What happens when good people get together?

Great things happen when good people get together.

That's my business mantra, model, mission and motto.

Great new things happen when good people get together.

I go 'YESSS' each time I say it.

Great cool things happen when good people get together.

Go on... say it aloud.

Great big things happen when good people get together.

One more time. Louder!

Great game-changing things happen when...

And then, suddenly... eureka strikes. Genius happens!

Great things happen when good people get together!

Call it my business belief, marketing maxim, professional paradigm, personal principle, creative credo, executive ethos or in today's techy times, you could even call it my social strategy or simply, my life line.

Genius happens on the journey to greatness.

The first step is meeting good people.

On that positive note, it's time we connected.

I am a LION (LinkedIN Open Networker). Are you?

Click on the pic to connect with me. Or by clicking here.  

To find out more about LinkedIN LIONs, read this.

Collaboration is the way forward.
Happy Networking and best wishes for the journey ahead.

Love Info-graphics? Get some handy eye-candy!

Call me a sucker for info-graphics but there's something cool about them. Of course, I'm referring to the ones done well i.e. InfoGfx that convey all the data without sacrificing on design; ones that are aesthically and smartly presented without clipping content or scrimping message.

In a world of information overload, info-graphics achieve amazing cut-through. It's a classic union of words and design, art and copy. I'm convinced "InfoGraphy" is the next big thing - a specialised stream of the future, one where typographic design & quality content give birth to a meaningful, beautiful new entity.

Link of Interest: 5 Top FREE Tools > to create slick infographics
Here's a cool one from HolyKaw!... both, interesting and informative.

Many thanks Tim Berners-Lee... for giving us the Internet!

~ Click on the image (or here) to read the text ~

And like me, if you love InfoGrfx, click on this link to check out 40 super-cool info-graphics - quirky, inspirational, useful, funny "stories in pictures" - all loaded with info.

Here's the much-viewed TED talk by David McCandless - the one that made InfoGfx famous - a must-watch if you haven't seen it.

Meanwhile, back in bee-yoo-ti-ful NZ, there's an interesting, challenging (and brilliant) design project on the same lines. Undertaken by Gareth Parry and his wife, it's called 52 infographics in 52 weeks!

So the next time someone asks you "What is an InfoGraphic...?"

tell them it's like a QR (quick response) code for the human brain.


This is the QR code to my Twitter profile

Generated via (Disclosure of Interest): http://goqr.me/

And, if they ask you "What is a QR code...?"
Ask them to click here or read up here.

Inside the mind of a Community Manager

Just what's going on inside the complex mind of that multi-skilled creature called Online Community Manager? No one knew for sure until this pictorial gem from GetSatisfaction.com came along!

Double-click on info-graphic to enlarge and read.

Online Community or Social Media management is a full on role and calls for more than one skillset - often all at once. The above rings true and connects with a great piece I read in the Harvard Business Review titled "Why you need a New-Media Ringmaster" by Patrick Spenner.

The above info-graphic also resonates with a piece I wrote for AdMedia Jan 2011 titled... Holistic is the new black!

Best Buy's CEO learns to love social media

Here's another good one from the Harvard Business Review.

Brian J Dunn at a press conference in New York

It features Brian J Dunn, CEO of Best Buy (@BBYCEO) sharing his 'How I Did It' experience with social media in general incl. the practical (and successful) use of Twitter. Of how they transformed their customer support team (Geek Squad in blue shirts) into @TwelpForce - a 24/7 hotline of technical experts via Twitter, which increased sales and brand value!

What I found interesting is... here's the CEO of Best Buy, one of USA's largest consumer electronics giants, and the title modestly goes "Brian J Dunn... Learning to love social media". (learning to love?)

The article could easily have been titled "Best Buy shows the way forward!" Their landmark Twitter effort (best use of social media in retail customer service) won the Cannes Lions 2010's Titanium & Integrated Grand Prix - the pinnacle of advertising & marketing creativity in the world. It's like winning Best Picture at the Oscars! Watch the Cannes Lions TwelpForce video here.

Here's the link to the article on HBR.org (but that's only a sample.) Read the full article below:

How I Did It: Best Buy’s CEO on Learning to Love Social Media
by Brian J. Dunn, CEO Best Buy

I was on an overseas business trip early this year when my phone began ringing at 4 AM. The first person to reach me was Best Buy’s VP of operations, but she wasn’t the last—I received a quick series of panicked calls. The “crisis” we needed to manage involved my Twitter account. Ordinarily, I tweet on a variety of subjects—my experiences in Best Buy stores, my kids, even my thoughts on the Minnesota Twins. But this morning my coworkers back in the U.S.—and my 5,000 or so Twitter followers—had read a rather unusual tweet from me: “I’VE BEEN HAVING A LOT OF GREAT SEX LATELY, AND HERE’S WHY.” It was followed by a link to a website, presumably one offering male enhancement pills. Obviously, I’d been hacked.

It was embarrassing and irritating. I felt violated. Like many people, I’d been using a password that was easy to remember because it was based on something in my life. We never figured out who got into my account, but it shouldn’t happen again: Having received help from my IT team, I now use well-constructed, tortured passwords, and I change them every three weeks. Nobody likes being this security-minded, but it allows me to stay out there online.

Getting hacked wasn’t the only negative experience I’ve had with social media, but I’ve never considered pulling back from using them. That’s the key point: You can’t just dabble in social media. You can’t use them only when things are good. You have to deal with rain as well as sunshine. And I’m convinced that the upside outweighs the downside. I’m a heavy user of Twitter and Facebook, and I learn a lot from the time I spend on those platforms. I interact directly with customers and employees. I watch trends and see news I’d miss otherwise. Ultimately, I believe that Best Buy’s message has to be where people are. Today, that means being on social networks.

Many CEOs disagree. You’d be amazed at the number of people I talk to—people who run big businesses around the world—who think social networking is just a fad, or that what you see on Twitter and Facebook is simply clutter. It’s not. If a company, or even its chief executive, doesn’t have a presence on social networks today, that company risks not being in the conversation at all. Over time, I believe, that can be fatal to a business.


Late-Night Tutorials

Social networking is merely the latest technology trend that I’ve seen take hold during my time at Best Buy. I started working at the company in 1985, when it had only nine stores. Back then, the business was all about console televisions, VCRs, and CD players. Camcorders were just beginning to come on the scene. The business had nothing to do with computers—Best Buy didn’t start selling PCs until the early 1990s. By the middle of that decade, however, we could see that the internet was gaining traction, and we began to think about e-commerce.

At the time, I’d recently been promoted to regional manager. I’d relocated to Columbus, Ohio, and I was running our stores in the Rust Belt—Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania. That was the era in which I became utterly fascinated with the internet. We now had access to all these data—even if they weren’t yet packaged in a readily usable form. I spent a lot of time cruising Prodigy. Best Buy sold a service called Onramp that provided access to the internet, and I used that, too. I’m an autodidactic internet guy—I taught myself a lot about it, surfing at night. The next thing I’d know, it would be two or three o’clock in the morning. Time would fly by, because I had all this new stuff at my fingertips.

Some pundits were saying that the internet would kill off brick-and-mortar retailers like Best Buy, but our thinking early on was that e-commerce would complement stores and shopping would become a multichannel process, because the products we sell really need to be experienced. That turned out to be correct: Today our website influences more than 50% of our in-store sales, and about 30% of customers who order online opt to pick up their purchases in a store.

* Best Buy Vital Statistics *

Founded: 1996

Retail Locations: 4027

Current Employees: 180,000

HQ: Richfield, Minnesota

Fiscal 2010 Revenue: $49.7 Billion (as on 27 Feb 2010)

Fiscal 2010 Net Earnings: $1.3 Billion

It’s striking how central the internet has become in our lives since those days. People want the information; they want the services; they want the entertainment and the connection. Even during the worst part of the recession, customers were buying digital devices at Best Buy—that business continued to grow at a double-digit rate. Since 1995 the internet has become a utility, much like electricity. People no longer view it as a discretionary expense, even in tough times: It’s essential.

I became interested in social networking four or five years ago. Back then it was a personal interest, not a strategy. I joined Facebook and found it interesting on a number of levels. One of the things that grabbed my attention when I joined was how quickly many of our employees “friended” me. Facebook turns out to be a very relevant way of connecting with our employees, given the company’s demographics. Today I’m maxed out at 5,000 Facebook friends, most of whom I’ve never met. And I’m still astonished at the things that people reveal about themselves. A couple of days ago, one of these friends posted a status update that he couldn’t believe how much he’d had to drink the previous night and he hoped not to do it again—at least not until the coming weekend. This is what you want to say about yourself in public? Still, it’s fascinating.

Twitter took longer to get used to. In the beginning I was terribly self-conscious about tweeting. I’d read so many banal tweets about everyday activities—“I’m having a taco”—that no one cares about. I had to get comfortable with the idea that Twitter is a way to let people know what’s on my mind and that tweets could be genuine extensions of my thinking. When I tweet, I know I’m communicating with my employees. I pass along the good things that I see in a store or hear about a customer’s experience, and people are thrilled to know that I’m hearing good things about them. I like the immediacy of talking to folks. I like that it’s sometimes mundane—not everything I do is necessarily deep or earth-shattering. I’m interested in baseball and basketball and my kids. I like how posting about these things allows us all to be humanized a little bit.

Sometimes people ask me if I have an intern or a staff member handling my Twitter account. I don’t. I do get help in writing posts for my Best Buy blog, but on Facebook and Twitter, it’s all me.


Moments of Serendipity

These sites have changed the way I consume media. On Sunday mornings at home, my wife reads the newspaper, but I open up my iGoogle page, which has RSS feeds of everything I’m interested in. My news is totally customized. I check Twitter trends every day to see what people are talking about. And I routinely click on links posted by people I follow. Twitter takes me to new places and to publications I’d normally miss or not read because there are only so many hours in the day. Newspapers are still good partners for Best Buy, but I don’t have to read them anymore.

These platforms also let people get in touch with me directly, which can provide moments of serendipity. Here’s one example: On Memorial Day, I tweeted a simple thank-you to U.S. service members for all they do, and particularly thanked Best Buy employees who are making sacrifices to serve in the military reserves. A few minutes later I received a note from Jen Whitacre, a product specialist in one of our stores in Missouri. Over the next hour we e-mailed back and forth through Twitter. She told me that her fellow employees in the store had put together a technology system—using a laptop, a webcam, and Skype—that lets her and her three young children talk with their father, a soldier in Iraq, every night. It’s a vivid example of how the connectivity that Best Buy employees help facilitate really can improve people’s lives. I ended up sending our film crew down to Missouri to capture Jen’s magnificent story, to illustrate to our employees the importance of their work. Without Twitter, I never would have connected with Jen.



I don't care... I need an iPhone 4! (contains rude language but is hilarious!)


A very different sort of connection occurred last summer, when one of my Twitter followers sent me a link to a YouTube video that featured animated characters talking in funny voices. One character was a salesperson at “Phone Mart,” and the other was a customer who absolutely had to have an iPhone. The video made the customer look stupid. I thought it was very amusing satire. It was edgy, and I can see why the language might have offended people, but it tapped into the fact that we’re all very aware of what badge we’re displaying when we carry our smartphones. The brands really matter to people. By the time I saw it, the video had been viewed 1.5 million times. Today it’s been viewed more than 9 million times!


Blogosphere Drama

That Twitter link to YouTube indirectly alerted me to a problem. The video didn’t mention Best Buy, but it was created by a Best Buy associate. I soon learned that he had posted several other videos in which Best Buy was specifically mentioned—in ways that weren’t flattering to our customers. Those videos were taken down, but the issue quickly became a big blogosphere drama about whether Best Buy was going to terminate the employee who created them. We did suspend him for several days while we looked into the details. Ultimately, we invited him back to work, but in the meantime he’d decided to pursue a career in filmmaking.

The whole experience was awkward. A lot of people said negative things about a company I love, and I wish it hadn’t played out on such a public stage. My reaction to the incident was similar to how I felt when I got hacked: You don’t enjoy it, but you have to be out there online, and there’s no way to put this genie back in the bottle. What you can do is try to educate employees about what’s appropriate to post and what’s not, what’s intellectual property and what’s not.

Last year we put out a social media policy that applies to all employees. It requires them to disclose that they’re Best Buy employees if they’re discussing the company online. It requires them to keep nonpublic financial or operational data private. “Basically,” it says, “if you find yourself wondering if you can talk about something you learned at work—don’t.”

Really, a lot of the guidelines are just common sense. For instance, manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard and Samsung regularly show our employees prototype devices that aren’t public yet, and it’s wrong to post pictures of them—it violates the arrangements we make with our suppliers. When I post things, I always remember that I have a responsibility to 180,000 folks who work in our stores. I don’t say or do anything that I wouldn’t want to see published in a newspaper.


A Virtuous Circle

Mostly, though, I tend to focus on the positive aspects of social networking. I get asked all the time, “How are you going to monetize this?” I think that’s the wrong question. The right question is “How am I going to deepen my relationship with customers and employees and deepen the conversation that goes on where they are?” Right now social networks are an important part of the answer. Today when people buy a new device, they often “crowdsource” advice by asking for recommendations on Twitter or Facebook. That practice will become more and more influential over time.

As an electronics retailer, we know that there’s a virtuous circle here: The more people become involved in social media, the greater the demand for connectivity and the PCs and mobile devices that deliver it. So social media are absolutely core to our strategy. I believe that our company is best positioned to give consumers these latest and greatest technologies, and our Geek Squad and our men and women in blue shirts are there to put solutions together for people.

In fact, we’re even using social media to help provide those solutions. On Twitter we have a feed called Twelpforce. Customers can post about their tech problems, and Best Buy associates—or other Twitter users—can post solutions. By monitoring the feed, we’re able to learn a lot about what our customers are doing and to help them with problems in real time. We’re providing advice to the public at no charge, and some people think that’s a mistake, since we also operate Geek Squad for a fee. But I reject that notion: Twelpforce makes us more valuable and connected to our customers, and that’s the only sustainable way of building customer loyalty over time. People are going to shop with companies they think really care about what it is they’re trying to do. Twitter lets us demonstrate that we’re one of those companies.


“Be Smart. Be Respectful. Be Human.” (edited excerpts from Best Buy's social media policy)

Guidelines for functioning in an electronic world are the same as the values, ethics and confidentiality policies employees are expected to live every day, whether you're Twittering, talking with customers, or chatting over the neighbor's fence. Remember, your responsibility to Best Buy doesn't end when you are off the clock.

Disclose your affiliation: If you talk about work-related matters that are within your area of job responsibility, you must disclose your affiliation with Best Buy.

Honor our differences: Live the values. Best Buy will not tolerate discrimination.

Never disclose nonpublic, financial or operational information, internal communication regarding promotional activities or inventory, or personal information about customers.


Basically, if you find yourself wondering if you can talk about something you learned at work - don't. Just in case you are forgetful, here's what could happen. You could get fired, get Best Buy in legal trouble with customers or investors, or cost us customers.

Remember: Protect the brand, protect yourself.


So as the holiday season approaches, I’ll be tweeting frequently. I’ll be talking about how pleased I am with the job our folks are doing. I’ll be talking about the hot products I’m most excited about. I’ll be sharing my impressions as I visit stores. And I’ll probably wax poetic about family and friends and other things I care about. The reality is that social media are where the national conversation is taking place today—and either you’re part of that conversation or you’re not.


To read the latest thoughts from Brian Dunn on Twitter, go to www.twitter.com/bbyceo.
 
--- Brian J Dunn has been Best Buy's CEO since June 2009 ---

Are you a Data Freak or Info-graphic Geek?

If data visualization is your thing and if smart, easy-to-grasp, creative representation of data gets your juices flowing... this one's for you!

Here's the link to 10 free data visualization tools by Ben Cotton on his blog, Social Web Thing.

With info-graphics clearly poised to be one among the many "next big things", I found Ben's post interesting... The 10 free data tools are certainly worth sharing here:





1. Gary Hayes’ Social Media counter (here's the Jan 2011 update)

This is a fantastic real time counter which documents the exponential growth of social media. It is regularly updated by Gary Hayes and is great for initiating conversation about why brands should use social media.

2. Google Insights

Google Insights remains a mainstay tool that allows you to discover the volume of Google search terms around an issue, then plots the data into a graph and provides links to relevant news stories which may explain search spikes. The tool allows you to enter up to five keywords, locations or time ranges and provides a visual representation of regional interest on a country’s map. It also displays top searches and rising searches that may help with keyword research.

3. Global Web Index

In similar vein to Forrester’s Social Technographic Tool, the Global Web Index brought to us by Trend Stream is one of the new generation data visualization tools that allows user to have personalised data put into a graphic and embedded elsewhere. This tool enables users to look at the social media profiles of various online users by country, gender, age and attitude – allowing you to discover their motivations online. Essentially, it’s an interactive infographic and well worth checking out.

4. Forrester’s Consumer Profile Tool

Forrester’s Social Technographic classifies consumers into six overlapping levels of social media participation. Based on Forrester survey data you can see how participation varies among different groups of consumers. The great thing about this tool is that it allows you to enter the basic details of your target audience — age, gender, country — and within seconds it enables you to find out whether those people tend to be social media creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators, or inactives.

5. Google Public Data Explorer

The Google Public Data Explorer makes large datasets easy to explore, visualise and communicate. As the charts and maps animate over time, the changes in the world become easier to understand. Google Public Data Explorer is still very much in beta testing and in the future I expect to see more data sets included. Nonetheless, it remains a good tool with vast potential.

6. Wordle (I used this in my previous post - it's a cool tool!)

Wordle is a pet project of Jonathan Feinberg, a computer whizz at IBM. This tool is a tag cloud generator, which is basically a visual representation of the frequency of words appearing in a passage of text, URL, RSS or Delicious feed. It perhaps sounds more complicated than it actually is. Either way, it is well worth playing around with Wordle – it is ideal for showing a lot not of non-numerical data to a client in an easily digestible format.

7. Social Collider

I’ve had mixed experiences with Social Collider. When it works, it is simply brilliant, but there have been some computer-crashingly bad moments. Nonetheless, when it’s functioning the software reveals cross-connections between conversations on Twitter – which is ideal for monitoring potential viral activity, issues and launches. The beauty of Social Collider is that you are able to identify connections between networks of people – a valuable component of the social media planning stage.

8. Open Heat Map

This is a fantastic open-source tool by former Apple employee, Pete Warden. Open Heat Map combines the inputs of numerical data, location and changes over time into a brilliant graphical visualization. The Guardian frequently use this tool and maps are a wonderfully simple way to tell a complex and evolving story. In addition, Open Heat Map enables you to drill down into quite granular detail by looking at countries, states, counties, post codes and IP addresses. Check out Pete’s ‘How to’ vid for more information.

9. Micrsoft Pivot Viewer

Microsoft Pivot Viewer has the potential to be an amazing tool. It displays massive amounts of visual data into ‘Collections’ that users can easily interact with. The rationale is that by visualizing thousands of related items at once, people will be able to identify trends, patterns and relationships that would otherwise be hidden. Pivot Viewer is still very much in development, but it could make a huge impact on how data is visually represented in the future.

Update: Sadly Microsoft Pivot Viewer has been retired from service. Nonetheless, I’m sure Microsoft will be able to use this astounding technology in future projects.

10. Twitscoop

Twitscoop is best employed as a real-time trend tracker to monitor what themes are emerging on Twitter. Its algorithm identifies tags and keywords and then ranks the words by how frequently they appear in comparison to regular usage. Not only is Twitscoop great for monitoring, but it provides useful data, such as graphs depicting Tweet volume over time.

Holistic is the new black

social media, social media club, social media junction. social media club auckland

Word cloud created using Wordle.net Click image to enlarge.

AdMedia Dec 2010/ Jan 2011 cover feat. ASB's Xmas tree

 social media new zealand, nz, smj, smj2, smcakl, admedia, creative, digital

I recently covered Social Media Junction 2 for AdMedia. Here's my report in the Dec 2010/ Jan 2011 issue.

Holistic is the new black - Amar Trivedi

To read, click fullscreen & zoom in. To download the PDF, click here.

To view the detailed #SMJ2 post with all the links + pics, scroll below.

~ Merry Christmas & Happy New Year ~
Best Wishes for a joyful, peaceful & super-successful 2011.
Enjoy your break with friends & family.
Go along now... get social with it!
~ In my best social Santa voice: HO-HO-HOlistic is the new black ~

Social Media Junction 2 - Hey Social, meet Digital

 

SMJ's back - Bigger, Better, Stronger & Longer than before!

Social Media Junction 2 - a meeting of the best social media and digital marketing minds in NZ - was a packed-out event. Featuring 6 top international speakers and Kiwi marketing stars (in the audience as well), SM Junction is among the largest events of its kind in Asia Pacific!

Among several things of significance, Social Media Junction 2 (#SMJ2) confirmed one thing: The blurry lines between Social Media Marketing, Digital Marketing and Marketing Communications have officially dissolved.

While at the solutions provider/ agency level, they remain separate bastions (requiring disparate skills and expertise), at the corporate/ client level, strategies need to be interwoven and resources integrated for best results. Key Learning: Don't just work hard. Work holistic!

Held over three days, #SMJ2 included a:

• Public Sector Social Media Workshop (Prgm Details)
• 'Securing RoI in SM Marketing' Conference, (Prgm Details)
• Social Media Content Strategy MasterClass (Prgm Details)

I was commissioned by David Gapes, Editor, to cover the event for AdMedia & Fastline. Met lots of interesting, talented people. Learnt a whole lot. Here are my daily reports with pics from the event:

Alex Erasmus, Monique Hewitt

Alex Erasmus, Nicholas O'Flaherty

Alex Erasmus, Louise Rice, Nicholas O'Flaherty, Laura Hughes

Amar Trivedi, Simon Wakeman

Clare Dill, zestcomms.co.nz

She just won a bottle of fine French bubbly!

Jennifer Duval-Smith smiles as Alex types away

Nicholas wrapping up Day 1

Robyn Ellson (Bullet PR), Rory Tyler (Digital Masters), Owen Todd (SpyGlass)

Simon Wakeman, Public Sector SM Workshop

Simon Wakeman, Public Sector SM Workshop

Simon Wakeman, Public Sector SM Workshop

Tony Gardner, GM, Ogilvy Wellington

Mon 15 Nov - Day 1 at #SMJ2 got off to a cracking start with the Public Sector Social Media Workshop with Simon Wakeman, Head of Marketing & Communications, Medway Council, Greater London, UK. Simon is an authority in social media & online communications within the public sector.

While the workshop was structured in an easy-to-follow format pitched at beginners as well as the advanced, the SM content was geared specifically for an audience comprising members from NZ’s largest public sector organisations.

During his presentation, Simon gave heaps of real-world examples of UK’s Councils with a clear explanation of what works, what doesn’t and why. He spoke in detail about the importance of social media strategy, putting policy in place, online engagement, response, monitoring & auditing.

The module on risk assessment & crisis management was aided with videos and an interactive “How would you avert a PR crisis?” role-play of a recent SM nightmare that hit TfL’s London Underground.

The session ended on Simon debunking some common SM myths and driving home basic SM truths.

Aden Bushell (Media Monitors), Nicholas O'Flaherty (Bullet PR),
Simone McCallum (ASB Bank)

Alex Erasmus, Me

Alex Erasmus, Justin Flitter

Me, Cliff Rosenberg

Cassandra Crowley, Darren Whitelaw

Catherine George, Robyn Ellson

Vincent Heeringa chairs Int'l Speakers Panel Discussion

A well-attended Conference - over 200 executives

International Speakers Panel Discussion

Justin Flitter, Tom Bates, Nicholas O'Flaherty

Kiwi Speakers Panel Discussion

Michael Carney chairs Kiwi Speakers Panel Discussion

Michael Carney chairs Kiwi Speakers Panel Discussion

Lee Odden, Me

Louise Denver

Louise Denver

Michael Fox and attendees

 Michael Fox (Shoes of Prey), Ron Murray (Siemens NZ)

Natalie Robinson (Telecom NZ), Claire Bonham Holden (Rapp Tribal),
Richard Irvine (Telecom NZ), Louis van Wyk (Gen-i)

Olivia Bruce (NZ Retailers Assctn), Greer McDonald (SM Editor, Fairfax)

Richard Long, Matthew Haigh, attendees, Louise Denver (Deloitte)

Robyn Ellson (Bullet PR), Alistair Helm (RealEstate.co.nz),
Antonia Baker (The Property Market) 

Sandra King (Fairfax Media), Vaughn Davis (The Goat Farm)

Simon Wakeman

 Tee Twyford (nzgirl), Jennifer Duval-Smith (Bullet PR)

SMJ2 Crew - Annelies Kuiper, Louise Rice, Laura Douglas, Laura Hughes

Team Bullet PR - Robyn Ellson, Jennifer Duval-Smith,
Louise Rice, Alex Erasmus, Nicholas O'Flaherty

Vaughn Davis (iPad-enabled Head Goat, The Goat Farm)

Cocktails @ Beer o'clock sharp!

John Lai, Ajay Murthy, Dave Sakey, Rory Tyler, Alex Erasmus

Open Audience Q&A during Int'l Speakers Panel Discussion

Tue 16 Nov - Day 2 was full-on. Over 200 executives turned up at Sky City Convention Centre to attend the star-studded 'Securing RoI in SM Marketing' Conference featuring:

Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing, USA
 
Louise Denver, Director of Media & Communications, Deloitte Australia

Simon Wakeman, Head of Marketing & Communications, Medway Council, Greater London, UK

Michael Fox, Director of Operations and Founder, Shoes of Prey, and Blogger (22 Michaels)

Darren Whitelaw, General Manager - Corporate Communication, Dept. of Justice, Govt. of Victoria),

Cliff Rosenberg (Managing Director, LinkedIN Australia & NZ)

Click here to read Speaker Bios and here to read Alex Erasmus' informative piece on what each speaker had to say on the day. And here's a neat summary of the event by Michael Fox on his blog.

From the outset, what stood out was the panel of speakers - each one at the top of their game - came from diverse corporate backgrounds. They brought with them a fresh mix of stories on the successful use of SM overseas, and shared their unique perspective on RoI metrics & measurement.

Apart from popular case studies, the speakers spoke on how they built their brand from the ground up; what internal SM policies worked best; SM models perfected via experimentation, content strategies for business blogging. They also shared what specific benefit their organisation derived, and how they were getting better at SM usage - on an on-going basis.

To add local flavour, #SMJ2 hosted a panel discussion with speakers from some of the best known Kiwi brands - active digital players all with a visible social media profile. As expected, it led to a lively chat on the use of social media in NZ, the challenges of SM resource creation and of course, how they went about achieving RoI. The panel included:

Richard Irvine, Head of Online Communities, Telecom NZ
Stuart McMullin, Managing Director, Hell Pizza
Simone McCallum, Head of Internet Communities Support & Operations, ASB Bank
Alex Erasmus, Digital Strategist, Bullet PR
Jarrod Bear, Head of Marketing, Tui Beer
Panel Discussion hosted by Michael Carney, CEO, NetMarketing Services

In the closing session of the day, the international panel (hosted by Vincent Heeringa, Director, Tangible Media) discussed best practice in SM listening, engagement & response via an open audience Q&A. Followed by cocktails at beer o’clock sharp!

Jennifer Duval-Smith, Lee Odden, Nicholas O'Flaherty

Lee Odden, Grant Osborne (FirstRate.co.nz)

Lee Odden, SM Content Strategy MasterClass

Lee Odden, SM Content Strategy MasterClass

Lee Odden, SM Content Strategy MasterClass

Lee Odden, SM Content Strategy MasterClass

Lee Odden, SM Content Strategy MasterClass

Nicholas O'Flaherty wrapping up Day 3

Nicholas O'Flaherty thanking Lee Odden

Paul Sutherland (Panasonic NZ), Alex Erasmus (Bullet PR),
James Smith (Panasonic NZ), Tracey Reed (Tower Insurance)

 Tee Twyford (nzgirl), Belinda Nash (AUT)

Lee Odden, SM Content Strategy MasterClass

Jennifer Duval-Smith, Lee Odden, Nicholas O'Flaherty, Amar Trivedi

Wed 17 Nov - Day 3 at #SMJ2 was a deep dive into the vastness of Social Media. It featured a day-long Social Media Content Strategy MasterClass with Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing, USA. Lee advises Fortune 500 companies on social media content strategies. He is the Founder of TopRank Blog, Number Eight on Ad Age’s Power 150 Blogs. Here's a blog posted by Lee outlining his talk at #SMJ2.

Lee kicked off the session with a 6-point roadmap for social content marketing citing illustrations from the US, Kiwi and international markets. Then he turned the intensity up a notch with the Cycle of SM and SEO - Create > Optimize > Promote > Analyse – where he elucidated the benefits of using keywords in social content.

Lee’s presentation was liberally sprinkled with brilliant advice (Don’t just do social, be social; Good SEO is invisible; Connect with other bloggers, comment often on posts but add value - remember that blogs are social) and one-line gems (If a picture is worth a 1000 words, a YouTube video must be worth millions; People live to make money they die for recognition; For some reason, in the US, people are insanely comfortable with complaining :-)

Post-lunch, Lee took the packed-to-capacity audience into the deep end of business blogging - talking at length about search-optimizing blogs, tips & tricks on content-sharing, best practice for blog marketing, and how to use blogs as hubs while integrating with other SM channels.

And he covered all of that before delving into Digital Asset Optimization, Essentials of Social SEO, SM Measurement & RoI. All in all, an intensive MasterClass where all present left wiser than they came.



Word of praise for SKYCITY: The catering service was top quality and the F&B were superb - over all 3 days. Once again, the Auckland Convention Centre proved the perfect venue. The #SMJ2 TweetWall seen above was such a hit, it capped the Wi-Fi limit thrice. Pat on the back for Rory Tyler (Digital Masters) for the camera & editing, and Owen Todd (SpyGlass) for glitch-less work on the audio-visual console!

Hats off to Bullet PR and kudos to the dynamic team for another professionally organised business event, another well-deserved medal in their tally of successful events, another feather in their substantial fascinator!

For more info, visit the Social Media Junction website. Check out SMJ's Flickr photostream for some cool pics by Johanna MacDonald.

I was lucky enough to attend and cover the first #SMJ for AdMedia & Fastline, held in May 2010. Here's my report "Social Media Junction - Getting world-class in New Zealand" and the pics.

Before I sign off, here's a gem I picked up at Lee's MasterClass: Comment (on blogs, FB, websites) more often... Add value. Well... you could begin by adding some below.