May 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The skin deep project: Learning to love your body from the Top End to your toes

steve-davis-racheal-bettienPut your hand up if you don’t enjoy using fitting rooms when clothes shopping?

Darwin-based designer and clothing retailer, Jo from Viva La Body, says it saddens her seeing women and girls emerging from fitting rooms upset, disappointed and embarrassed by their body shape.

Jo was speaking Saturday morning in Darwin at the Skin Deep Project’s high tea to mark International No Diet Day.

Her message to women (and men) is to flip their thinking when shopping for clothes.

Don’t lament that you don’t fit the clothes you tried on, instead, simply note that the particular garment you tried on was not made to fit your body, she said.

In testament to the ability of social media to bring people together around issues in the Northern Territory, this fledgling group attracted a gathering of about 40 people out the back of the small shop on a long weekend Saturday morning.

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Filed Under: Social Networks, Top End Tuesday Tagged With: , , , , ,
December 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Northern Territory businesses are at the PINnacle of innovation

Top End pinners

Curiosity was the order of the day – nobody was really pinning their hopes on Pinterest

Yes, a pun about pins.

This week’s post came about after an intense training day in Darwin last week, in which a dozen local business people took part in the Darwin Digital Enterprise Program.

Amid the thinking about and exploration of various new online tools, Pinterest grabbed the group’s imagination.

As you will see in the post originally published on the Marketing Minds blog, a lot happened as we pondered pinning.

It was a great example of learning about a new concept, thinking about your own business and your market, then brainstorming different ways to exploit the new learnings.

Please go ahead and read the full article:

Interest begins with a ‘P’: Brainstorming marketing uses of Pinterest

I hope you find something useful for your business.

PS I promised the group I would keep preaching that the Top End is really a hot bed of business innovation and the original article was just another example.

PPS If you have some other ways you use Pinterest for your business, please share them in the comments below.

Filed Under: Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With:
August 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Blogging can reduce isolation, says Robbo the remote pharmacist

Full Frontal - Micallef Pharmacy Sketch

The Full Frontal Micallef Pharmacy Sketch, it’s all part of the job, says Robbo (Image from the Youtube video)

Blogging as a business marketing tool is often used to create content that cuts through the clutter of competitors and distractions.

But what about as a tool to bridge the gap between an isolated community or business and far flung readers or customers?

Enter Robbo.

Robbo is a pharmacist living and working in a remote indigenous community in outback Australia, about 150kms from the NT/SA/WA border.

In a random tweet last night, Robbo tweets as @bitethedust, he caught my attention with a link to The Life Of A Retail Pharmacist (see the video below).

It was just a link to a comedy sketch by the Full Frontal crew from a number of years ago. According to Robbo, it is pretty accurate portrayal of the unsatisfactory part of the job of being a pharmacist.

What struck me though, was that while Robbo clearly enjoys life in this remote community, he can also dip into conversations and relationships with people worldwide through his personal endeavour to share thoughts and observations of life and pharmaceuticals from a place unlikely to be a trending topic in social media circles.

This is someone who ‘gets it’, who understands that social media and social networking can be tools for engagement and discovery.

But there is something else that Robbo’s work does that highlights a change underway in our society.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Social Media, Social Networks, Top End Tuesday Tagged With: , ,
August 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Facebook fallout: Your responsibility for users’ comments on Facebook Pages

Facebook and Smirnoff and VB - changes to facebook responsibility

Glass half empty? Alcohol Facebook Pages under new scrutiny (Image by timparkinson via Flickr)

Some rulings around advertising standards and inappropriate comments on Facebook Pages made the news last week and has the social media world all atwitter.

In essence, the Advertising Standards Board, a body that ‘polices’ Australian advertising guidelines for those advertisers who are members of the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), has declared that comments made on Facebook business pages fall under the same standards as advertising.

What does this mean for businesses?

In essence, your advertising needs to adhere to certain standards of behaviour that fits within general community standards and your messages must not be misleading.

What brought last week’s discussion to a head were comments on Facebook Pages for Smirnoff Vodka and VB beer. Smirnoff was not found to be in breach of the standards and VB was.

Smirnoff was under scrutiny for pictures of people drinking and pictures of empty vodka bottles but was able to show how all correct procedures were followed to make sure people drinking were of age, were not drunk, etc.

VB had problems based by users’ comments to a conversation started by the VB Page Administrator asking about what would make for a perfect Australia Day celebration. Some comments were lewd, others were ‘abusive’ towards homosexuals and women.

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Filed Under: Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With: , , ,
July 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

When Facebook gets nasty, act like a human

When your Facebook Page attracts trolls

When your Facebook Page attracts trolls (Image by Goosemouse via Flickr)

A Top End publican asked me for some advice this week on how to deal with negative or uncomfortable feedback on their Facebook page and I thought it might be good to share my thoughts publicly.

The most important thing is to remember that online marketing and being active in social networking sites is still a human activity. There are living human beings on either end of the virtual conversation and the more we can remember that the more we can dip into our ‘real world’ social skills.

With that said, here are some factors worth considering:

  • libellous or hateful commentary
  • uncomfortable visibility
  • who’s watching the kids?

I’m the grumpy old troll

I’m amazed by how many times Dora the Explorer seems to illustrate my world (my 4 year old daughter introduced me).

In that show there is a grumpy old troll who blocks people from crossing bridges for the sheer pleasure of causing pain and delay, although sometimes it just looks like he is lonely.

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Filed Under: Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With: , , , , , ,
July 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Beer inspires great blogging

Beer drinker's guide to blogging

Jason Harris from Big Shed Brewing – blogging in 3D

I probably drink less beer than anyone in the Northern Territory.

For the last decade or so I would have had about three beers a year:

  • Adelaide Oval test match
  • Boxing Day test match
  • AFL Grand Final

But this might be changing.

Recently I spent the afternoon with two brewers and they took me through a worldwide tasting of beer styles.

In the process, they were actually blogging, in 3D.

Take a look at the full story back on the Baker Marketing website: A beer drinker’s guide to blogging.

Tell me what you think in the comments, or over a beer!

Filed Under: Blogging, Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With: ,
July 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A window on the social media stream

The Social Media CountEver wondered how much content is shared on social networks, second by second?

Gary Hayes, Exec Producer ABC MultiPlatform TV, has pulled together a novel calculator that gives you a feel for the torrent of content that is flowing between people online.

The counter is not a real-time meter but rather it is based on statistics picked up from various sources and added to the calculator.

As you look through the social statistics, run your eye over some of the more traditional media and marketing forms, such as email.

You will see:

  • how many emails are being sent globally
  • how many searches are being made on Google
  • how many blog posts are being published

I had to get that last one in, as a reminder to you to make sure you have blogged this week :-)

Here are the statistics.

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Filed Under: Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With:
May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A Quick Facebook Advertising How To Video

Typical Facebook Ad (this was for http://thetimelineblueprint.com/)On the weekend, I had a previous participant from one of my marketing workshops in Darwin, ask me about the ‘use existing campaign’ link in the Facebook Advertising setup screen.

It had never occurred to me that such wording could be confusing.

But now that I read it again, with the eyes of someone very new to Facebook Advertising, I can see how it might be ambiguous. For example, it might mean, use a draft campaign previously created by Facebook as a starting point for new comers, rather than just the link to previous campaigns YOU might have used earlier.

With that in mind, I thought I had better run through the main points in the Facebook Advertising screen at a very top level, to make sure I had covered any other ‘curve balls’.

What I have embedded below is an ad-libbed video tutorial which runs about 14 minutes.

If you are already familiar with Facebook Advertising it will be too basic for you, and if you are completely unfamiliar then this might be a little too bamboozling for you.

As Goldilocks would say, this one is ‘just right’ (well, I hope she would).

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Filed Under: Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With: , , ,
April 17, 2012 By 6 Comments

Your camera is a window to the ‘social’

Part of a stunning photo by Louise Denton of Nightcliff Jetty in Darwin shared via Google+

Part of a stunning photo by Louise Denton of Nightcliff Jetty in Darwin shared via Google+

Google recently promoted a ‘photo walk’ day to encourage those of us interested in photography to join with likeminded souls and wander around Darwin and other city centres, taking photos to be uploaded to and shared via Google+ (Google’s version of Facebook, although both parties will hate that reference).

It is fair to say that Google+ remains a less mainstream social network, despite that fact that it continues to enjoy some growth in its user base. Social Media News estimates about 2.2 million Australians using Google+, compared to Facebook’s 10.9 million.

Before your busyness tempts you dismiss yet another call by me to explore Google+, there are two key reasons I believe it warrants a visit (or a return visit):

Google says it is paying close attention to content that is being shared within Google+ when it comes to compiling its search results

The recent ‘photo walk’ has revealed how potent photography, or the love thereof, can be in building networks

It is this latter point I want to explore today and it was prompted by the group, Darwin Photo Walks.

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Filed Under: Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With: , , ,
April 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Please don’t be THAT guy on social media – and I don’t mean the Chief Minister!

Twit Cleaner

Twit Cleaner report summary for @theriteseries

Brett Walker, who runs the @DarwinorthOZ Twitter account, shared a non-Top End link last night that caught my eye, it read:

Good post ~ Please don’t be that guy: some advice for using social media

It contained a link to an article by Anne Chaconas, entitled, Please: Don’t be “that guy.”

In short, the article was a call for being ‘social’ in social media, a common theme throughout The RITE Series and a core part of my Two Commandments of Social Media Marketing.

What prompted Anne to write the piece was a rogue member in one of her social networks, a writer who shared some of the following atrocious tweets.

Anne’s piece also prompted me to run a tool that checks people in your Twitter account to see who should be deleted. That’s where the Chief Minister account comes into it.

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Filed Under: Social Media, Social Networks, The RITE Series Tagged With: , ,
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