There are some very high calibre writers, who chose one of the following themes as their contribution. At the Coalface, Conversational Branding, Influence, Getting to work, Corporate Conversations, Measurement, In the boardroom, Pitching social media, Innovation and Execution, Identities, friends and trusted strangers. Stay tuned, I’ll let you know when the book will be available.
The authors who have contributed to this year’s edition are:
Accountability has been a big by-product of social media going mainstream. Companies are now being held accountable for bad behaviour, shonky customer service and dubious ethics by the blogosphere, and by the visibility and search-ability of social conversations across social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed. The old, impenetrable castle walls of faceless, anonymous corporate brands are in the process of being dismantled by the dispersed people power of social networks. The PR spin doctors can no longer control the message.
The issue of anonymity breeding negativity on the internet are well known. What’s interesting to me in this case is the language around the issue:
opening the floodgates for anyone to sue who’s had nasty comments posted about them online
versus
the decision [to reveal the bloggers' identity] will send a message the internet is not a free for all.
So which view is right?
we want our brands and corporates to be transparent and be accountable, and we take them to task in our social channels if they don’t do the right thing
anonymity for anyone, individuals or corporates is not generally conducive to good behaviour, although there are exceptions when it comes to confessionals
the standards of complete honesty, transparency and accountability can be expected on social spaces from both companies and individuals
blogs as a message channel have increased their overall authority, and they are just as/sometimes more relevant in search as regular news channels, so they should be held to the same standards of accountability.
there’s constructive criticism and then there’s unnecessary vitriol. The blog posts in the Cohen case reflect a personal nastiness. Cohen herself was concerned that it may be someone she knew. Yes people can say whatever they want, but conversely they need to be able to stand behind what they say and take responsibility of what they put out there.
litigation should be a last resort. But precedents are useful for drawing a line in the sand. So if bloggers know they can’t hide behind anonymity will they think twice before posting unnecessarily awful things?
What do you think? Can bloggers get away with saying whatever they want? Or should they be held accountable for what they put out there and not hide behind a veil of anonymity?
Tumblr, the NY based, mini blogging or micro blogging service, seems to be reaching critical mass, now hosting more than a million blogs. It’s been described as “the easiest way to share yourself” It’s the essence of the social web - Tumblr has had some high profile blogs get book deals based on popularity along, such as LATFH, and This is Why Your Fat. Smart copy and ideas get a lot of traction, like Wordboner, and Steal Our Ideas. Tumblr has created an entire sub-culture of categorized, sharable content, F***Yeah Tumblrs such as F***YeahBabyAnimals.
If you’re not familiar with it, its like a cross between Twitter and a more traditional blog such as Wordpress or Blogger. I fell in love with Tumblr a few months ago, because its so easy to use and intuitive. It became a way to keep the photos, conversations and links recorded in a timeline. I realised when I started using it that I’m a compulsive sharer, and it became a fun extension of the kinds of things I like in my personal life, a more aesthetic focus than my Wordpress blog where I write about work related subjects
What’s so great about Tumblr then?
Simplified user interface based on content type means that you can choose the type of content click on an icon, upload and its done
Sharability is the key to Tumblr - the “reblog” button is like a re-tweet or share on Facebook.
Twitter integration. You can sign into your Twitter account and reblog tweets as conversations, as a bonus it keeps all your original Twitter status links. You can have all your Tumblr posts go directly to Twitter too.
You can choose to have people comment on your posts, or they can express how they like what you’ve posted by the “like” button or by reblogging.
Disqus comments. Disqus comment system assigns comments to users rather than leaving them isolated on blogs. Its the most social of all the commenting systems, with Twitter logins and Twitter tracking built in. Disqus is built into Tumblr so if you have comments enabled, it just works.
Your “Tumblarity”, a social popularity scale made up by Tumblr, is calculated by a mixture of what you post, how much others have liked it, shared it and how many people follow your Tumblr blog. Sure its a popularity contest - isn’t everything on the social web?
Your readers can submit content. If you enable the “Enable Audience Submissions” in Advanced features, your readers can help you create content and you have a truly collaborative social content tool at your disposal
See popular, recently popular and upcoming content as people are interacting with it and increasing its popularity.
Follow other Tumblr’s based on common interests, your friends or subject matter, all at the click of a button
Customizable themes, and a simple to use API make Tumblr popular with developers. There is a wide variety of themes, and they’re easy to change.
Minimalism and simplicity are Tumblr mantras. Less laden with links and clutter than the regular wordy blog.
Add your other blogs via RSS feed. Post now or schedule them. Many regular blogs such as PostSecret now also have Tumblr extensions.
Choose to promote you Tumblr blog via Tumblr or not. The choice is yours. Google & Technorati classify Tumblr as a blog, so you can reap the benefits
Create one Tumblr or create one for each of your subject or interest areas. One Tumblr user I know creates new ones like “folders” on the web for the different types of content he likes to share.
Tumblr matches content you share with others, and makes suggestions of other people to follow.
With a Directory based on tags, and geographical areas, you can even explore Tumblrs via the country they come from. More than a million blogs live on Tumblr, and Japan is the second most popular country, with Australia number four.
Its got an iPhone app, with all the same features so you can update on the go. Again, seamless, device independent sharing wins. I tend to use mine instead of the Twitpic and YFrog Twitter image posting services because of the higher resolution of the images posted.
Tagging and categorizing. You can tag your posts and depending on your theme they become clickable links. You can categorize your entire Tumblr blog so others can find and follow you.
Update: a couple more key features
Custom URLs. Have a Tumblr URL e.g. something.tumblr.com or just move an existing domain name to your Tumblr. Couldn’t be easier.
Its a long list of reasons to love Tumblr, so if you like sharing content, give it a try. My Tumblr is Tiphereth - follow it if you feel the urge. If you’re already using it, what do you like about Tumblr? Share your Tumblr experiences.
Leslie already had a cult Twitter following, so he was likely to be OK. Given that the Witchery Man launch had already copped it on from the social media set, as well as digital marketing/regular advertising commentary, we were all steeling ourselves for some serious stoushing.
We never expected what happened. Even though there was an initial cynicism that they were going to be sold a spiel, on the whole, people went with an open mind. They were polite. They listened carefully to what Adam had to say. The audience posed some challenging questions. Adam admitted they made mistakes and things they would never do again. And then, by the end of the question and answer forum, there was a definite shift - the vast majority had come around. The audience had put themselves in Naked’s shoes and walked in them for the 45 minutes or so. They found that journey to be challenging, and a level of empathy was genuinely gained.
So what happened in the few days between Beach Meet and Social Media Club Sydney’s Authenticity and Transparency in Social Media? Happy drugs being prescribed in bulk?
Really the only difference was the physicality of being in the room and face to face with the person who was taking responsiblity for the campaign that had been sniped and bitched about online. So Mark Pollard’s theory of anonymity being the antithesis to community may have some validity in the sense that being able to sit behind a computer/smartphone, and speak via a Twitter handle or blog is removed and anonymous enough that people feel that they can be freer in their levels of disparagement.
The Twitter stream was projected at the event, and Tim Burrowes picked questions/issues to then present to both Adam and Leslie on the night. By having Twitter up and displaying the hashtag #SMCSYD there was no hidden corners, the transparency had translated all the way through to Twitter interactions of the night. As Twitter was in full view, so even the commentary, though critical at times, was fairly polite.
We’re hoping that subsequent events will be as good as the initial one. The key takeaways for me were:
If the speakers take the audience on a journey or engage them in a story, the audience will go along for the ride.
If there is a level of honesty demonstrated by the speaker, especially by admitting mistakes (if made), then there will be a higher level of acceptance and engagement, no matter what else went on.
If the speaker talks to the audience from a real place rather than down to the audience, there is a willingness to go to that real place too
The “no pitch/no sell” rule works really well because you can leave the sales pitch at home, there is no pressure to impress.
Getting the Social Media feral sandpit children (although some of the Beach Meet bitchers and moaners didn’t deign to come to SMCSYD) out from behind the computers/smart phones into real life settings and the faux armour protection suddenly doesn’t have the same effect when you’re in the same room as the people you were sniping at. Read: bullies are only bullies when they feel untouchable, and real life is far more vulnerable
I hope the attendees got something out of the initial SMCSYD evening, please feel free to share your experience here.
p.s. If you would like to subscribe to the videos of all the events or view the second part of the evening, there is a SMCSYD channel on Vimeo
Blog posts of lists are really popular. Lists of top blogs are even more popular. So I’m jumping on the bandwagon and compiling the definitive list of the definitive lists. You can call it Digital Tip’s 7 top Australian Blog lists
[updated 4th May, with Mumbrella's extraction of the Australian Blogs of AdAge]
So how do you get onto one of the lists? No idea, but try this:
Search engine optimisation has a lot to do with the rankings. That means those on Blogger & Wordpress platforms will always have an advantage if you’re setting up a new blog and have no “link love” from incoming links. Those who have links from others have a big advantage, so if you have friends that blog, you can ask them nicely, or beg for them to put a link to your site. Being around for years helps your Google ranking as does a URL that relates to your key words. Just to prove how quickly SEO can work, this week Razorfish started a search competition to see who could get the highest Google ranking for “Razorfunfish”. One site from Australia is currently number 3, because they’ve done lots of the SEO correctly in terms of integrating a Twitter search stream, having search optimised keywords in every paragraph of text and then having external links coming from Flicker etc. They only got beaten by the sites with “Razorfunfish” in the root URL.
Be niche. It helps to be the only one blogging about a subject, and given that there are literally millions of blogs the more you can be the subject expert the better. Or alternatively, blog about how to blog, like Problogger, who is rated really highly because it’s a “how to manual”. Ditto Sydney Writers Centre’s blog another one from the lists.
Make up your own top list. When I hired a PR firm (in another life) they pointed out that you could get great PR for a company by creating or sponsoring an award. So if you’re a design company, sponsor a design award, if your an ad agency, sponsor an advertising award show, you get the idea. The web 2.0 equivalent is to create a useful list that people can refer to without having to trawl Google. Julian Cole almost more well known for his Ad Pioneers list than he is for his digital strategy, and it no doubt drives buckets of traffic to his site. And for the added bonus of being included on the list you are hosting, see Top 50 Australian Blogs on Writing
My last thought on this is that just because you have a lot of links, and you’re on a “Top” list, does not necessarily mean that your blog is well designed and easy to read, or that the content is great or engaging. Sure you might hit all the key words for your topic, but are you writing stuff that inspires people or just getting Google bot interest? If you’re going to spend the time and energy doing it, blog for love not lists. Or do as Time Magazine suggests and ask yourself: does the world need another blog?
I am very excited to be part of a new book, Age of Conversation 3: It’s time to get busy!. It’s going to be a physical book, available directly from Amazon and other online book stores. The new cover, was designed by Chris Wilson. And the website, was designed and built by my friend, Craig Wilson and the hard working team at Sticky Advertising.
