I still get a lot of people asking me about my new work place, TCO (The Conscience Organisation). People have either heard of them but don’t know what they do or have never heard of them at all. Here is a great wrap video that they have done to show off their work from 2009! Check it!
50,000 in 2 weeks on Secret Melbourne
So two weeks ago I set up Secret Melbourne and Sydney Facebook Pages, I did this after seeing the success of the Secret London. I set the Pages up and then invited my friends from the cities to join the Pages. I invited 400 people from Melbourne and 100 to the Sydney Page.
I had the most success with the Melbourne Page it took off and within a day I had 500 fans. The viral growth was amazing to see, it just shows the power of the news feed in helping Pages spread.
I think the Sydney Page didn’t grow for a number of reasons. Firstly, there was already a Secret Sydney Group which had been running for 5 days and had got a number of the key target market joining the Group, also Melbourne has a culture of small restaurants and bars which Sydney is still working on.
Work is hectic at the moment however I promise I will do a more in depth post on learnings from running the Page soon.
But for the time being here are some stats off the backend of the Secret Melbourne Page
For Sheps
AIMIA Future of Viral and Word of Mouth
I am Moderating the AIMIA Future of Viral and Word of Mouth Marketing event next Friday, February 26th (tickets still available here). It has got a number of really smart people from the industry speaking including Sharyn Smith, CEO of Soup
Soup continue to do really good work in the converging area of social media and WOM. I saw Sharyn speak at last years Ad:Tech around a case study they had for Toohey Extra Dry. It was amazing how much they were integrating Facebook into their campaigns back then and I am sure they have come leaps and bounds since then.
Other speakers include - Rebekah Campbell, Owner/founder of posse.com, Vicki Foster, Director of The Word of Mouth Company, Mick Liubinskas, co-founder of Pollenizer
Soup continue to do really good work in the converging area of social media and WOM. I saw Sharyn speak at last years Ad:Tech around a case study they had for Toohey Extra Dry. It was amazing how much they were integrating Facebook into their campaigns back then and I am sure they have come leaps and bounds since then.
Other speakers include - Rebekah Campbell, Owner/founder of posse.com, Vicki Foster, Director of The Word of Mouth Company, Mick Liubinskas, co-founder of Pollenizer
My proudest day on the internet, being the Guest Editor for Youtube
My Youtube Gold dreams have come true. A representative from Youtube got in touch with me yesterday and asked if I would like to be a Guest Editor for Youtube. I am pretty much in internet nirvana right now. I am thinking that I am going to showcase the best Australian branded content pieces.
Some classics like Drambuie Market Research
Would be great if you could share any classic Australian virals/branded entertainment videos that I may of missed out on (especially if they are funny). If I do not get enough I might have to look to Kiwiland for other classics (e.g 42Below, Floating Ford and History of Stubbies)
List at the moment
Vanilla Ice Say Sorry
Uzbekistan extreme training
Schweppes Signs
Sony vs. Bravia
Carlton Draught Big Ad
Some classics like Drambuie Market Research
Would be great if you could share any classic Australian virals/branded entertainment videos that I may of missed out on (especially if they are funny). If I do not get enough I might have to look to Kiwiland for other classics (e.g 42Below, Floating Ford and History of Stubbies)
List at the moment
Vanilla Ice Say Sorry
Uzbekistan extreme training
Schweppes Signs
Sony vs. Bravia
Carlton Draught Big Ad
Twitter will not go mainstream
I use Twitter but I am in the minority. Twitter will not be the next Facebook. It is all hype.
Only 17% of Twitter users are active according to RJ Metrics. That would make the Australian active audience for Twitter around 136,000. 80% of Twitter users have made less than 10 updates.
Even the tech hungry teens don't like it. According to Pew Research 8% of internet users aged 12-17 use Twitter. This makes Twitter as common among teens as visiting a virtual world, and far less common than sending or receiving text messages as 66% of teens do, or going online for news and political information, done by 62% of online teens.
Twitter is not the next Facebook. According to Neilsen In October, Australian users spent 27.2 hours browsing online and 7.55 hours of the total was sucked up by Facebook whereas Twitter accounted for 17 minutes. Twitter's active Australian user base is the equivalent of less than 2% of Facebook's Australia audience.
When you hit a creative brick wall, use Facebook Search
Feeling dry on insights and territories for a creative brief? This is a good one to try, type related words into Facebook.
E.g Got a Phone provider as a client, type 'phone' into Search and look through the Pages. All these Pages have more than 500,000 fans.
The answers;
I Feel My Phone Vibrate When It Doesn't
I Use My Cell Phone To See In The Dark
When DRUNK, My phone should say, "Are you sure you want to send this text?"
I do random things when i talk on the phone like pace, spin in circles, etc
Trying to feel for your phone, and panicking when you can't feel it.
I have texted while lying down and dropped the phone on my face.
Specific one for Optus
Wait Bro are you on Optus
E.g Got a Phone provider as a client, type 'phone' into Search and look through the Pages. All these Pages have more than 500,000 fans.
The answers;
I Feel My Phone Vibrate When It Doesn't
I Use My Cell Phone To See In The Dark
When DRUNK, My phone should say, "Are you sure you want to send this text?"
I do random things when i talk on the phone like pace, spin in circles, etc
Trying to feel for your phone, and panicking when you can't feel it.
I have texted while lying down and dropped the phone on my face.
Specific one for Optus
Wait Bro are you on Optus
5 rising stars of the Australian Youtube scene
Here are five vloggers who have broken into the Top 20 most subscribed Australian Youtubers that you may not be familiar with.
1. Fagottron - Probably one of the most exciting Australian Youtubers, Fagottron has a unique way of mashing up films into songs. Amazeballs!
2. Mychoony - The male version of Community Channel.
3. The Black Year – This young band are going for the position of the next Short Stack
4. Emmalina - Vlogging every second day this 20s mum is talking about the first thing that pops into her mind.
5. DJ Ravine – Is arguably the most subscribed hardcore DJ on Youtube. A young dude who is killing it and found a nice little niche for himself.
1. Fagottron - Probably one of the most exciting Australian Youtubers, Fagottron has a unique way of mashing up films into songs. Amazeballs!
2. Mychoony - The male version of Community Channel.
3. The Black Year – This young band are going for the position of the next Short Stack
4. Emmalina - Vlogging every second day this 20s mum is talking about the first thing that pops into her mind.
5. DJ Ravine – Is arguably the most subscribed hardcore DJ on Youtube. A young dude who is killing it and found a nice little niche for himself.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Close of Business for Adspace-Pioneers
Well I am off to India tomorrow, so I thought I would do a end of year post.
I do not think this blog would have been as strong as it has been without the knowledge I have gained from working at The Population. It was a massive year launching over 15 social media lead campaigns. I was doing the numbers the other night and that amounted to 80,000 people becoming fans of branded Facebook Pages and over 600,000 views of branded content on Youtube.
The highlight was The Contender Australia Facebook Page, which now I would officially deem as an ‘online community’. There are currently over 25,000 fans on the Page who speak about everything that is boxing with around 1,000 interactions on the Page a week.
Thanks to Tony and The Population for giving me the chance to work on these killer projects.
For anyone interested, here are my stats;
Tips and benchmarks for Admins of Branded Facebook Pages
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I try to stick to these guides when I am going out with status updates;
1. Keep in a conversational tone
2. Ask a question
3. Keep it to two sentences max
Benchmarks of success
Comments on a status updates
For branded pages a percentage of 0.5% of your fans commenting back is the average anything that gets 1% or higher of your fans commenting back is an amazing result.
Unsubscribe rate
You are going to lose fans after every status update managing the level of unsubscribes is important. An unsubscribe rate of less than 7.5% is good.
Examples of good Australian Branded Pages
Supre/Mudo Media
The Contender Australia/The Population
Gif via Brown Cardigan
I try to stick to these guides when I am going out with status updates;
1. Keep in a conversational tone
2. Ask a question
3. Keep it to two sentences max
Benchmarks of success
Comments on a status updates
For branded pages a percentage of 0.5% of your fans commenting back is the average anything that gets 1% or higher of your fans commenting back is an amazing result.
Unsubscribe rate
You are going to lose fans after every status update managing the level of unsubscribes is important. An unsubscribe rate of less than 7.5% is good.
Examples of good Australian Branded Pages
Supre/Mudo Media
The Contender Australia/The Population
Gif via Brown Cardigan
Is Facebook making experiences more valuable?
The value of intangible experiences is being increased by the power of online social networking. Facebook allows you to now communicate and thus amplify your social experiences through the uploading of photos of the experience and status updates about those experiences.
Look at the impact it is having on the experience of attending a Music Festival. It is now heightened by talking about it with friends before hand and alerting your network through updates, it is then valued again when you post photos up of the event afterwards.
Personally, I know that I am a sucker to the experience economy. I am not to interested in possessions (I have lived in Sydney for 15 months and my only piece of furniture is a bed side table which is a milk crate). I do not know if this is a time in my life and my priorities will shift to surrounding myself with nice items in the future or if it is a symptom of my generation where we no longer want expensive items but crave new experiences?
What I do know, is that there is a huge opportunity for experience based brands to increase the value of their offering through helping their customers communicate that experience to their friends. At the end of the day it is how we are viewed and valued by our friends and our desired friends that matters to us most.
Look at the impact it is having on the experience of attending a Music Festival. It is now heightened by talking about it with friends before hand and alerting your network through updates, it is then valued again when you post photos up of the event afterwards.
Personally, I know that I am a sucker to the experience economy. I am not to interested in possessions (I have lived in Sydney for 15 months and my only piece of furniture is a bed side table which is a milk crate). I do not know if this is a time in my life and my priorities will shift to surrounding myself with nice items in the future or if it is a symptom of my generation where we no longer want expensive items but crave new experiences?
What I do know, is that there is a huge opportunity for experience based brands to increase the value of their offering through helping their customers communicate that experience to their friends. At the end of the day it is how we are viewed and valued by our friends and our desired friends that matters to us most.
20/80 split because paid and earned media are best friends!
There are some great social media campaigns flying under the radar at the moment. There one common theme I can see amongst them is that they are not getting any support from paid media.
Paid media is earned media's best friend, They work really well together. I think if you are looking to carve up a digital budget you should put at least 20% aside for paid media to help support the idea/content, this will then drive earned media results.
Where the idea lives = Advertising Model
Facebook Page = Facebook Advertising
Youtube Video = StumpleUpon, Facebook Advertising or Youtube ‘Supported Ad Model’ (I haven’t used this yet, has anyone had any results with this?)
Twitter = No efficient advertising model
Image via Brown Cardigan bros
Top 50 Youtube LOLs of 2009
Looking at the number of RTs and how much I like the clip, this is the Top 50 Youtube Gold clips of 2009. Congratulations to Ask Propecia, which even my mum and dad are fans of.
1. Ask Propecia the crack ho
2. Bangs will take you to da movies via his green screen
3. Boy gets bacon taken away so he moves out of home
4. Best Keyboard Cat in a long time
5. Every single Kramer entrance, in chronological order
6. Pinata accidents montage
7. Urinate in your golf club
8. The 100 greatest quotes from The Wire
9. Dating video goes really wrong
10. The best commercial ever! Jones' Big Ass Truck Rental
11. Amazing wheelbarrow race
12. It's a cat. With a box.
13. Bill Dance Fishin Blooper No.3
14. Pole dance ruins wedding
15. No need to wipe your bum anymore!
16. Morbidly obese woman + mechanical bull = WIN
17. Drugs to do on a first date
18. The @bag_raiders do the best cover ever of Bangs 'Take U to Da Movies'
19. Top 60 ghetto names
20. The worlds best dancer evah!
21. Old man breaks it down
22. Internet for kidz!
23. A really weird trip to the doctor
24. Best 80s fight scene
25. Massive gymnastic fail, includes good groin shot
26. Giant Seagull attack on Nine News
27. Barrier jump FAIL
28. Top Ten Seinfeld moments
29. We are douchebags
30. Unnecessary censoring of Sesame Street!
31. Hands up who has been shagged by a rare parrot?
32. Arthur the weather man memefied with Spiderman!
33. 100 greatest hits of Youtube in 4mins!
34. Courtship vs Dating- Christian Bad Acting
35. We need weather men like this in Australia
36. Horse kicks moron in the face
37. The perfect valentines gift for that special girl in your life
38. Worst acting of all time! There going to eat me! via Troll 2
39. An introduction: To Making Out
40. Top 10 Best Talk Show fights
41. Old man taking down the robber
42. Little dancing Ranga vs. MJ
43. Emplastro, Master Videobomber!
44. Auto-tune cats song awesomeness
45. The Pug head tilt
46. Best Death Scene Ever
47. The 1991 AFL Grand Final Halftime Show
48. 1987 Dating videos found
49. 80s Swazye on the philosophy of dancin
And my very first piece of Youtube Gold!
50. 'The best fight scene EVER!'
Background
The Youtube Golden Hour
Every Friday at 4pm on Twitter I post all the best clips of that week in a segment I like to call Youtube Gold. It has now clocked over the 3 month mark so I thought it would be a good idea to create the best of YTGold in the form of the ‘Top 50 Video Lols of 2009’. If you ever find any funny videos please pass em on!
McCann's Birthday
At the moment my good mates Mark Pollard and Age Conte are cooking up a great present for Advertising Agency McCann’s 50tth. They are hosting an internet party where every hour, staff are putting out new content that is related to the number 50th.They are giving punters the chance to get involved by giving people $50 if they create something constructive in the honour of 50.
Facebook Tattoo Calendar
Just in case you forgot you can still purchase from me the amazing Christmas present of the 2010 Facebook Tattoo Calendar, only $20! All proceeds will be going to Bowel Cancer Research. Which is also where the $50 from McCann’s will be going.
1. Ask Propecia the crack ho
2. Bangs will take you to da movies via his green screen
3. Boy gets bacon taken away so he moves out of home
4. Best Keyboard Cat in a long time
5. Every single Kramer entrance, in chronological order
6. Pinata accidents montage
7. Urinate in your golf club
8. The 100 greatest quotes from The Wire
9. Dating video goes really wrong
10. The best commercial ever! Jones' Big Ass Truck Rental
11. Amazing wheelbarrow race
12. It's a cat. With a box.
13. Bill Dance Fishin Blooper No.3
14. Pole dance ruins wedding
15. No need to wipe your bum anymore!
16. Morbidly obese woman + mechanical bull = WIN
17. Drugs to do on a first date
18. The @bag_raiders do the best cover ever of Bangs 'Take U to Da Movies'
19. Top 60 ghetto names
20. The worlds best dancer evah!
21. Old man breaks it down
22. Internet for kidz!
23. A really weird trip to the doctor
24. Best 80s fight scene
25. Massive gymnastic fail, includes good groin shot
26. Giant Seagull attack on Nine News
27. Barrier jump FAIL
28. Top Ten Seinfeld moments
29. We are douchebags
30. Unnecessary censoring of Sesame Street!
31. Hands up who has been shagged by a rare parrot?
32. Arthur the weather man memefied with Spiderman!
33. 100 greatest hits of Youtube in 4mins!
34. Courtship vs Dating- Christian Bad Acting
35. We need weather men like this in Australia
36. Horse kicks moron in the face
37. The perfect valentines gift for that special girl in your life
38. Worst acting of all time! There going to eat me! via Troll 2
39. An introduction: To Making Out
40. Top 10 Best Talk Show fights
41. Old man taking down the robber
42. Little dancing Ranga vs. MJ
43. Emplastro, Master Videobomber!
44. Auto-tune cats song awesomeness
45. The Pug head tilt
46. Best Death Scene Ever
47. The 1991 AFL Grand Final Halftime Show
48. 1987 Dating videos found
49. 80s Swazye on the philosophy of dancin
And my very first piece of Youtube Gold!
50. 'The best fight scene EVER!'
Background
The Youtube Golden Hour
Every Friday at 4pm on Twitter I post all the best clips of that week in a segment I like to call Youtube Gold. It has now clocked over the 3 month mark so I thought it would be a good idea to create the best of YTGold in the form of the ‘Top 50 Video Lols of 2009’. If you ever find any funny videos please pass em on!
McCann's Birthday
At the moment my good mates Mark Pollard and Age Conte are cooking up a great present for Advertising Agency McCann’s 50tth. They are hosting an internet party where every hour, staff are putting out new content that is related to the number 50th.They are giving punters the chance to get involved by giving people $50 if they create something constructive in the honour of 50.
Facebook Tattoo Calendar
Just in case you forgot you can still purchase from me the amazing Christmas present of the 2010 Facebook Tattoo Calendar, only $20! All proceeds will be going to Bowel Cancer Research. Which is also where the $50 from McCann’s will be going.
Social Media is not all about long term relationships
I used to think that Social Media Marketing was all about the long term relationships, the campaign model was the devil's work!
How I was wrong.
Luke Slattery founder of Movember flipped this whole idea of long term relationship on its head. Movember only speak to people 3 months a year (October to December). They realised that people have got a lot of other charities to support and that they do not want to be taking everyone’s time up.
I tend to agree, especially if you are a part of another active social platform. If you have a presence on Facebook or Twitter then people are not going to be shocked when you stop talking, they understand why you have stopped. It is not going to affect them either because they have a number of other people who are part of their newsfeed. However if you had created a branded destination community and you abandon it, then that is another story.
We are currently looking after The Contender Australia Facebook Page, it is going great guns and has clocked over 22,000 fans in less than 8 weeks (case study in the works). We plan on stopping communication a few weeks after the conclusion of the show. We will then pick up the conversation again in 12 months time when the second season comes online.
Picture thanks to the best site on the Internet Brown Cardigan
Case Study: Seek Volunteering Unplugged
Problem: Seek had aligned with Volunteer Australia to provide the back engine to help volunteers connect with NFP jobs required Seek Volunteer. There has long been a myth that volunteering is what old grannies did in Op Shops. Seek wanted to help dispel this myth. We (Naked Communications + The Population) were set the task of getting more people to use the Seek site to look for Volunteering roles.
Strategy: Create a site that shared the stories of people who had volunteered, focusing on the stories of influential Australian bloggers.
Insight: People who read blogs were probably some of the most advanced online users. They would most likely perform a number of tasks online (banking, looking for jobs, buying products). These would be the type of users who would use Seek Volunteer to find a volunteer job.
Execution: We looked to get ten of the most influential Australian bloggers to go and volunteer at an organization of their choice. Seek Volunteer would then donate $500 to that organisation on behalf of the blogger.
We isolated a list of 20 bloggers who we believed were influential and were relevant to talk about volunteering. We used the Top 100 Australian Bloggers as a starting point. We then went out with an email to these ten.
We created a site which would allowed people to read all the stories in one place as well as share their own story.
The site was supported with Banners on SEEK homepage, SEEK Volunteer homepage, Ninemsn and the Nuffnang blogging network.
Volunteering Unplugged was launched on May 11th 2009 at the start of National Volunteer Week. With the launch we did another outreach to the broader community and got the number 1 subscribed Australian Youtuber Natalie Tran (Community Channel) to talk about the site and industry support from NFP websites Third Sector and Go Volunteer and marketing site Mumbrella.
Result
We ended up with a site which had 57 volunteering stories, of the people that visited the site 25% of them checked out the Seek Volunteering website afterwards. Seek Volunteer were really happy with the project and are looking to extend on it in 2010.
Learnings
Blogger Outreach is really really tough
We ended up getting ten bloggers but we had to look beyond the original list of 20 and it was really tough. I think we underestimated how busy most bloggers were and giving up a whole day to volunteer at an organization was a massive commitment. In my experience there is probably only a handful of Australian bloggers (20 people?) who make enough money not to have to work full time.
This required us to change tact, what we found out was that most bloggers had volunteered in the past so instead of getting them to volunteer again we got them to share their previous stories.
Man Week
Olivia Whitty who worked on the Seek volunteer project went onto run a similar project, Man Week for Outreach. Man Week worked on the same principle of getting male bloggers to share stories about what it means to be a man. They were lucky enough to get the support of two influential bloggers in Mark Pollard and Gavin Heaton who went over and above and shared amazing stories that lead to a number of other people sharing stories.
Blogging in general
Blogging in Australia is still small. When you look at the Top 100 Australian Bloggers the content quality and readership drop dramatically once you go below the Top 45. In America you could run a whole campaign on Blogger Outreach, in Australia that is just not possible.
Blogger Outreach will only work here if you are targeting a global audience (Dosh Wallets) or you are also targeting writers at major online content and news portals.
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