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.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice idea Julian... We're doing some cool stuff for TV at the moment. I can't say too much more at this stage but a major Australian TV network is involved. I'll happily jump on board anything else in the meantime.

Anonymous said...

Julian - what can I say. I'm behind you 100%. It all starts with one - everything starts with one. And now we're becoming many.

I'll contact you shortly with my initial ideas from my camp.

Step one is spreading the word - let's get it, and this video, out.

Thanks,
Jye (or Jay, as you like to call me here :P)

Zac Martin said...

Perfect. This needs to be a top down approach with whole strategies needing change, not simply implementing campaigns if we want this to take off.

Although the idea of a Social Media Response Unit falls nicely in between which I quite like.

Anonymous said...

Jules you know I'm usually on board with you, even the stunts, but I'm going to call you out on this one (along with Matt, Jye and Zac who I also dig in a big way).

A move like this plays to a typical us-and-them mentality which I've written about before (http://davidgillespie.wordpress.com/2008/02/05/us-vs-them/), suffice to say I don't believe we're going to get anywhere heading down that path.

Say it with me: open beats closed. Social media and the direction the web is heading in means this isn't a zero-sum game anymore; they who are most transparent and most open succeed.

Let me ask you this: who currently owns social media? YouTube? Facebook? MySpace? News Corp? Or the people who engage in it, who participate and contribute not for money but because it is a part of their daily lives?

Exactly.

That won't change, regardless of whether the McKinseys and Bains of the world take an interest or not. Those companies are going to need to value creativity over the ability to read a P&L sheet first, and I promise you that is further away than you think.

Even when they do reach that point (and they will), talent will win hands down every time. As long as we're all on the side of intelligent, creative work, then the only people who lose will be the ones who believe there's something to win.

(By the by, get over to ted.com and watch Larry Lessig's talk - he created Creative Commons and I'm sure you'll find his talk thought-provoking).

Gavin Heaton said...

I agree with David. Open beats closed. It is just that open is hard to do!

If you want to donate your time, why give it to a blue chip (esp when they can afford to pay)? Why not expend your best thinking and efforts with a NFP?

Check out the Planning for Good (Sydney chapter) on Facebook and join up.

Julian Cole said...

Hey Gav,

Going to go check the Facebook group now, you bring up a good point about it being both for profit and non for profit.

Jax said...

Planning for Good?
Is that still happening?
Or did I fall off the comms radar?
Would be happy to help with it.

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