July 2009 Archives

I love it when popular culture memes slide over into the general lexicon. One such word that seems to be making the transition from fiction to fact is 'borg'. Just recently, I've come across the word a couple of times - not in reference to the Star Trek villains, but as a descriptive word aimed at large companies.

There has always been some 'tension' between marketing and social network advocates. One side sees major business opportunities and a large audience ripe for persuasion. The other wants to preserve the innocence and non-commercial nature of these communities. Kate Carruthers (@kcarruthers) recently blogged on the issue of Twitter users continually spruiking how to get thousands of followers or how to make money from Twitter.

Recently, I've become fascinated with the possibilities of giving free content away as a legitimate - and highly successful - marketing strategy. Some of you reading this may already be nodding in a "tell me something I don't know" kind of way. After all, blogging is a free content marketing model.

Yesterday's Lunch N Learn webinar entitled "Using Twitter to gain a competitive advantage" was a huge success, attracting what may be an Australian record for webinar attendees. A little under 1000 people logged in at midday to hear Brien Giesen and myself debate and witter on with our advice and tips for businesses looking to use Twitter.

It seems a month can't go by without another major conference. This time, it's the turn of the annual ADMA Forum, the expo of the Australian Direct Marketing Association.

The ADMA Forum has become one of the most engaging and informative marketing conferences in the calendar, and certainly goes much further than traditional direct marketing.

Heritage media in the UK took another punch to the stomach recently as social media refused to allow The Daily Mail to set a racist right wing agenda. A couple of weeks later, John Hartigan decided to strike a blow on behalf of the heritage newspaper industry to the blogging community in his speech to the National Press Club.