MarCom Professional

The race is on for the hearts and minds of your customers...are you even on the starting blocks?

Okay, blatant plug time...

I've recently relaunched my 'sideline' blog SWEAT EQUITY. Please feel free to check it out, I'd love to hear your thoughts :)

Essentially, the website is forming the basis of a book I'm researching and writing called SWEAT EQUITY: What Small Companies Can Teach the Big Guys About Marketing.

SWEAT EQUITY is a marketing manifesto for a hyper-connected world. It’s a call to arms, a declaration of principles, an ethos for companies to live by. More...

Last week I facilitated a roundtable discussion in Brisbane for the Queensland chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.

Topic for the evening was 'Communicating in a Hyper-Connected World'.

We had a solid turn-out, close to 20 people (that's all the boardroom venue would hold). Discussion was a bit slow to take off but once everyone realised they faced similar issues and challenges, participants freely exchanged views, ideas and experiences on what it was like to communicate in today's marketplace.

We didn't just discuss the social web either. More...

In the communications game it's important to ensure you have plenty of 'layers' to the stories you tell on behalf of your clients (if agency) or organisation (if in-house).

That's often the job of the PR and/or advertising team - to bring a story to life so that it resonates with audiences. To do this, you need to be able to identify and add layers of interest, to 'join the dots' of a story and then leverage via a multitude of different channels.

Sometimes a bit of luck can fall your way and the elements come together beautifully, thus ensuring the communication enjoys maximum impact. More...

“We are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers. We are human beings and our reach exceeds your grasp.” 

These words first burst from the pages of The Cluetrain Manifesto back in 1999. 

Talk about 'slow burn'! The theories espoused by the authors of Cluetrain are scarily relevant in today's networked age where anyone with an iPhone and a few idle minutes has the potential to make life difficult for any company or organisation.

The advent of the social web has sparked a fundamental transformation in the way people communicate, connect and collaborate; in turn is having a profound effect on the way marketing and communications professionals go about their business. More...

I had the pleasure recently of interviewing Annalisa Bluhm (from General Motors in the US) and Andrea Matthews (GM Holden, Australia) at an event organised by Social Media Club Melbourne.

Annalisa plays a day-to-day role in the GM social media team while Andrea is corporate affairs manager based in South Australia and social media lead for the brand in Australia.

Rare Opportunity

It was a rare opportunity to get two perspectives 'from the trenches' - one international, the other domestic - of managing social media marketing for a major brand.

Both Annalisa and Andrea were refreshingly open with their answers and generously shared key learnings. More...

The PR profession has long been in the game of identifying and developing 'mutually beneficial relationships with' key influencers in targeted industries relevant to the companies we represent (whether as in-house counsel or as an agency client).

However, as the social web continues to increase in terms of numbers and usage, the process of identifying influencers can be quite daunting.

From a public relations standpoint, numbers of connections are fine but they do not necessarily determine 'influence'. 

In other words, someone might have thousands and thousands of followers on Twitter, for instance, but very little actual influence, while others with smaller followings might wield considerable sway. More...

Building conversation around your brand has long been an important and effective marketing communications strategy, especially in today’s hyper-connected environment where ‘white noise’ is at a peak as is the public’s ability to screen out advertising messages.

That said, it’s not exactly an easy strategy – it takes time, effort and considerable thought to consistently develop and surround your brand with interesting ‘talking points’ that resonate with key audiences.

This is what PR people have been doing for decades. As a profession we’re very adept at creating stories and engaging an audience whether directly or via journalists and media producers. More...

Welcome to The Influencer Project.

The concept was intriguing - The Shortest Marketing Conference Ever.

And the pitch was tight - 60 Speakers. 60 Seconds Each. 60 Ways to Increase Your Influence Online.

This terrific online event, presented by ThoughtLead, was held last week and the MP3 audio recording and accompanying transcript are now available.

Bite-Sized Chunks

I've just devoured the transcript. WOW!

So much practical advice. So many divergent views. So many different insights, all in easily digestible bite-sized chunks.

It doesn't matter if you're an entrepreneur, a marketer or PR professional, corporate executive or an expert of some kind - if you want to learn how to extend your digital influence, this is the best thing you'll read (or listen to) this year. More...

Can't say I ever thought I'd write a post like this, but here you go...

In one fell swoop, Dannii Minogue - sister of singing star Kylie and a recording and TV personality in her own right - has managed to change public perceptions of her 'brand'.

Unless you've been living in a cave, you'd know that Dannii and boyfriend Kris Smith have just had a child, a little boy named Ethan.

Now, Dannii has always been a bit of a publicity junkie and is no stranger to the tabloid press or women's glossies. 

We quite rightly could have expected her to do what most other celebrities seem to do after giving birth - keep the bub under wraps before emerging several weeks later in some lowbrow glossy rag. 

The story would be an exclusive, of course, complete with airbrushed photos of the couple gushing about the new addition to their family. 

Often, money has changed hands. More...