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Opinion | Features
Disclosure in Social Media: How transparent should bloggers be?
In this guest post, blogger and digital creative Laura McWhinnie argues for more disclosure in the bloggersphere.
The bloggersphere has always been a bit like the Wild West. Bloggers could post about products to their heart’s content without having to disclose their relationship with the brand. This meant that consumers had no idea who was behind the marketing messages influencing their purchasing decisions. But in 2009 that all changed
Liars, cheats and thieves
Is our industry full of cheats and liars or do people of honour who stand by their word still exist in business? In an article that first appeared in Encore, Cameron Boon investigates. The recent court case involving Paul Fishlock suing his former employer The Campaign Palace brought into focus more than just the struggle of one man. It highlighted that there are some in adland whose word cannot always be relied upon.
Q&A with Adshel's Rob Atkinson
Online trading is the next big thing says Rob Atkinson in a piece that first appeared in Encore. Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
Harold Mitchell because of his influence and the footprint he has left. He’s built a huge brand in Mitchells, offloaded it into Aegis, Aegis has obviously done extremely well to be then sold on to Dentsu. So if you think about it, he is very much a father figure of the industry.
Making it overseas
Is the best way of being successful in Australia not be here at all? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Lee Zachariah speaks to Aussies making it big abroad.I always wanted to work in New York,” says Julian Cole. “I thought it was the number one place to work in advertising; a lot of the best campaigns were coming out of there. So I moved over and was lucky enough to have a couple of interviews in the first couple of weeks.”
Cole’s story is indicative of the somewhat contentious idea that the best way to be successful in Australia is to not be in Australia any more.
Got a book in you?
From journos to ad execs and PRs, these days everyone seems to have a book in them. But what does it take to get published and will you actually make any money? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Brooke Hemphill finds out.Attention wannabe authors. Forget big fat advance cheques and living off royalties. The reality of having a book published today is another story altogether. There are only two reasons you should even consider sitting down at your computer to bash out a manuscript – passion or profile.
Savage counsel
In an article that first appeared in Encore, Chris Savage tackles your career and agency dilemmas in his weekly advice column.Hi Chris,
My clients seem to be demanding more and more from us. At the same time, it seems many of the younger people in our industry simply don’t have the client servicing skills my generation grew up with. How do we instill in our executives some of the good old-fashioned behaviours that would keep a client happy and loyal?
Fake it til' you make it... as an ad agency receptionist
From dressing the part to playing the gatekeeper, Leo Burnett Sydney’s Susie Henry tells us how to make it as the face of adland in a piece that first appeared in Encore.What does a receptionist in an ad agency actually do?
Well, there’s the frantic every-day, all-day stuff of deliveries, courier bookings, doing expenses for directors – always challenging – plus arranging all the travel. But one of my main jobs is counselling the account service people. I also keep up with all sports information to discuss with our sports-loving clients – because who wants to be bored while they’re waiting? And I know how they like their coffee. You need to know everyone – from accounting to HR. I’m also the go-to for all catering and sending flowers.
Whose views skew the news? Media chiefs ready to vote out Labor, while reporters lean left
Most journalists lean left-of-centre, says Folker Hanusch of the University of the Sunshine Coast, in a post first published on The Conversation.Most Australian journalists describe themselves as left-wing, yet amongst those who wield the real power in the country’s newsrooms, the Coalition holds a winning lead.
But while the media’s political leanings will no doubt be debated in the lead-up to September’s federal election, our study has also found other largely unscrutinised biases remain – particularly whose views disproportionately shape the news.
It's time for a new New Wave in the film world
Government funding bodies are lazy and decadent, says industry veteran Michael Thornhill but in a piece that first appeared in Encore, Ed Gibbs begs to differ.I vividly remember the time I first saw Animal Kingdom, David Michod’s breathtaking labour-of-love feature debut. The press screening was half empty, despite the film winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance just months earlier, in 2010. Yet its superb performances, stylistic flourishes and overall polish left me speechless. Could this really be a feature debut, an Australian one at that, I wondered, almost out loud? It seemed too good to be true.
Going cold turkey on an agency addiction
Life is sweet for freelance writer Max Kitchen, but in a feature that first appeared in Encore, he admits his struggle against returning to the agency fold.I’ve never taken heroin. But I suspect if I had, the temptation to try it again would not be too dissimilar to the lure of returning to agency life.
Can sport save Ten?
First there was the Grand Prix. Next came the reported $500m bid for cricket rights, then Ten secured the 2014 winter Olympics. So, can sport save the ailing network? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Nic Christensen investigates.The television sports rights bidding process is a bit like a game of poker.
Check, fold or bet. Those were the options for the Ten Network last week when it had to finalise its bid for the cricket rights.
Andy Lark: good for the marketing of marketing
I can still remember the first story I wrote about Andy Lark, when it emerged that he was to be the new chief marketing officer of CommBank.
It was immediately clear that Australia was about to meet an interesting marketer, one who blogged and tweeted and thanks to his time at Dell in the US was digitally savvy. Even two years ago, that was a big deal. The fact that he also had a stint in public relations gave him an absolutely intriguing background before he even arrived.
Storming the media barricades - advice for young journalists
This week Mumbrella’s Nic Christensen, who began his career four years ago, gave the keynote address to would-be journalists at the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance’s Student Day. This is an edited version of his speech.Good afternoon, I can remember distinctly the last time I was in this room.
It was 2009 and I was sitting where you are. I’d come to this event, a friend and myself — from memory we sat up the back — and I can remember at the time wondering if I’d ever get a job as a journalist.
It was only four years ago and then as now getting a job was ultra competitive but I’m not sure there was quite as much media ‘doom and gloom’ as there is now…
Paywalls will help fund campaigning journalism
In this guest post, News Limited’s group editorial director Campbell Reid responds to the views of ninemsn’s Hal Crawford that the company’s push into metered paywalls is about data rather than dollars.Hal Crawford is both right and wrong in his article which argued that our digital subscription plans are all about the data.
Fake it 'til you make it... as a features editor
Cosmo’s Kate Leaver tells us how to bluff it in her job in a feature that first appeared in Encore.What do you do, as a features editor?
Really, play with words and ideas all day. At any one time, we’re working across three issues of the mag – getting one on its way to the printers, pooling all the words together for another, and planning the issue after that. It’s busy but it’s a pretty magnificent process.
34 Australian blogs make the updated AdAge Power list
A total of 34 Australian sites appear on an updated edition of Advertising Age’s influential Marketing Blogs Power list.
The list – based on various criteria including Technorati authority, number of RSS subscribers, Alexa rankings and comments – now includes nearly 1000 blogs. The methodology – which now sees rankings change on a daily basis – was updated this week.
The top ranking Australian-based blog is ProBlogger, written in Melbourne by Darren Rowse. ProBlogger is not included in the Australia-only marketing blog ranking, Marketing Pioneers, which is run by Julian Cole of social media agency The Population, because it is not directly about marketing.
Other than ProBlogger, the highest ranking Austrlian blog on the AdAge list is Bannerblog, which celebrates the best advertising on the web. Banner blog is run by Ashley Ringrose of Soap Creative and Ashadi Hopper of RMG Connect.
And the highest ranking blog for an Australian agency is Amnesia Razorfish’s.
Meanwhile, AdAge gives marketing guru Seth Godin its number one slot.
The Australian entries on the AdAge Power list:
21 ProBlogger
105 Bannerblog
159 Amnesia Blog
196 Adspace Pioneers
211 Better Communication Results
218 Acidlabs
257 CopyWrite
286 Media Hunter
334 Pigs Don’t Fly
355 Young PR
455 Get Shouty
498 The Marketer
503 Marketing Easy
513 PR Disasters
522 Servant Of Chaos
561 ineedhits
609 Creative Is Not A Department
624 Ryan’s View
714 Jax Rant
796 Business of Marketing and Branding
828 Zebra Bites
849 Insight
901 Slice Media
963 Frontiering Talk
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Comments
1 May 09
11:17 am
The new scoring system has really switched stuff up, it rewards a constant blogging schedule. Good to see Three Billion get on the list. Timbo when you get on, you would have to hope to be pushing Top 100, no doubt.
I think the one insight I have picked up over the years, is that the marketing community want more Unicorn.
1 May 09
11:50 am
I’ve also noticed that there are one or two blogs on that overall list that seem to have stopped last year, but went up in the rankings in the last few days. So one or two teething issues yet, I reckon.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
1 May 09
12:27 pm
Who writes the 2nd most popular marketing blog then – Social Network Marketing I wonder
1 May 09
12:48 pm
Gary! Is that you?
1 May 09
1:49 pm
Blimey, I didn’t see that coming.
1 May 09
1:55 pm
A recognition list without the Pap’s blog! What’s the dilly?
1 May 09
2:46 pm
Hi Ben,
That’s number 127 (third on the list above), as AdAge describes it.
Laurel’s blog has, I think, evolved through a few identities – Social Network Marketing / Silkcharm / Social Network Strategy / through to Laurel Papworth – the Business of Being Social as it currently is.
But the labelling could be an AdAge quirk – there are one or two oddities in the list
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
1 May 09
2:51 pm
Congrats to all who made it…
I kind of dislike their 6 month rule – where no blogs under six months old are allowed to apply for entry… Keeps me out by about 1 month!
cheers
Aden
1 May 09
3:18 pm
The biggest change to the AdAge ranking system is the introduction of PostRank, a new blog ranking system that measures frequency of posts, comments, and social media responses such as Digg, Facebook, Twitter and Stumbleupon. This ranking system is given a higher weight than anything else in the new formula, which is unfortunate when can be as unreliable as Technorati often is. For example, the Postrank system currently is ignoring all posts at The Inspiration Room since March 7. Ouch!
1 May 09
3:56 pm
Great to see so many Australian blogs (including mine) on the list – 34 out of 977 is 3.5% which is obviously higher than internet users proportionally (1.5 bill global, with around 16mill from Australia) around 1%.
I also agree with others that over weighting towards those who post a paragraph every day and get a moderate audience vs those who write a longer article length post every 2 weeks and get a much greater audience, is not ideal. Still it is really one of the only games in town at the moment.
1 May 09
4:05 pm
Hi Aden,
Me too on the six month thing (we’re closing in on that date any day now I think).
And Duncan,
One other oddity – which is probably historic – is that Inspiration Room Daily seems to appear twice on the AdAge list under two different named – did you bring two blogs together at some point? if that is the case, it’s amusing that the same methodology applied to the same blog can give it two different positions in the same ranking!
Cheers,
Tim
1 May 09
4:06 pm
And Gary,
You’re right – I’d say Australia more than holds it own on the list.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
1 May 09
4:18 pm
Wow, the changes really did impact the results. I leaped about 400 spots to 257! Probably due to postrank as has been suggested. Not the most accurate of measures, but what is there, when measuring blogs? I’m just going to enjoy my new higher ranking.
1 May 09
5:17 pm
Thanks Tim. You’ve helped solve a mystery for me. Looks like Postrank have mixed the now defunct Duncans TV and The Inspiration Room Daily up when entering them from the Ad Age list. One became the other in August 2008. I’ve asked Postrank and AdAge to delete the first one.
1 May 09
5:29 pm
Another day another list. Still, it’s nice to see my name up there in the lights.
Servant of Chaos shouldn’t be that low though.
1 May 09
9:24 pm
great to see so many quality Aussie blogs on the list.
My only complaint with their list at the moment is their Bloglines index. I’ve raised it with them but after seeing my own blog with a ranking of 1 in the bloglines column I did some investigating of the list and found that the number of subscribers a feed has in bloglines doesn’t seem to really be relating to the # they’re giving as a ranking. It’s a bit bizarre and I (or the AdAge guys) can’t quite work it out but it does seem to be messing up the results quite a bit at the moment.
Ultimately though – its got some great blogs on the list!
2 May 09
12:42 pm
Regarding #3 blog
Laurel’s blog has, I think, evolved through a few identities – Social Network Marketing / Silkcharm / Social Network Strategy / through to Laurel Papworth – the Business of Being Social as it currently is.
Hi Tim, please let me clarify. I did not add myself to the AdAge list – anyone can make a recommendation – and for a few years i’ve been known colloquially as the “social network marketing blog”. However: my tagline is The Business of Being Social, blog author is Laurel Papworth, online avatar name is SilkCharm. Really not that much different from any other immersed blogger in the space – including yourself Mumbles/Mumbrella/Tim Burrowes/Everything Under Australia’s Media and Marketing Umbrella
My title has changed – in the 80′s/90′s I was a Virtual Community Manager (and fibre optics consultant) in the late 90′s 2000′s an Online Communities Expert and late 2006 changed to Social Network Strategist. I’m hoping to move my title to Customer Engagement Facilitator any day now. heh.
Regarding #1 blog
Darren Rowse blog, Problogger, educates millions on how to use blogs and Twitter for marketing, rather reporting on how agencies and corporates use social media for experiments and muckup in online marketing. He is certainly top of my list for referring marketing people who want to learn how to promote using social media rather than gloat over SM disasters that others have endured. We have plenty of the latter style of blogs…
2 May 09
3:29 pm
Hi Laurel,
Thanks for your customarily warm comments.
I have no strong views on whether ProBlogger should / shouldn’t be on the Marketing Pioneers list. I can see both sides of that argument. I was simply explaining the difference between the two lists for those who might be interested to know.
It’s recommnend ProBlogger as an excellent resource to anyone who blogs, regardless of whether they work in marketing or not.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
2 May 09
3:46 pm
Thanks Timbo!
I didn’t see too many comments explaining why maybe Darren should be included, so thought I’d chirp up.
On the regular posting thingie – I blogged 5 times this week, 3 times last week and 1 the week before. I’m not sure -does that work for or against these type of leaderboards?
Cheers. Laurel, @SilkCharm