Blogtober - 5 Aussie Marketing blogs that are oh so fresh and so clean

If you were going to set up a blog, I would suggest October. I celebrated my second birthday the other day, Zac celebrated his first and a number of new blogs have just started on the Australian Marketing scene.

I just thought I would give some props to a few exciting Australian Marketing Blogs that have started up in this great month.

1. Stellar Blog- I just found this blog the other day, and they started with a cracking post on 'How to get coverage in the Social Pages'. I am really excited when I see blogs like this start up because it really shows that blogging is no longer just about digital marketing but being a news source for other forms of marketing as well.

2. Nick Christie Crocker (Way Cool Jnr) – Nick is carving out a great niche of social media music marketing. He has got some great post up already about 10 things we can learn from Coldplay email marketing. I also stole the name Blogtober from him. ;)

3. Adam Ferrier (Consumer Psychologist)- Adam is the reason that I started at Naked, and racks up more column inches in trade magazine then any other Marketer, for good reason too he has a lot on his mind and a lot of value to give.

4. Kate Richardson (Stickywood)- Kate was one of the many smart brains behind Sprite Truth Hunters, she is creating a voice for Branded Entertainment in Australia and her agency Stickywood. She actually had her first post in September but who is counting!

5. Daniel Oyston (The Oyster Project) - Killed it with a great post on new diet fads in Japan effecting the banana economy. He joins Stephen Collins in bringing fresh thinking from our nations capital, Canberra.

Anyone else start a blog in October?

Motivations for commenting

90% of the people who comment on this blog have a blog.

Why is this so?

a) they understand the pain of posting
b) they understand the reciprocal relationship building nature of posting
c) ????

Josh Lyman consults Malcolm Turnbull on Internet Censorship/Twitter: Guest Post

The following is conversation that was captured between Malcolm Turnbull and The West Wing star Josh Astley

"Mr Turnbull I think we have gained some real traction with the Australian Online Community with our entry into Twitter, All the good work that was done by Kevin07 has seemed to be undone with our latest efforts.

Although our numbers (followers) may look like a small share of people, the peoplel we are talking with are highly influential, they publish alot of content online and reach a much larger audience.

In terms of our response to Conroy’s clean feed system, they are hungry for a response (shows Turnbull Summize stream, image below)… I think it would be in our best interest if we broke the story on Twitter. We need to reward this community with the scoop. Obama did this with VP announcemet, now lets drive the nail into the online Rudd coffin and show our commitment to this space.

What do you think sir? "

At the moment I am working my way through season 1-7 of The West Wing, if you have not watched it, do it. Any comments from CJ, Jed Bartlet, Sam Seborn, Toby, Leo or other members of the show will be permitted!

Leaked video on the Australian Internet Filter

Gavin Heaton has a way with words, so for the full story about the Australian Internet Filter fiasco read his post.

Sign the petition!

And remember don't let Australia get Rudd Roll'd

Melbourne Cup Beersphere and stuff

Melbourne Cup, it has been around for nearly as long as the Melbourne Beersphere okay maybe the Cup. Anyway it is time to catch up, spin a few yarns and put the social back in social media.

Location Lucky Coq 179 Chapel St, Windsor
Time 6:30PM Lets have $4 pizza and a few drinks
Date: Monday 3rd November
The following bloggers have been invited but anyone is welcome

Pigs Don’t Fly, I Hate Ads , Simon Says , The Gruen Transfer , ProBlogger, Brand DNA , The Wayfarer , PR Disasters , Pixel Paddock, In my atmosphere, Creative is not a department, The Zeitgeists, Current Issues in Marketing Strategy , FRANKthoughts, Wonderwebby , Marketing Today, Gen Y Marketing Podcast, Marketing Geek , Marketing Easy, Insight and Ideas, A blog about digital media, The Body Shop Activist


For all the Sydneynites, this Wednesday (29/10 at 6:30PM) night there is a Sydney catch up happening at the Beresford Pub, Surry Hills that I will be attending it even has some interstate guests in Ross Hill and Steve Hopkins (the brains behind World Vision Blog Action Day) coming to visit so should be a good one.

Also I am helping to organize the International Beersphere (Sydney Chapter) on November 13th it happening on the same night in NYC, London, Rio De, Bulgaria, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbounre and many more locations! I will keep you guys posted. David Gillespie will be organizing Melbourne Leg, Brisbane will be organized by Nick Christie Crocker and Digital Ninja Faris Yakob is the mastermind behind the event!

5 Under The Radar Twitterers

Does anyone else feel like their Twitter feed is replacing their RSS feed?

Anyway I just thought I would mention 5 people that I am really enjoying following on Twitter. These people do not have a blog so alot of the time they go under the radar but they are well worth following.

1. @scottdrummond ex-online editor for Marketing Magazine
2. @markpollard Digital Strategist at Leo Burnett, consistently brings up good reports
3. @ianlyons gives great live commentary on Sydney conferences
4. @iiNet - while @bigpondteam take the sunshine these Aussie underdogs are injecting a bit of humour in to their posts.
5. @BethEtling one of the many smart brains behind Ad:Tech 2009

Gizmodo and Sony doing Australian ARGs!

What is an ARG?
Definition of an Alternate Reality Game

How is it different to an Easter Egg?
Easter Egg is just a hidden part of a website, ARG makes people crack codes together, usually on and offline.



Australian ARGs happening at the moment

Gizmodo Forum Quantum Central and the Gizmodo posts

The Presets Talk like That

Well done to both Agency and Clients who did these, it takes balls!

And Kate's post on the confusion with ARGs (Nokia example)

2 years of Adspace Pioneers

-the peak in June was when I launched the first Top 50 Marketing Blogs
-the peak in August was when the Top 12 Historical Moments in Social Media Marketing got picked up and published in the WOMMA.org

So the past year has seen a massive change in my blog. I have definitely narrowed the focus of the blog onto the topic of Social Media Marketing and I think the blog is better off for it. Anyway to some of the stats;

-177 posts
-596 comments which is massive improvement on a measly 30 in my first year!
-22,210 visits

And I would just like to thank the Zac (Happy Birthday for the other day), Josh, Matt, Gavin, Rick, Aktifmag (keep stirring the pot), Ben, Stan Lee (thanks Dad), Wags, Jye and everyone else who has kept coming back and reading or commenting on this blog throughout the year!

I am really big in IRAN!

There is a job for Copywriters in Social Media Land

My good ol’ model of Audience Equity just got edited, I suggested that you could take the audience from one channel and move it to another media channel. One important fact that I forgot to add is that the content still needs to be engaging on the new platform.

Case in point
The new HBO drama Hooking Up


They got all the big Youtube Stars Kevjumba, sxePhil, Mr.Safety, Nalts, lonelygirl15, to star in the show. However they skimped on a good script and found out that half the cast were vloggers who couldn’t act.

Australian Youtubers are not happy
Frezned (7th most Australian subscribed Youtubers)


Check out HughsNews (11th most subscibered) video reponse as well

Rewarding Contribution: Social Media Lessons learnt from Forums

We can learn a lot about branded communities from community boards and forums.

Rewarding contribution

I think forums do this really well with different titles for levels of particpation

Here is a look at the different titles for;

Aussie Bloggers



All for Woman

Vogue Fashion Forum

iMalcolm should be totally down with Social Media Broadcast

Malcolm Turnbull is on Twitter, at first it was just one way communication and you know what, I was totally cool with that!

With Malcs on Twitter I was just keen to have the inside word, I was thinking about how cool it would be if he released a good bit of info, like when Barack Obama named Joe Biden as VP over SMS.

Broadcast has a place in social media.

When people are just searching for information it is totally cool for you to be broadcast.

I was thinking about this the other day with Nick (@waycooljnr), Why do most people go to Myspace Music? To find more information and songs about a new artists they just heard. Majority of people don’t give 2 cents about having a conversation with the band.

For a different interpretation of Social Media Broadcast, Zac Martin has just written the post of his life on the topic.

I actually got the name iMalcolm from a post that Gavin Heaton wrote on Malcolm Turnbull and the problems associated with digital identity, it is a great read!

The Sydney Social Media Kitchen = Soup Kitchen + Social Media Types whose interested?

Soup Kitchen
When I was on holiday recently in Brisbane, I volunteered at a Soup Kitchen it was a really great experience. Since being in Sydney I have volunteered at Sydney Vinnies Soup Kitchen but after my first night they told me I had to be in a team and all the teams were full!

(PLUS)

Social Media Crew
Moving to Sydney was a scary proposition but since being here it has been much easier through meeting a number of the Social Media heads at events (MOMO Sydney and Friday Morning Social Media Breakfasts). These are great events to socialize and meet other people with a similar passion for Social Media. (how corny does that sound, but stick with me!)

(EQUALS)

Sydney Soup Kitchen
Wouldn’t it be a great if we could harness the participation that we get at some of the meet ups and give that value of a group of people meeting to a good cause at the same time. So I am just throwing an idea out there, who would be interested in once a month volunteering for a soup kitchen with other social media types?

Second question does anyone know of a Soup Kitchen that is looking for volunteers?


NAB EPIC FAIL PART 2
Seeing as it is Blog Action Day and I don’t know if my above post actually qualifies as talking about ‘Poverty’, I have decided to get guest blogger Fake Frank from NAB (you can follow him on Twitter) to say a few words.

If you haven’t heard yet about the EPIC FAIL from NAB then you need to read this. Read the comments section that is where Frank gets introduced.

I am interested in creating an Nab SPAMMING Part 2, anyone got ideas for where we should take this one?

Note to self: Blog Post on Poverty tomorrow!!!

Blog Action Day is tomorrow, the day is organized to raise awareness about poverty. World Vision is pretty much awesomeness and have created a pile of information and resources on the topic at their site Learnaboutpoverty so there is no excuse for you not to post something about the topic tomorrow.

There have been a number of really exciting social media projects coming from the Not For Profit sector in Australia at the moment. Blue Day 2008, Amnesty International Chinese Internet Censorship, World Vision Stir, I presented to Earth Hour crew last week and they are keen to do something next year and I am personally working on the Seek Volunteers Unplugged (more details to come).

I think that the blogging and twitter community is more receptive to Not For Profit causes and I don’t know how successful the business sector will be at replicating the success with social media projects. Thoughts?

Congrats to Steve and Ross for helping to create a really good resource and getting the word out to the community.

Facebook could be the answer to Binge Drinking

Posting of photos on Facebook has seen to be having a detrimental effect on Binge Drinking in Australia according to a Parliamentary Forum via Melbourne Weekly. Being part of this demographic I would have to say that this is quite true. I know of one particular Facebook Group Skanked Weekly, which was a group where members (mostly Universiy Students in Melbourne) could add photos of their embarrassing drug and alcohol binging friends.

I think for girls these photos are a real deterrent against binge drinking but for most guys these photos are a badge of honour of how ‘hard’ they go?

Top 100 Australian Marketing Pioneer Blogs

Top 100 Australian Marketing Pioneers Blogs		Pioneer Ranking	Google Page Rank	Tech Authority Score	Tech Reactions 10	Alexa Rating Score	Total
1	Bannerblog (Digital Advertising)	8	6	6	6	9	35
2	Servant of Chaos(Social Media)	9	5	6	6	7	33
3	Young PR(PR)	8	6	6	5	8	33
4	Laurel Papworth(Social Media )	8	5	6	5	7	31
5	Get Shouty (Digital Advertising)	8	5	6	5	5	29
6	Copywrite(Copywriting/Digital Marketing)	7	4	6	3	8	28
7	London Calling(Mobile Marketing)	8	4	6	3	7	28
8	Corporate Engagement(Social Media/Public Relations)	7	5	5	4	6	27
9	Better Communication Results(Communications)	7	3	6	5	6	27
10	Ettf(Advertising/Campaigns )	6	5	5	4	7	27
11	Online Marketing Banter (Digital Marketing)	8	4	4	3	8	27
12	Gold Coast Web Designers(Digital Marketing)	6	4	5	4	8	27
13	Brand DNA(Advertising/Campaigns )	6	5	6	5	4	26
14	Personalize Media (Social Media/Virtual Worlds )	8	5	5	3	5	26
15	Media Hunter(Media/Social Media)	8	4	6	4	4	26
16	The Marketer (Social Media)	8	4	6	4	4	26
17	Marketing Magazine(Marketing )	8	5	3	3	7	26
18	Adspace-Pioneers(Social Media )	7	3	5	3	6	24
19	Business of Marketing and Branding(Marketing Strategy)	6	4	6	4	4	24
20	Australian SEO blog(SEO)	4	4	6	4	6	24
21	Angus Whines(Advertising/Campaigns )	7	5	3	4	4	23
22	PR Disasters(PR)	7	5	4	3	4	23
23	Campaign Brief(Advertising/Campaigns )	6	4	3	3	7	23
24	Preneur Marketing(Entrepreneur/Marketing)	7	3	2	3	7	22
25	Sitemost(SEO)	5	3	4	3	7	22
26	Word of Mouth Marketing for Small Business(WOM)	5	2	5	3	7	22
27	Marketing Easy (Digital Marketing)	6	4	4	2	5	21
28	Three Billion (Advertising/GEN Y)	6	4	4	2	4	20
29	In My Atomosphere(Advertising/Campaigns )	6	4	4	3	3	20
30	Amnesia Blog(Digital Advertising)	6	5	5	3	1	20
31	Publicis Digital (Digital Advertising)	7	4	1	3	4	19
32	Innovation Feeder(Digital Advertising)	6	5	3	2	3	19
33	Pigs Don’t Fly (Social Media)	8	4	3	1	3	19
34	EcioLab(Digital Marketing)	7	4	2	1	4	18
35	Mark Neely's Blog (Marketing Strategy)	7	4	2	1	4	18
36	Sticky Ads(Advertising )	6	3	2	3	4	18
37	The Flasher (Communications)	8	4	2	1	3	18
38	The Digestif(Digital Marketing)	7	4	2	2	3	18
39	Tim Longhurst (Futurist Marketing/Social Media)	7	5	1	0	4	17
40	Creative Is Not A Department(Digital Marketing)	8	5	1	0	3	17
41	Peter Sheanan (Entrepreneur/Marketing)	6	4	2	1	4	17
42	FRANKthoughts (Communications)	8	4	1	0	4	17
43	Taming the beast(Digital Marketing)	6	4	2	2	3	17
44	Filtered Media (Digital Marketing)(Digital Marketing)	4	4	3	1	4	16
45	Josh Anstey (Digital Marketing)	6	4	2	1	3	16
46	Inspiration Room Daily(Advertising/Campaigns )	7	0	1	1	7	16
47	Publicity Queen(PR)	8	4	2	0	2	16
48	online marketing sydney(Digital Marketing)	5	4	2	0	5	16
49	Lexy Klain (PR)	7	3	2	0	4	16
50	Diffusion (Marketing Strategy/Branding)	7	4	2	1	2	16
51	Australian Small Business(Small Business/Entrepreneur/Marketing)	6	3	2	0	5	16
52	Uneven Distribution(Advertising )	7	4	1	0	4	16
53	Zakazukhazoo(Digital Marketing)	8	5	1	0	2	16
54	A perspective(Social Media/Digital Marketign)	8	3	1	0	4	16
55	A Blog about Digital Media (Marketing News)	7	2	2	1	4	16
56	Frontiering Talking(Social Media )	8	3	1	1	3	16
57	Hothouse (Digital Marketing)	4	4	2	1	4	15
58	Fresh Chat (PR/Digital PR)	6	3	3	1	2	15
59	Send Up a larger room(Advertising)	7	4	2	0	2	15
60	doingwords.com(Small Business/Entrepreneur/Marketing)	7	3	2	0	3	15
61	David Wesson Digital Entertainment (Social Media)	8	2	2	0	3	15
62	Ryan's view (PR)	6	4	2	1	2	15
63	Free Beer(Marketing News)	5	3	2	1	4	15
64	Idea Garden(Marketing Strategy)	8	2	1	0	4	15
65	Pixel Paddock (Digital Marketing)	7	2	2	0	3	14
66	The Jason Recliner(Advertising)	5	4	2	1	2	14
67	The Wayfarer(Advertising)	8	3	2	0	1	14
68	Semfire Search Enging Marketing Blog(SEM/SEO)	5	3	1	1	4	14
69	Marketing Results (Digital Marketing)	6	4	1	0	3	14
70	Will Scully Power(Data Analytics, Marketing Research)	7	5	0	0	2	14
71	I hate ads (Marketing )	7	3	1	0	2	13
72	BMF Sticky(Advertising)	6	2	1	0	4	13
73	PR Warrior(PR)	8	0	1	1	3	13
74	Marketing is a dirty word(Digital Marketing)	7	4	0	0	2	13
75	Latin Ocean(Digital Marketing/Recruitment)	5	3	2	0	2	12
76	Mobilista (Mobile Marketing)	5	4	0	0	3	12
77	Adnotes(Advertising)	6	3	2	0	1	12
78	B&T(Advertising News)	4	4	2	1	1	12
79	The White Agency ffffff(Digital Advertising)	6	5	0	0	1	12
80	Dominique Hind Collective(Digital Marketing)	8	0	0	0	4	12
81	Arrow Internet SEO (SEO)	5	2	2	0	2	11
82	Slice Media(Data Analytics, Marketing Research)	7	1	0	0	3	11
83	Beyond Digital Media (Digital Marketing)	7	0	1	0	3	11
84	Ben Hamin(Social Media)	8	0	0	0	3	11
85	The Gloo (Digital Advertising)	4	4	0	0	2	10
86	Simons Says (Digital Marketing)	7	0	0	1	2	10
87	CIIMS(Marketing )	8	0	0	0	2	10
88	The Zeitgeists(Marketing Strategy)	7	0	0	0	3	10
89	To the WordUp(Marketing News)	6	0	0	0	4	10
90	Simon Reynolds(SEM/SEO)	7	0	0	0	2	9
91	Via Media - The Way(Marketing News)	7	2	0	0	0	9
92	Ponderings of The Orange Cow(Communications)	4	3	0	0	2	9
93	Work.netx(Digital Advertising)	5	0	0	0	4	9
94	Tick Yes(Digital Marketing)	4	2	0	0	2	8
95	Write across media (Marketing News)	6	0	0	0	2	8
96	Zebra Bites(Marketing Research)	7	0	0	0	1	8
97	Quintessentially Digital (Digital Marketing)	6	0	0	0	2	8
98	How good you want to be (Marketing News)	7	0	0	0	1	8
99	The Odd one out(SEM/SEO)	6	0	0	0	2	8
100	Tony from the Population(Social Media)	8	0	0	0	0	8
101	Kate at Stickywood(Branded Entertainment)	8	0	0	0	0	8
102	Death by Digital (Digital Marketing)	6	0	0	0	1	7
103	Classy Marketing (Marketing Strategy)	6	0	0	0	1	7
104	Influencing the Influencers(PR)	7	0	0	0	0	7
105	Behind Digital PR(PR)	7	0	0	0	0	7
106	Layman's Term(Marketing Strategy)	6	0	0	0	0	6
107	Gruen Transfer(Marketing News)	6	0	0	0	0	6
108	RMD's Marcom(Advertising)	6	0	0	0	0	6
109	Chalkboard Websites(Communications)	6	0	0	0	0	6

The following are other Marketing blogs that I have since found on that will be on the next revision of the list
Kruppy Rants (Marketing Strategy)
Check Later (Digital Advertising)
Portz Interactive (Digtial Marketing)
Virtual Ryf (Digital Marketing)
Shifted Pixels(Social Media)
Ineedhits (SEO)

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The 2nd Revision of the Top 50 Australian Marketing Blogs was featured in B&T (p34) magazine.

Changes:
This month I have given categories for each of the blogs, this I hope will give people a better idea of the blogs they should be reading.

The methodology has excluded the Bloglines (RSS subscription) because I believed it was not an inaccurate measure.

I also note that there are a number of people who have changed domains and lost their ranking (Creative is not a Department and Inspiration Room) I am looking at a way to fairly compensate these people.

If there is any bugs with your links, change of categories or ideas of how to make the list better please email me at julian@thepopulation.com.au. Thankyou to Peter Wagstaff for helping create this list, he also has a great podcast that is well worth listening too, Marketing Today.

Is Marketing the primary focus of Blogging Blogs?

So the Top 50 Marketing Blogs was launched in B&T (p34) this week. One of the contentious points was the exclusion of Problogger..

The reason that I excluded Problogger and other professional blogging blogs (Skelliewag, Standout Blogger, JustMakeMoneyOnline) is due to the definition of ‘Marketing Blogs’.

My definition of Marketing Blogs is;

A blog that’s primary focus is on ‘Marketing’.

The reason that I did not include Problogger or the other professional blogging blogs on the list is that I thought that the primary focus of Professional Blogging was Blogging, and Blogging is a much broader topic than just Marketing although I do understand that they do post information about Marketing at times.

However, I do not think it is fair that I decide what is and is not a Marketing blog. Therefore I have decided to leave it up to the readers to decide whether the professional blogging blogs should be included as Marketing Blogs.

Should professional blogging blogs be classified as Marketing Blogs? Cast your vote on the left hand side!

I will give the poll 24 hours before I publish the full list (110+ blogs) of the Top 50 Australian Marketing blogs. If the professional blogging blogs are included in the Top 50 please give me a little more time because there will be changes to the Top 50 that will need to be made.

5 examples of Behavioural Change and Marketing Opportunities realised from Social Media Platforms

‘Social Media Marketers need to start talking to Marketers about the behavioural changes that occur from Social Media Platforms rather than the nuts and bolts of the technology.’ Tony Thomas

Last night, I was a guest lecturer at the ADMA Certificate in Digital Marketing, I was asked to talk about the Social Media platforms, so instead of talking about the specifics of every platform I talked about the Behavioural changes and Marketing Opportunities that those platforms have.

Social Media Platforms and the behavioural changes

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: social media)

Here are the definition for the Behaviour and Marketing Opportunity.

Behaviour- Is why do people use the technology? How has it impacted that the way they interact with friends and brands. I based this loosely off Blumer and Katz Uses and Gratification of Media Theory via my Thesis

Marketing Opportunity – Where does the opportunity lie for brands to interact with people.

And the examples

1.Twitter
Broadcast->Customer Service
BigPondTeam

2.Twitter
Information Source -> Sales
AmazonMP3 Sales

3.Blogs
Information -> Brand Positioning
BodyShop Blog

4.Youtube
Entertainment/Diversion -> Branded Entertainment
Blendtec

5.Facebook
Communication/Self Image -> Communication/Conspicuous Consumption
BarackObama

I would love your feedback on this or any other examples you have.

The Social Currency Story

David Gillespie wrote an interesting post on Marketers and Social Currency. He then made a video on the Social Currency and asked for my opinion on the subject. I thought I would give my two cents, in terms of Bloggers and social currency. I have kept the trail going and called out Zac Martin who I believe has exchanged a bit of Blogging Social Currency.

Update 8/10/08: Zac's Response


David's video on Social Currency

Blogger/friend Michael Josem saves $10M: Blogs are the new CV

Caulfield Cup 2007- Josem on the left, me throwing up ma' gang signs

Yah! My mate Michael Josem just got a great article in SMH about his Poker Ring Crackdown Blog

Michael Josem, is an old uni buddy of mine. While my love of poker was more of a fad, Josem loved it and took an interest in online poker. When he discovered that the site Absolute Poker was cheating (they had allegedly ripped off $10 million from players). He decided to write a blog revealing and explaining the cheats. At the peak his blog was receiving over 50,000 hits a day. One of these readers was the boss at PokerStars who subsequently employed him as a member of their game security team.

As Gavin Heaton says Blogs are the new CV. Congrats Josem!

Bigpond on Twitter is a legal issue

Alot of people have been talking about Bigpond on Twitter. Mostly people have been sticking the boot in. I think this was necessary, so that Bigpond knew that the current way they were using Twitter was incorrect.

However I think this problem cannot be fixed by a Marketer, it needs someone with a grasp on the laws behind online publishing. I think we should be using our social networks to find someone from the legal field who can help give clarification to Bigpond on the legality around the Spam Act. As far as I can see this could have major ramifications on Australian businesses who want to answer any problems from customers on social media sites.

As far as I can understand, BigPond monitoring and answering comments on Twitter is currently illegal. However I am not a lawyer so I do not know what this legislation actually means. All I know is that it has major implications on all Australian Marketers wanting to respond to people talking about their brands online.


Update: Zac Martin has had a look at the legislation, check out his post discussing the SPAM Act