the group a car is coming from behind on a narrow road, a hand behind the back signals a parked car or a stop sign … while a shout of “clear” lets those following know it’s safe to cross the intersection … and there are many more to cover every situation.

So it’s a bit like Twitter with it’s short, sharp and highly effective communication that passes rapidly to those that are interested.

During the ride everyone takes their turns at the front to make the pace and block others from the wind … it is up to 30% easier riding closely behind another.  In a peloton the outside line rides a few kms faster than the inside line so that someone constantly moves to the front while someone on the inside drops back.  It’s another unwritten rule and courtesy that all participants know and respect – a bit like the self regulation that is core to Social Media.

So we build a community for a common purpose … we help and support each other  (even competitors) with valuable information and we communicate directly and effectively.  Now that is exactly what Social Media allows us to do too … isnt it??

If you watch the Tour Down Under or any Pro or Amateur Race you will see plenty of evidence of all of the above too.

Finally when we get back from our ride the Cafe recognises the value of our loyalty and provides hefty discounts to all cyclists to make sure we keep coming back.  Not only do the discounts apply after the ride … but any cyclists going to that cafe at any time will pay only $2 for a coffee.

So there you have it … Community, Communication, Loyalty, Listening and Rewards – all key elements of Social Media and cycling.

Perhaps that connection was evident when Lance Armstrong “tweeted” that he was riding last Saturday morning at 9am along the beautiful Adelaide beaches and invited all and sundry to join him – more than 7,000 turned up on their trusty treddlies – all shapes and sizes – most in their lusty lycra!!

Its not ALL about Big Business

There is nothing new about Social Networking/Media  – people have been doing it for hundreds of years ….talking to people about things that interest them and building communities with common goals are part of our way of life.

But now technology can speed and broaden this reach incredibly. So while social media as we know it today as a way to interact with consumers is a relatively new trend and we are not yet able to accurately measure its effectiveness in a business building tool it certainly is proving very useful to many.

A recent article published by eMarketer, based on “The Small Business Marketing Forecast 2010″ by Ad-Olgy, offers several insights on how social media is helping small businesses . The article suggests that lead generation is clearly the top benefit for small businesses in the use social media. Among other responses, keeping up with the businesses’ respective industries and monitoring what is said about their businesses are also considered benefits of utilising social networks.

The report also found that small businesses consider Facebook (and I suspect thats mainly use of FanPages) to be the most-beneficial social networking site, with one-third of respondents saying Facebook was “at least somewhat beneficial.” My favorite Social network and the No 1 Professional networking site LinkedIn is considered the second-most beneficial platform among businesses, ranking ahead of MySpace and Twitter.

The report also highlights  some of the obstacles small businesses face in maximising the benefits of social media. Most of the respondents feel they lack the knowledge of the social media space and wish they could better understand the space. Others claim they do not have the time or the resources necessary to manage social marketing. Certainly time, trust and resources are the major obstacles I hear about when talking to people every day about getting started.

With the rapid adoption of social networks in everyday life, there is no better time than now to get going irrespective of the size and nature of a business.  Having a social media presence not only allows you access to a very cost effective way to get your message to many more consumers, but it also allows you to interact with consumers and monitor your brand online.

With social marketing experiencing continued growth and the associated benefits to business growing at a great rate we are moving to ensure we can help our clients and prospects overcome the mystery.

We have just developed our simple Grumpy Old Managers Social Media To Do and Not To Do list and will later this month begin to rollout a range of services aimed at giving businesses of all shapes and sizes the opportunity to get into the Game of Being Found on the Net as soon and as effectively as possible

Our approach which I will expand on in future posts aims to help all business  target and connect with  customers across multiple channels.

So this IS Christmas…

Listening to my favorite Christmas song this morning prompted me to write this Blog.  The John Lennon Classic – So This Is Christmas calls for Christmas to make the world a better place.

Well yesterday I was privileged to see some of his thoughts put into action in Adelaide.

I was invited by a good business colleague, to attend a Christmas Lunch in the city on Christmas Eve .  He has been running this lunch – The Mates Christmas Lunch for 26 years and this was my first…   But whats so special about that.

Well lunch starts with a busker brought up from the street – this year a young Russian lad playing Christmas Carols on the Violin who walks off with a hundred bucks or more in his violin case …..then we all singing of the Club Anthem -  which is the national anthem – Advance Australia Fair with more appropriate lines like —

Australians All love Kangaroos,

Our Land is Dirt by Sea

In shorts and thongs we sing this song

ete etc                                                                                                                            

Then during the lunch Mark (the organiser) gives a 30 – 60 secs overview of what each attendee has achieved in business and plans to achieve in the next year … an inspired and inspiring group to say the least!!

At the end of lunch each of the 50 or so attendees pays for the lunch and throws in a few extra dollars.  The lunch and drinks are paid for and what is left over s(several hundred dollars) is dived up in lots of $150 or so and put into three envelopes!!

Then the lunch attendees take a stroll down Rundle Mall (Adelaide’s man shopping street) and look out for family groups who look like they could use a few extra dollars at Christmas!!

When generally agreed one of the guys approaches the family .. hands them the envelope … wishes them Merry Christmas and tells them to spend some money on their kids for Christmas.  With looks of surprise turning to delight the group them moves on …. there is no publicity no expected thank you letters … we remain anonymous as we move on to find others that we think need some support.

In line with traditional we find ourselves in a menswear stores drinking real coffee and then off to a Jewelers for a cleansing ale before heading home.

What a great way to spend Christmas Eve with some real quiet achievers and have the chance to do something that is good for the community and good for your our soul…  I am sure that thanks to Mark and his merry men there are 3 families in Adelaide today telling their friends and relatives that there is a Santa Claus after all!!

… and these Grumpy Old Managers want to talk to me soon about Social Media!!

Seek ….. and You will be Found

With everyone I speak to now wanting to know how to generate business using Social media I have finally realised the Internet is one big search engine.

Whether it’s what you put into your LinkedIn Profile or your Blog Posts or your tweets etc … it’s all about being found.   So when thinking about how you want to use Social Media to max value you need to begin with the end in mind..

So while I agree that you need to start by Listening (growing bigger ears as Chris Brogan says) you needed to think about what !  (is that proper English??)

Before you write anything you need to put yourself in the shoes of the Seeker/Searcher and make sure that you develop a list of words and phrases that you then use regularly in your profile, your status, your blog etc.

If you want the old adage Seek and You will Find to work for you in developing business make sure you always make it easy for those that Seek to find you but focus on what they are looking for and not on what you want to say.

……and no matter what words and phrases you use in your efforts to be found make sure you always Say What You Be …….  but …….   What You Say……..   and focus on the benefits you can bring to the people you want to find you … not just on how good you, your business, your people etc

Aim to develop dialogue not a monologue!!

Its beginning to look a lot like … a Social Media Christmas

In some very recent research, in the first week of December, 28 per cent of US consumers claim social media has had a significant influence on their Christmas shopping plans this year..The research by  digital analyst comScore, covering the period between December 4th and 7th 2009, showed that as many as 13 per cent of respondents read a consumer product review on a social media portal which had subsequent impact on their purchasing.

While expert product reviewers had most influence,  seven per cent had followed a fan page on Facebook to take advantage of special deals on offer.

Twitter has had a similar  impact on this year’s Christmas shopping trends, with five per cent of respondents saying they have followed a company specifically to find out about special offers.

In addition the research showed that this year Christmas is on the verge of sparking a major shift ti online shopping.

During the 36 days of the November to December 2009 holiday season US consumers have spent nearly $16 billion (purchasing online – a three per cent increase on the same period in 2008.

however, it would appear that momentum will continue to grow as the week ending December 6th saw $4.6 billion spent on the web Thats more than any week in the past 12 months!!!

One of the major benefits of shopping online (apart from avoiding the crowds and finding bargains) … is that you have to get it done and dusted early to make sure your gifts arrive on time.  So unlike The Grumpy Old Managers the online shoppers are well and truly finished and will have a stress free lead up to the silly season!

Want Proof? ROI? its in the numbers…

Social media is an ever increasing hot topic of the digital world and I often get asked about the various statistics involved. This in itself is fairly difficult, as the online sphere is constantly shifting, evolving and growing at an amazing rate. But I put together some stats for a recent speaking engagement with a focus on Australia…. they are interesting (and hopefully useful) facts and figures…..

But if you dont wont to wade through the numbers and need to be convinced … just watch the latest video from Socialonmics above.

Bear in mind that given these are figures from July a lot of it is likely to be obsolete -  but it is indicative, I think they’re a great way of demonstrating the impact that social media is having in the marketing, sales and client service landscape.

YouTube

* If YouTube were a country, it would be the third most-populated place in the world.

* 20 hours-worth of video is uploaded to the site every single minute.

* comScore recently announced that the site had surpassed 100m viewers in the USA alone. They also reported that this US audience consumed over 6bn videos at the beginning of this year.

* According to Youtube themselves, over half of users visit the site at least once a week

Facebook

According to Facebook’s internal statistics:

* The site has more than 250m active users globally (now November 09 – 300 mill)

* More than 120m users log on to Facebook at least once each day and more than 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day. Combined, more than 5bn minutes are spent on the site on a daily basis.

* The average user has around 120 friends on the site.

* Every single month, more than a billion photos are uploaded to the site.

* More than 50 translations are available on the site, with more than 40 in development.

* Mobile is a big issue, with more than 30m active users accessing the site through mobile devices. It’s well documented that users who access Facebook through mobile devices are almost 50% more active than those who don’t.

MySpace

* Although now overtaken by Facebook, MySpace is the second largest social network, experiencing in excess of 60m unique users each month.

* MySpace apparently reaches 30% of UK adults aged 15-24 – it’s been suggested that its as common to have a MySpace account in the UK as it is to own a dog.

• According to Knol, MySpace has more than 115m active monthly users globally with, on average, 300,000 new people signing up to the site every day.

Twitter

* Over the past twelve months, Twitter’s year-on-year growth rate has broken the 1000% barrier.

* The company holds exact numbers close to their chest, but it’s estimated that Twitter currently has between 6 – 10m global users and this is growing rapidly.

* According to a recent report on Twitter usage by Sysomos, 5% of Twitter users account for 75% of all activity and that 72.5% of all users joining during the first five months of 2009.

* The same report found that over 50% of all updates are published using mobile and Web-based tools, other than Twitter.com’s own website.

* It also found that Tuesday is the most active day for Tweeting, followed by Wednesday and then Friday.

* Hitwise recently reported that one out of every 350 website visits in the UK is via Twitter, but barely 5% of users currently go to an online retail service through the medium.

* Not really a stat, but still quite a cool piece of info: Twitter is now officially a term in the English Dictionary.

Other General Stats

* Social networks and blogs are the 4th most popular online activities online, including beating personal email. 67% of global users visit member communities and 10% of all time spent on the internet is on social media sites.

* If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populated place in the world. This means it easily beats the likes of Brazil, Russia and Japan in terms of size.*

* 80% of companies use, (or are planning to use), LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees during the course of this year. The site has just celebrated reaching its 45-millionth membership.

* Around 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week during campaigns, with 39% using it for 10 or more hours per week.

* It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Terrestrial TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users. The internet took four years to reach 50 million people… In less than nine months, Facebook added 100 million users.

* Wikipedia currently has more than 13 million articles in more than 260 different languages. The site attracts over 60 million unique users a month and it’s often hotly debated that the information it contains is more reliable than any printed Encyclopaedia.

* The most recent figure of blogs being indexed by Technorati currently stands at 133 million. The same report into the Blogosphere also revealed that on average, 900,000 blog posts are created within a single 24-hour period.

* It’s been suggested that YouTube is likely to serve over 75 billion video streams to around 375 million unique visitors during this year.

* The top three people on Twitter (Ashton Kutcher, Ellen DeGeneres and Britney Spears) have more combined followers than the entire population of Austria.*

* According to Socialnomics, if you were paid $1 for every time an article was posted on Wikipedia, you would earn $156.23 per hour.

* The online bookmarking service, Delicious, has more than five million users and over 150 million unique bookmarked URLs.

* Since April this year, Twitter has been receiving around 20 million unique visitors to the site each month, according to some analytical sources.

* Formed in 2004, Flickr now hosts more than 3.6 billion user images.

* Universal McCann reports that 77% of all active internet users regularly read blogs.

Here are So9me Up to Date and Local Australia figures

At yesterday’s Digital Marketing and Media Summit in Melbourne there was a session by Mark Higginson, Director of Analytics at Nielsen Online.

Mark shared some interesting new research from Nielsen Online today about Facebook and social media usage here in Australia:

* 8 hours/month:  Australians spend on average 8 hours/month on Facebook

* 29% = Facebook: Nearly 30 percent of all time online in Australia is spent on Facebook

* Australia Leads: Australians spend more time on average per month using social media (any social media site, not just Facebook) than any other country (7:12 hours/month per Australian on average)

* 8 million Aussies: the current number of facebook.com users is 8 million Australians/month

* 13.7 million overall: there are 13.7 million active monthly Internet users in Australia

I think these statistics are remarkable because they show that Australians are doing more than checking out sites like Facebook and Twitter, setting up an account, and then abandoning the sites after a short amount of time. That’s a common refrain of non-believers out there. We Australians are, as Mark correctly observed, addicted

LinkedIN

50 million members worldwide

Average age 41

60/40 Male/Female

Average salary $109,000

Representing 200 professions in 120 countries

Highly self regulated … all white collar professionals

In  Australia membership approaching 1 million

In South Australia  around 30,000 growing at close to 1,000 per week

Just appointed their first employee in Aust – the ex Aust CEO of Yahoo Aust!!

… and released new features to integrate with Outlook and Twitter

LinkedIn Gets Serious in Australia

LinkedIn now integrated with Twitter and increasingly with Outlook

My favorite Social Network – LinkedIn has recently announced some great new free features and recently released some integration with Twitter and MS Outlook.…  making it an even more essential tool for business.

It is also certainly growing rapidly in Australia … at last.   In the past 12 months this growth has been over 10 percent and the number of Aust based members is heading towards 1 million.

The appointment of the first LinkedIn Aust employee – Cliff Rosenburg is a sure sign that they are about to ramp up their local efforts in marketing terms.

Cliff as a former MD of Yahoo! Australasia was reported as saying his priorities include “building out our diverse business model comprising subscriptions, advertising and enterprise software licencing.”

With 52 million members worldwide, comprised mainly of white collar professionals, LinkedIn is a tremendous base for building business and accessing a vast variety of expertise worldwide.

It is also free but charges for use of some extended tools and facilities for additional networking and collaboration…. but i suspect the vast majority of the 52 million members are using the free version.

The company, established in 2003 remains privately owned having raised over $100 million from some major investors including publisher McGraw Hil.

If you arent using LinkedIn you should be …. if you joined and have done nothing much since you should be building your profile and network as it is a very valuable tool once you make it a habit!

Keeping it Simple … but not too Simple

 

If you are not convinced click to watch this video

Quite often I am asked what we do and how we do it.  People are very keen to know about Social Media but few still see the benefits and especially the need to hire someone like us to help.  So I thought I should write a little about the what and how of our approach.

 

These days Websites are all about Web 2.0 (The read write web) and interactivity between business – clients, prospects and stakeholders in general.

We specialise in developing the content once we have the structures right  (read write Website, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blog etc..) …. but more so our aim is to teach our clients how to take care of good up to date content themselves rather than relying on us. We are all about helping our clients to build their brand but in doing so access their clients and prospects directly with a view to building direct sales.

While we rely heavily on Social Media we also aim to leverage Traditional Media (not paid advertising tho) to support our image building and brand awareness activities.

And its not all about Marketing and Selling  its about improving our clients’ business in the ways that it interacts with people. Social Media/Networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blogging) provide the tools and tactics to supplement marketing communications, sales and client support activities which these days are merging into one – Inbound Marketing… people doing business with people they like!

Some months ago I wrote a free eBook (The Grumpy Old Managers Guide to Social Media) with my daughter and business partner Nikki to help show business the What, Why and a basic How of Social media for business.  Our aim was to keep it simple and from this we have developed a simple methodology for implementing and managing it.

The process we work through with our clients is pretty simple

• We run a seminar/workshop  “Is Social Media Right for you/your business/sport/charity/association etc” to cover in broad terms the What, Why and How others use it and end with some what ifs for your business

• We develop and define a Pilot project at a minimal cost, which aims to produce measurable results and establish the structures which can be used for a broader implementation over time

• We teach our clients how to develop, manage and maintain content (written, video, images, voice etc) which can be used in a variety of ways (blogs, newsletters, articles, eBooks) and places (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Newspapers and Magazines) and where to look and more so, listen for business and the opportunity to engage in conversations with clients and prospects With  the aim to develop over time long term trusted relationships and develop clients who act as brand ambassadors and evangelists.

Once we have completed the initial project we aim to hand over to the client as soon a practical and take a background role as a mentor and coach — providing ideas and enforcing some discipline to stick with it for long term results.

Our key mantras are :

Say what you be ….  But be what you say

Talk about the benefits you bring to others (clients, community etc..) not about your business
and preferably have others (your clients) do the talking for you.

Above all keep it simple and highly cost effective and make it a sustained effort not just a hit and run project.

We see the use of Social Media as not only assisting in Brand development and reaching potential “buyers” directly but also in establishing our clients as Thought Leaders in adopting new ways to do business.

I suggest to all of our potential clients that they down load the book…. check out some of the links (all avail from our website) and we get together asap for a coffee and explore the possibilities.  Demand for our services has grown dramatically in the past month or two as people in Adelaide begin to realise they need to at least find out what all the fuss about Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Blogging etc  is all about ….. in a business sense.

And I recommend that everyone I meet goes to YouTube and searches Social Media Fad and then watches the Video titled is Still think Social Media is a Fad?