Julian Cole - Communications Planning and Digital Strategy -

Corporate Blogging is not Risky Business - Lets share the evidence

Corporate Blogging is dead? I think not.

You only have to look to the market leader of social media the USA to see the way forward for social media.

This is a great fact found on the blog Ephiphany Solutions
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Centre for Marketing Research recently conducted a study showing that a greater proportion of the top 500 fastest growing private firms in the US are now turning to blogging for marketing purposes compared with last year.

It said that 39 per cent of these firms now have a blog, compared with 19 per cent in 2007.

I think there is a perception amongst marketers that there is a huge risk of the unknown and that social media is just a 'fad'. Evidence like this helps proves our case otherwise. It helps our cause in convincing clients to allocate time and money to social media. If you have any other gems please share them! :)

4. Family Trip; 10 Things I want to do in Marketing before I die

I feel indebt to my parents for all the opportunties that they have given me.I have had a very fortunate upbringing, I was lucky enough to go on a number of family holidays when I was growing up, these were great experiences because and they taught me a number of life lessons.

I guess the family holiday are symbolic of the reward for this hard work and making the most of your opportunties. Therefore one way that I always imagined that I would repay them was by being able to pay for a family holiday for all of us one day. I hope when I have made it in Marketing I will be able to do this and they will know that it was all worth it.

In this photo is my talented father Alan Cole, one of Australia’s finest Directors of Photography, my gifted sister Bryony Cole, who is amazing at everything she sets her heart too, and my clever mother Susie Cole, who is still regarded as one of the finest TVC Producers in Melbourne. But most of all they are my best friends and the best god damn role models a person could ask for.

10 things I want to do in Marketing before I die

1. Work for Nike
2. Win a Gold Cannes
3. Speak at a TED conference

Top 5 must use quotes on company blogging

Armano and his famous cowboy hat

A new A-Lister to my iGoogle RSS Reader is David Armano's blog Logic + Emotion

I was inspired by Gavin Heaton's Mining the Gold section to have a look at Armano's Greatest Hits sections and I found 5 really great quoutes on company blogging in a post Why Blogging matters: 6 Degrees of Perspective from 2006,

Here is the Top 5 must use quotes on company blogging.

1. Blogosphere Economics-
The blogosphere has disrupted the economics of publishing, dramatically lowering the costs of content creation (most bloggers are not paid), content production (free blogging platforms) and circulation development (free links by other bloggers).

Eric Kintz, Global Marketing Strategy at Hewlett-Packard
2. Touch Point Discontinuity
The biggest risk for brand in initiating corporate blogs is creating what I’ll call “touch-point discontinuity." At the end of the day: we need present ourselves consistently across all consumer touchpoints.

Pete Blackshaw is Chief Marketing Officer of Nielsen BuzzMetrics
3. Blogs as catalyst of change
Blogging is a great way to put a fresh new face on a corporate structure, but the rest of the organization can't be too far behind. As corporate leaders, we need to develop the right strategies and tactics to ignite and catalyze positive change leveraging blog tools and methods while keeping the rest of the organization in tow

Pete Blackshaw is Chief Marketing Officer of Nielsen BuzzMetrics
4. Blogs are Consumer Affairs
A blog should sit within consumer affairs department, customer service wants to reduce attention to company where marketing and PR want to increase attention.

Pete Blackshaw is Chief Marketing Officer of Nielsen BuzzMetrics

5. Blogging is the ultimate Marketing Challenge
Anyone who runs a successful blog should consider themselves a marketer even if they are not. The reason for this is simple. The blogoshphere is filled literally millions lf blogs—over 55 million and growing. That’s a lot of noise and clutter. It’s not very different from the traditional marketing challenge which entails developing content and experiences that break through clutter and connect with the consumer. And further, most influential bloggers act as “personal brands” meaning that they connect with their readers on a personal if not emotional level and foster “brand” affinity and loyalty. So if you’ve been able to do this a blogger, then you’ve learned something about the meaning of brands and relationships

Daivd Armano, VP at Critical Mass

Do you have any good quotes on blogging to add?

Amazon twittering their SMM - Platform Creation

Amazon has always been one of the pioneers in terms of Social Media Marketing. Amazon was one of the first to create Web2.0 tools, with product review tools.

Recently they have started twittering their Deal of the Day. This is slowly becoming more specialized with AmazonMP3 Deal of the Day as well. They join Woot, as examples of online e-commerce site spruiking their daily specials online. These are two great examples of companies creating their own platforms of communication (Platform Creation) with consumers. Thanks to Marketing Geek for the tip and Get Elastic for the Woot example.

Melbounre Marketing Podcast Smackdown: Marketing Today vs. Gen Y Podcast

I took part in Melbourne’s first Marketing Podcast Smackdown. It was an awesome collaboration between Marketing Today and The Gen Y Podcast. The recording revolved around a debate on whether Viral Marketing was a waste of money, with the heads that we had conversing in that room it was always going to be a great debate.

Listen here
Also check out Nat’s (Gen Y Podcaster) new blog Love me you’re famous

Another great collaboration that I am loving at the moment is Hilltop Hoods (my favourite Australian Hip Hop act) who have just come together with the smart Australian outfit Lowrider to remix the HH classic Roll On Up.

Souljah Boy vs. Ice T (Platform Creation vs. Idea Propagation)

'All hail the new King of Social Media'

I just keep finding great examples from the music industry of the power of social media and to support my Social Media Marketing Framework.

The latest is a bit of hip hop news but it is great example of the difference between Idea Propagation and Platform Creation. There has been a recent beef (argument) between old school gangster Ice T and 16 year old New Media Juggernaut, Souljah Boy. You probably remember Souljah Boy from his song/video/dance ‘Crank That’ which started as a grassroots movement on Youtube and pushed over too traditional media channels and became a dance classic of 2007.

Anyway Ice T came out on little known DJ Cisco Mixtape and dissed Souljah Boy by saying he ‘single handley killed hip hop’ and he can ‘go eat a dick’. Anyway Souljah Boy responded by posting a response video on his Youtube channel. The video has now been viewed by over 1,000,000 people while the mixtape is riding off the success of the beef.

Your always going to be stronger if you have your own audience and do not have to borrow an audience from another media property. Ice T initial comments were probably heard by 5,000 people who bought the mixtape whereas Souljah Boys response was heard by 1,000,000 people through his own media platform (Youtube Channel).

The great thing about Platform Creation is that you get to choose what information gets out to your audience and when, whereas Idea Propagation will suffer from being controlled by when the media channel wants to publish their content.
Read more about Idea Propagation hereRead more about Platform Creation here

A right royal bitch, A Carmello Koala and Social Media

I had heard a lot about my mates new girlfriend and she sounded like a right royal bitch.

I knew I would not like this girl.When I met her for the first time a weird thing happened.

I really liked her. I thought about it later and figured it out.

The first thing she did was offer me a Carmello Koala and said that she had an addiction to chocolate and likes to share it. That was so nice I thought. After that I could only look at her in a positive light.

When I thought about it a little more it reminded me of what companies can do with social media. Companies have the ability to come to the table and offer the first piece of value. Whether it be entertainment value like the Sprite Truth Hunters videos or valuable marketing advice like Sticky Advertising does.

Giving this initial piece of value is important in getting potential customer to view your company in a positive light.

Companies need to offer this first part of value.

What piece of value is your company offering?

Nike flying on Marketing Intelligence

Nike is set to release the Marty McFly Nikes sneaker, which is a great example of companies putting the SMM dimensions of Marketing Intelligence to use.

Nike decided to release the sneaker after the overwhelming support for the petition website McFly2015, according to the site

‘It's a grassroots movement to get Nike to make available to consumers the futuristic-looking sneakers seen in the 1989 movie Back to the Future Part 2.’

I think this will be the first in a number of examples of companies moving on Marketing Intelligence gathered through Social Media. Thanks to Gen Y Podcast for the scoop on the release.

Are you Timberlaking your blog? (Part 3 Blogging like a Rockstar)

King of Guest Blogging: Justin Timberlake

Guest Blogging has been mentioned in a number of places as a form of improving your personal brand, however I think the person who can demonstrate the power of guest blogging the best, is none other than Justin Timberlake.

When it comes to music collaborations, Justin Timberlake is the man. He has collaborated his way from being a cheesey boy band member to becoming a respected RnB artist. Justin did this by collaborating with other artist to reach their audience and gain credibility. He first entered the Rap scene with his collaboration with Nelly on ‘Girlfriend’, then collaborated with a number of other Rap/RnB stars (T.I, 50 Cent, Timbaland, Nelly Furtardo) in doing so reaching a wider RnB market. This was also good for these Rap Artist as they were able to attract a more mainstream audience.

I am currently doing a Justin Timberlake with my collaboration with Marketing Magazine. I currently write a blog for them, this is great for expanding my audience as Marketing Magazine has a great following with a lot of Marketers that are not reading my blog. It also works well for Marketing Magazine as I introduce them to my audience as well. A WIN-WIN situation!

So the question is, Who are you collaborating/Timberlaking with?

Groupies are kind of like your brand fanatics (Part 2: Blogging like a Rockstar)

'We liked Kid Rock before he was a famous drunk'

You can learn alot about Corporate Blogging from hardcore music groupies. They are the ones who have been with you since the start, saw you play at your first concert, have all your cd's and have shrine to you in their bedroom.

Writing a corporate blog will no doubt start with a low level of traffic coming to your blog. This may make you skeptical of the power of blogging and whether you are just wasting your time. However this small audience (groupies in the making) will be the most valuable to your company.

The first few reader to your blog will invariably be your brand fanatics. These are the people who want to go out and source new information about your brand. These are the people who speak about your brand to all their friends and swear by your products. As like my previous example of AC/DC and corporate blogs your first fans with be your dedicated groupies who are passionate about the music.

Embrace these people.

10 Great Social Media Searching Resources - 101 Resources for Social Media Marketers

Sole Searching

Here are 10 great resources to help you find things on the interweb.

31. Viral Video Charts (site)
This is a great resource which shows you what videos people are blogging about. Kind of like Youtube Most Played list before boob screen shots were introduced.

32. Google Alerts (tool)
Find out what new information is being published about your company.

33. Top Marketing Blogs in the World(site)
A ranking of the Top 150 (now 600+) blogs on Advertising and Marketing in the world

34. Technorati (site)
Gives you a great indication of the power of a blogger and their reach.

35. Local Blog Index (site)
In Australia we are blessed with the Australian Blog Index, which indexes a large number of Australian Blogs

36. Facebook search (tool)
Type in the name of your company and see how many people list their company in their career and other groups/fan pages/profiles that are using your name.

37. “ ” (advice)
Google searching with the word in commas will return better results

38. Business News Searching (website)
If it is business news that you are searching for then Plugger is the site to go to.

39. Employment searching (person)
Shai Roitman from Xpand is the man to see for Digital Marketing jobs in Australia.

40. Find out what people are twittering about (website)
Find out what everyone is saying about you on Twitter.

Previous Posts
1-10 University of SMM
11-20 Convincing the Boss/Client of SMM
21-30 Producing Resources

AC/DC the Corporate Blog (Part 1: Blogging like a Rockstar)

One of the major problems with a company creating a blog (Platform Creation) is that they expect a large audience that they are used to with buying traditional media space. The problem is that it doesn’t happen.

I think a great analogy for corporate blogs is a rock band. Take AC/DC for example, they didn’t start playing in front of 20,000 people at Festival Hall. They played at their local pub and over time they grew a large following. It is no different with corporate blogs. You need to give them time to find their audience. Read more about short term failings of blogs with this post at Pigs Dont Fly.

The Body Shop: Platform Creation

The Body Shop Activist Blog is a great example of brand positioning through Channel Creation. Activism has always been a core value of the Body Shop brand. Through producing content (blog posts) on this subject they are reinforicing their brand values of ‘ Support Community Trade, Activate Self Esteem, Defend Human Rights, and Protect Our Planet.

Thanks to Jake for the tip- Who is equally bemused as me, with the site being powered by renewable wind energy, WTF?

Meet Cam Hill - Melbourne’s biggest social media channel.

With the power of social media in particular Facebook, people are now creating mass communication channels that will rival traditional media.

Meet one of Melbourne’s leading social media channels.

Cameron Hill
So who is he?

He is;
a 20 year old
an opinion leader
the Director of the Midnight Fashion Shows
one of the key organizers behind the 2AM lockout protest
everyone’s Facebook friend with 2,963 friends
a social media communication channel

It will be the job of social media marketer to find these influential people and give these people valuable branded content that they will be able to disperse through their channels. This falls under the dimension of Idea Propagation.

Read more about Idea Propagation here

5min video - Social Media Marketing Framework

Here is the video version of my framework for Social Media Marketing. A big thanks to Peter Wagstaff of the Marketing Today Podcast who spent many hours slaving away editing this beast of work for me, it looks great!!!

If you have any positive or negative feedback on the model please let me know as it is still in BETA.