Fresh Chat

This weekend, I’ll tune into bloggers and video from around the world in the global phenomena known as Pangea Day.

If you are interested in amazing stories that you would never see or hear otherwise it’s: http://www.pangeaday.org  What an exciting time we live in! 

Ten years ago a book called The Cluetrain Manifesto was written by, Chris Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger.

They challenged what we knew about marketing.

At the time I read the Manifesto I had no idea it would transform the industry, the roles within it and the skillset but more importantly mindset it required.

Of the 95 Theses they wrote I have selected 10 of my favourites:

1. Markets are conversations.

2. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

3. There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone

4.Corporations do not speak in the same voice as these new networked conversations. To their intended online audiences, companies sound hollow, flat, literally inhuman

5.Companies can now communicate with their markets directly. If they blow it, it could be their last chance.

6.Companies attempting to “position” themselves need to take a position. Optimally, it should relate to something their market actually cares about.

7.Elvis said it best: “We can’t go on together with suspicious minds.”

8.The community of discourse is the market.

9.There are two conversations going on. One inside the company. One with the market.

10.We want access to your corporate information, to your plans and strategies, your best thinking, your genuine knowledge. We will not settle for the 4-color brochure,
for web sites chock-a-block with eye candy but lacking any substance.

What is your favourite Theses?

At Network PR we love innovation.

With that in mind we bring you the Sneaker Vending Machine.
Onitsuka Tiger has launched the world’s first sneaker vending machine and placed it in
Carnaby Street, London.

The machine can vend 24 pairs in 6 sizes and its rollout is expected across the UK

Hat tip to  Scott Goodson
 

Yesterday it was reported that one of Lonely Planet guide book authors, Thomas Khonstamm did not travel to one of the countries that he wrote about.  The scandal is sure to be felt at Lonely Planet as it has always been seen as a trusted travel source.

News Ltd reported that Kohnstamm said “They didn’t pay me enough to go to Columbia”.

In this age of ‘transparency’ the scandal has hit the media very quickly with various newspapers around the world picking up the story.

In addition, local Australian travel blogger OzTraveller also highlighted the scandal and said “In a new book entitled Do Travel Writers Go To Hell? Kohnstamm admits to having plagerised and invented information. He claims he didn’t even visit Colombia to write the LP guide ‘because they didn’t pay me enough’; instead, ‘I wrote the book in San Francisco. I got the information from a chick I was dating - an intern in the Colombian consulate’.

Interestingly, the story has also appeared in the Lonely Planet forum called Thorn Tree.  Forumites comments included:

•  ’they should pay their authors more’
• ‘hilarous’
• ‘So Kohnstamm’s defence is the same as all lowlifes… “they made me do it”.

One of the more interesting posts said “I can’t see this thread lasting long before the censors move in”.

As with all crisis management issues embracing feedback is critical.  Lonely Planet now have an opportunity to try to rectify the situation as much as possible. Censoring this thread in their forum would be incredibly bad form and would reinforce Lonely Planet as untrustworthy.

In this Internet age word travels fast and companies need to be monitoring the online media and responding to it. Now Lonely Planet have a choice to make.

Update: Today Lonely Planet rejected the above claims - read their prompt release here:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j3rtUd_mHnEgIRhar1C7jYAc1hBgD901DCR80

The picketing of premises is part of any well-run large company’s risk management scenarios.  But in this new media environment companies can no longer ignore the power of the blog, the forum or the virtual world.

IBM is certainly no stranger to the virtual world of Second Life. They have a major presence there.

Still I wonder whether their corporate communications people were prepared for a virtual world picket, in this case by the Union that represents disgruntled Italian employees. 

Do those of you who represent large companies with presence in Second Life have an avatar ready for such a scenario?  If so, would you have that ’spokesavatar’ issue statements ‘in world’, take questions and answers or would they simply redirect the media to the appropriate official channels for comment? [Read more →]

The fuse is really lit under the Australian PR industry. Does it really understand – or care about – digital communication?

Network PR is one of the few PR agencies in Australia to be actually doing Digital or Online PR (we’ve got four people working in this area) . We recently helped increase the heat when our Online Research Manager Jenni Beattie made some comments lamenting the lack of PR’s at the conference. This was then picked up and commented on by Lee Hopkins.

Jenni and Lee Hopkins got it right.

[Read more →]

On the weekend I was lamenting with a fellow dog lover about how our local park had been infested with nasty rangers lately (eyeing off our friendly hounds). Due to this our before-work morning ‘dog play-group’ was no more.

We had now all gone our separate ways and simply walked our hounds rather than getting together at a set location. This was a major change for us –a group of 10 that regularly swapped dog tips but also information on life. We reveled in one of our groups much wanted pregnancy, discussed bosses, criticised and praised local restaurants and of course politics often came into the discussion.

[Read more →]

I do love using internet forums. The amount of things I have learned while browsing them is amazing, and at the same time, the amount of useless things I have learned is embarrassing - thankfully a recent post at a popular forum that I frequent filled me with glee. Cheers Futureshock!

Normally I wouldn’t use such a word, but I feel that I have to. One of the regular posters popped up with some great pieces of free software that is available for people to use. I decided to grab some of it and try it on my machine and now I have become a freeware addict!

[Read more →]

The last Sunday in April marks Worldwide Pinhole Camera day… and I must say when the measure of your tech cred is by megapixels or mm to your lens, it strikes me as refreshing that there is a time to remember the sheer joy of photography as it was in a bygone age.

There are a couple events coming up in Melbourne from early March onwards, so the calendar is worth checking.

[Read more →]

Had to laugh today when reading the post here.

Marketing Profs discussed how this ‘authenticity’ marketing is getting out of hand. The post discusses what an ‘authentic’ day could look like:

“Downstairs, Brenda cooks up some scrambled Egg Beaters (”99% real egg whites”) while Eddie pours a bowl of Post Blueberry Morning cereal (”with Real, Wild Blueberries”). They drink Simply Orange Grove Made orange juice (”made with bits of real orange”) while the Gloria Jean’s coffee (”Authentic Mocha Java”) brews”.

While you might agree all this ‘keeping it real’ is getting over the top none of us would dispute that if Brenda found coffee ‘unauthentic’ she might not think twice about saying so online. That is why keeping it ‘real’ just can’t be faked and why the truth will always shine through.