Guest Post by Grace Gordon - Sportsgirl Fashion Blogger Outreach

Grace Gordon is the Marketing and Community Coordinator for Socialista Media Group which looks after the fashion social networking site 2Threads.

DISCLAIMER FROM THE "WRITER"

--this post was lifted directly from some pretty informal email banter between Julian and I, hence my ever-so-eloquent description and discussion of bloggers.

I’m not sure how it started/originated (it must have been a private call out to top Fash. Bloggers) but they have started a blogging game of ‘tag’/’it’ by tagging people who are ‘it’ to answer a few select questions. My 2 cents on why i think this is cool is................

A) They are giving the bloggers actual content that they can tweak and make unique which is awesome because as you know , bloggers run out of ideas and its good to have prompts like that.

B) They seem to have targeted a range of the very best, not just any old Australian fashion bloggers who have a high subscriber rate and/or attractive content which is likely to be reblogged and re-used and

C) If the exercise is purely to drive traffic back to the Sportsgirl site/get some sweet inbound links AND raise awareness of Sportsgirl site as not just a retailers website but an actual fashion/entertainment portal, then they have nailed it. I have looked at the site three times since this ‘tagging’ thing started. I am liking their site which in turn leaves me lusting after their product. (I just bought something off their online store)

Exhibit A- http://www.leflassh.com/2010/01/sportsgirl-tag.html - you’ll see she has tagged other bloggers, creating a viral effect if they respond.

Exhibit B- http://studdedhearts.blogspot.com/2010/01/sportsgirltag.html

Exhibit C - http://src783.blogspot.com/2010/01/sportsgirl-heart.html

3 important changes to Facebook

There have been some new amendments to Facebook that you may or may not be aware of.

Geolocate your status updates

Facebook now allows you to geolocate your status updates. This is a god sent for bands who want to target specific fans in the city they are touring in.

Impression Number

They are also telling you the level of interaction that are based on a loose number of impressions of the news item (Page Views, News Feeds or through a Fan Box Widget impression). I have crunched some numbers on the pages that I am Admin of and they range from a good interaction number of 1% to as low as 0.01%. What is everyone else getting?

Targetting Ad Units in real time
There is also a whisper that you will be able to start targeting people on words that they have in their status updates.

Campfire as an analogy for Social Media

Campfire bros

So I recently have been trying to come up with an analogy for social media. This idea of social media being like a campfire has really stuck for me. There are three things you need for a campfire, a campground, people and a fire.

These three things are similar to what makes up social media. For starters you need a platform for people to speak on e.g Facebook/Twitter (campground), you need members to populate this platform (people) and then something to talk about, a reason for being there (fire).

This also defines the three areas that brands can get involved, they can create the platform (Branded Community) – it can be as big as a whole website Pepsi refresh or jump on the back of another platform such as The Contender Page on Facebook.

They can be the members of the community (Customer Service) company can just listen to the conversations going down and then respond. e.g Big Pond Twitter account or Dell Hell

Lastly they can be the social glue (social idea) between two people, the reason they talk e.g iSpyLevis or Dove Inner Beauty.

Thoughts?

Do you know the name of this Facebook viral marketing method?

Status Updates and Wall Comments would be two ways that Word of Mouth are occurring on Facebook. What do you call all other types of message spreading that is occurring on the site.


Andrew Ranger and the Taboo Group have just recently launched a campaign for Where Is called Whereis the party, they got the word out there by tagging influential Melbournites in the promotional advertisement for the event.

Ikea used this same type of viral spreading but instead of them tagging they asked the punters to tag themselves in photos in the Ikea Furniture competition.

Looking for my Keanu Reeves/Digital Producer

You cannot have Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure without Bill. Similarly, You cannot produce truly kick arse work without an amazing Digital Producer.

I am a big believer in the Producer/Strategist combination and at the moment I am missing my other half. Hence, we have officially put the call out to find a Digital Producer who I can collaborate with along with the rest of the team to make some killer work.

I am super excited about finding a Producer to join TCO as I believe we are on the brink of making some really great work.

The perfect storm is brewing at TCO, we have got an amazing client roster (Fosters, Coca-Cola, Westfield, Network Ten, Sony) who all seem keen on exploring social/digital ideas. The most exciting proposition though is coming up with the Global Digital/Social Strategy for Global Poverty Project.

The thing that hooked me though, was the core business offering – TCO make branded entertainment. Their first piece of business was creating the television show Coke Live n Local. Since then they have nailed creating video content. They have added a real strength in experiential, cracking some massive wins over the last year.


Having this muscle in your back pocket when you are coming up with ideas is something of a rarity in the Australian market. Where before the thought of creating an online series like Fansformation or creating a viral piece like Sony vs. PS3 would have been a dream, This is what TCO do.



The Producer, we are looking for is someone who will have a creative mind and who will have a nice big fat contact book full of all the best digital freelancers/shops in Sydney to help make things happen.

The full JD is on the site

For everyone who reads this blog, if you could please pass this onto any Producers that would be right for this position that would be much appreciated.

Summer of Awesome

I was lucky enough to get 5 weeks holidays between jobs this summer. I got down to Meredith Music Festival in Melbourne for three days.


Then went off to India (Kerala and Goa) for 11 days


Followed by Pyramid Rock Festival



I read the following books

Marching Powder - Jaw dropping account about Bolivian Jails, quite an easy read.



The Google Story - It is amazing how much a University culture has affected, the culture that was created at Google.

I have just started Rich Dad, Poor Dad – it looks really interesting.


Anyways in terms of interwebs and marketing, I read a good summation of 2010 trends by my ol mate Ash Ringrose and the guys at SOAP.

Soap's 2010 Predictions

View more presentations from Soap Creative.

I wrote my thoughts about the future of digital/social media in Australia in 2010, I wrote a piece for Ben Shpeherd’s blog. Congrats to Ben who also deservedly won the Mumbrella Industry Blog of the year. I was stoked to be shortlisted for it.

I will also be writing some guest posts for Mark Pollard and a book review for Daniel Oyston in the upcoming month, look out for them.