Contemporary blog-essays and musings discussing web trends, user experience, transmedia and digital strategies.
10 Ways to Use LinkedIn by Guy Kawasaki
Excellent list of value tips. I think point #11 is the best topic to raise because most people don't know how to interact with the community at large.
LinkedIn's product, LinkedIn Answers, aims to enable this online. The product allows you to broadcast your business-related questions to both your network and the greater LinkedIn network. The premise is that you will get more high-value responses from the people in your network than more open forums. For example, here are some questions an entrepreneur might ask when the associates of a venture capital firm come up blank:
1. 'Who's a good, fast, and cheap patent lawyer?'
2. 'What should we pay a vp of biz dev?'
3. 'Is going to Demo worth it?'
4. 'How much traffic does a TechCrunch plug generate?'
"LinkedIn's product, LinkedIn Answers, aims to enable this online. The product allows you to broadcast your business-related questions to both your network and the greater LinkedIn network. The premise is that you will get more high-value responses from the people in your network than more open forums. For example, here are some questions an entrepreneur might ask when the associates of a venture capital firm come up blank: 'Who's a good, fast, and cheap patent lawyer?' 'What should we pay a vp of biz dev?' 'Is going to Demo worth it?' 'How much traffic does a TechCrunch plug generate?'"
- 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn by Guy Kawasaki (view on Google Sidewiki)
Social Media is not just about creating a fanpage on Facebook.
A Creative Director of a very prestigious New York agency recently said that he advised a client (a BIG fashion label) not to participate in Social Media.
This shocked me for many reasons. Firstly, the label's ready-to-wear line appeals to the exact demographic current engaged in social media. Secondly, there's more to Social Media then creating a group and trying to talk to people.
Years ago H&M did some really fun work with well known designers. Some of you might have had the lucky opportunity of buying a top designed by Stella McCarthy or jeans by Karl Lagerfeld at H&M's super low prices.
If H&M had created a application on Facebook for these unique, one of a kind items they could have sold out even faster (I think a store in NYC sold out of stock within an hour) - granted, H&M had no issues moving their garments, but for those unable to get to the store they could have collected gear via a cool Facebook app. (*Think digital memorabilia.)
Your Social Media mantra should be, "Get creative and think outside the box".
The 7th Future of Digital Advertising
Here are the det's:
AIMIA and IAB Australia invite you to kick off 2010 with a competitive insight into the future of digital advertising at our 7th Future of Digital Advertising Event.
As the recovery begins from the most challenging year our industry has faced since the dot-com bust in 2001, it is time to turn our attention to the future. This event will explore:
- What will 2010 be the year of? Mobile, FMCG or Online Video?
- Will paid content become a reality and how will that affect advertising and consumers?
- Will the migration of hundreds of millions of advertising dollars from Tv and newsprint to online continue?
- How much money will the online advertising industry be worth in 2010, and how much will search, display and classifieds grow?
- How does Australia compare with the US, the UK and other EU economies?
- What will be the focus of content producers? Agencies? Advertisers? Consumers?
- These key issues and many more will be addressed by some of Australia’s leading digital media and marketing voices. Hear their opinions and thoughts in an engaging and entertaining seminar and then challenge their views in the Q&A session.
If you want to learn from industry and business leaders ideas, views and trends that could shape your own business direction, then this is an event you must attend.
Register now to ensure you don’t miss out!
Chairman:
- John Butterworth, CEO, AIMIA
Speakers:
- Paul Fisher, CEO, Interactive Advertising Bureau
- Pippa Leary, Managing Director - Media, Fairfax Digital
- Mark Shaw, General Manager, Media Smart, Sensis
- Mac Walker, Digital Director, Hyro
- Claudia Sagripanti, Director of Mobile Communications, GroupM
- Darwin Tomlinson, Creative Director, The White Agency
Event Details:
Date: Thursday, January 28, 2010
Venue: Powerhouse Museum
Address: 500 Harris St, Ultimo
Time:
08:00am Registration & networking
08:30am Forum begins - 4 presentations
10:00am Morning tea
10:30am 2 presentations
11:15am Q & A Panel discussion
12:00pm Forum ends
Price:
$99 AIMIA Members (exc. GST)
$149 Non Members (exc. GST)
Ticket price includes general entry into The Powerhouse Museum after the event.
Register Here
Brought to you by:
AIMIA and IAB Australia

5 Tips to Help You Optimize Your Ads on Facebook!
Facebook's 5 tips to help you optimize your ads on Facebook!
We encourage you to use them for continued success in 2010:
1. Pull reports about your ads. Reports show you detailed demographic information and provide insights about what kinds of users are interacting with your ads. They may also show likes and interests of users, and you may find new keywords you should be using to target users.
2. Remember to frequently visit your Ads Manager to make sure your bid is within the suggested bid range. The suggested bid range you see when creating your ads is based o n the bids that are currently winning the ad auction for the users you've chosen to target. This bid range will fluctuate over time as the pool of competing ads changes. You want to make sure that your bid is within the suggested bid range so it’s reaching the most relevant users.
3. Monitor your campaigns and budgets. It’s easy to forget how many campaigns you currently have running, and what budget you have selected for each of them. Visit your Ads Manager to check up on this so you maximize your spend! You have the ability to change your daily budget for any of your campaigns at any time.
4. Increase your conversion rate by choosing a clear and simple destination page. Make sure that the site you are advertising is easy to navigate and that it presents information clearly. If you are promoting a product or event, feature it prominently on your site so users are able to click on it right away.
5. Take notice of the ads that seem to be receiving more clicks or impressions than others. Simply changing your image or ad title will make the ad appear new to users. If you see impressions or clicks declining, refresh your ad more often to ensure that your ads don’t become stale.
Learn more about how to get started advertising on Facebook.
Learn about other company's success stories:
Flying Solo Forum Discussion
Facebook Advertising: It’s All Local

Australian Games Industry Skills Project
The Games Industry Skills Project is to identify and evaluate skill sets and occupations required for employment in the Australia’s Digital Games Industry, both currently and in the future. The project is also measuring the extent, source and impact of skills deficiencies.
The project involves three key stages:
- Consolidating existing literature, studies, policies, programs, and statistical data that is relevant to Australia’s Digital Games Industry.
- Identifying current, emerging, and future skills deficiencies; development needs; and hiring requirements in the industry – which involves a national survey of employers, a national survey of workers, and consultations with key industry stakeholders.
- A scenario planning exercise to develop three scenarios of the state of the industry in 2015, and what these different scenarios mean for the skilling of workers.
The project is supported by Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane, Australia), the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, and the Games Developers’ Association of Australia.
Learn more:http://
It looks like a great initiative, but I'm surprised they're not on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn....

New to parenting? Check out parentBook!
I've seen a few parenting community sites in my time, but this one makes me wish I had a tot of my own so I could have an excuse join.
It's run and moderated by New Zealand mum's. The platform was created by Earthlings, an online business specialising in organic products for babies, which has a large and passionate group of customers all over the world. The owners were always exchanging advice with their customers about baby care or parenting and thought a social network would be the perfect environment to bring these customers together. By creating a vibrant social network for its customers Earthlings hoped to promote its brand and products in a friendly and personal way.
I like the simplicity of the layout and the fun interactive elements - such as: a forum, hosted events and groups.
The technology comes from SocialGO, a platform that can also be used for private, public and personal blogs, fansites, special interest blogs, magazines... in fact by anyone that has something to say and has a passionate group of readers!
Read more about Earthlings and SocialGo here: http://www.socialgo.com/for-

Several years ago I read, 'The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations', It's a book written by James Surowiecki about the aggregation of information in groups, resulting in decisions that, he argues, are often better than could have been made by any single member of the group. The book presents numerous case studies and anecdotes to illustrate its argument, and touches on several fields, primarily economics and psychology.
In a recent report entitled Social Influence Marketing published by Razorfish, Bob Lord states:
You can read the entire report here: http://fluent.razorfish.com/publication/?m=6540&l=1
I think this example from Cadbury is the future of advertising. It's not about what the company thinks is best for it's brand - it's about what your customers want to buy.