I scroll down my postings and very few have attracted comments. So you wonder - why bother? Yet the statistics aren’t that sad - in the last 24 hours 60 people have been in for a read. You’re all welcome - as would be your comments!
Social media is a significant force changing the approach companies are taking to communications. Ground-breaking programs engage citizen-journalists and challenge YouTube enthusiasts. Companies have seen their brands revitalised while others have been tarnished in days by bloggers.
What does it mean for Australia? How will the uptake of social media transform business’ relationships with its key opinion leaders?
Presenting insights from world-best campaigns, Burson-Marsteller is pleased to offer a hands-on workshop on social media. The session features Charlie Pownall, lead digital strategist for Burson-Marsteller Asia Pacific based in Singapore. Also presenting on how this is changing the communications industry is Bill Rylance, Asia Pacific President & CEO. Walter Jennings of
Melbourne – Tuesday, 14 August
8:30 breakfast for 9:00 am start (ends by 11:00 am)
The Naval & Military Club
27 Little Collins Street
EDITOR’S NOTE: Forgive the commercialism - I do run a public relations agency and am very passionate on this subject. If the subject is of interest and you’re keen to attend then let me know!
Life’s full of oddities. Turns out in a parallel universe there’s an Australian trying to adjust to life in America. I blog about the reverse issue - as an American in Australia, once in awhile you come across “Things that make you go hmmm.”
So I got introduced today to Paul Young. He’s from Sydney and is now in Manhattan. He blogs on issues of interest to public relations professionals and students. Check out his blog.
It’ll be interesting to track his experiences and see how he navigates the rocky shoals of Manhattan!
Last week I posted that more Australia-based companies needed to get involved in social media. That’s great advice - but once you “jump the broom” and decide to get involved, where do you start? Over the coming days I’ll offer advice - and seek counsel from readers - on how to get started.
Early in my blog I wrote about the difficulty of finding your voice. This was based on the difficulty of starting a blog and finding the most natural way to express myself. While social media is multi-faceted with a wide range of options available (Second Life, YouTube, Wiki, Blogs) let’s start by looking at blogs.
First and foremost be clear about your goal for starting a blog. It may be an avenue to open direct conversations with consumers. You may explore it as a way to provide information to a special interest group. Stonyfield Farm has two blogs to meet the information needs of specific consumers - be they parents with young children, or people interested in organic food products. One communication channel couldn’t meet the needs of both parties - unless they were new parents wanting organic yogurt!
Be really clear with your objective. Because if you’re not clear then your audience has absolutely no chance of arriving at the same conclusion! My blog was started for two reasons. First I wanted to position myself as a leader in communications issues of matter to Australia. Second I wanted to gain on-line experience in new media (”Teacher teach yourself”).
So with a clear objective firmly in mind, start practicing. Open up a Word document and write trial posts each and every day. You need to commit to daily exercise otherwise you’ll lose the ability to create fresh material daily. If you don’t post daily then you’re at risk of becoming stale and obsolete.
Frankly this is the hardest point - how do you find your voice? What style will you adopt as you write every day? Avoid memo language. The way we draft inter-company emails is not the way we should write on blogs. Loosen your tie - write for your Mother or a friend. Take on a friendly language that’s easier to read. Gone are the days of “command and control” writing - if your blog sounds like a press release or a corporate memo you’ll never gain a readership.
Get started - try it today. Figure out your objective then start writing. After time you’ll find your groove.
I’ve been blogging since October. Lots of lessons learned and lots of posts. Now I’m moving into my on Web 2.0 - how do I increase the profile of my blog?
As a first step I’m laying claim!
This is a service offered through Technorati. This service tracks the tens of millions of blogs currently out there. Apparently by laying claim and linking to Technorati I open my blog to an infestation of spiders. Creepy sounding but innocent (I believe). These spiders are short spurts of code that trawl the web and look for places to link - they link and link and link and before long they’ve woven (are you ready for it?) a web!
Here we go - any other advice for a guy just learning how to promote his blog?
I loved this off-beat sign posted randomly on building cladding in downtown Sydney. The small poster prescribed, “If you see nothing say nothing.” Really flies in the face of mass communications, terrorism terror and fits perfectly with my dilemma.
How do you start a blog? What’s the first thing you say? I’ve been puzzling that for the past three days.
I want to offer insights and experience from Australia. I was born American but chose to become Australian. After a career that spanned the globe, I was very happy to settle down in Sydney. Life is sweet here.
So Wally Down Undy is an attempt to help make sense of communications differences, life in Australia, what to expect if you’re here full-time or just for a business trip. It’s a wonderful place but it ain’t New Jersey. This place is rich and diverse and weird and wonderful. Hopefully I can show you all that and more.
Thanks for visiting!
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