My Writings. My Thoughts.
Social media guidelines: overview from TEDxSydney
// May 26th, 2011 // 0 Comments // My work, Social Media, TEDxSydney
This Saturday 28 May I’ll be Social Media Director for TEDxSydney, which is developing into one of the best-known TEDx events in the world. (How big is the TEDx movement? There are 12 TEDx events happening all around the world on 28 May!) With a small volunteer we’ll be using social media tools — primarily Twitter, Facebook, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Instagram — to help the organisers, speakers, venue audience and online audience connect, enrich their experience, and share.
TEDx is about sharing, so here’s some excerpts from the guidelines we’re using, which I’ll chunk up into several blog posts for easier digestion. Hope you find them useful when planning your own social media strategy.
Why are we using social media?
- Extend and enrich our relationships with our community;
- Encourage interaction and exchange between community members;
- Feedback channel, customer satisfaction barometer;
- News and information distribution; and
- Brand reinforcement
When representing our organisation online, be:
- Informative
- Engaging
- Exciting
- Courteous
- Witty
- Humble
- Accurate
- Timely
Remember
- We have our brand (and those of our partners, sponsors, customers and suppliers) to protect
- Nothing is ever truly deleted from the web
You’re not selling software, you’re selling emotional engagement
// April 12th, 2011 // 0 Comments // Advertising, Branding, Startup
Those of us who are parents will know the pulling power of a good bait-and-switch campaign whenever we drive past McDonalds with the kids in the car.
Those blasted McHappy Meals usually go half-eaten so it’s not the few moments of fat, salt and sugar that makes them irresistable, it’s the movie tie-in, limited-time collectible nature of the bloody near-worthless-will-break-before-your-car-leaves-the-carpark toy included with the meal.
Believe it or not, what works for selling fast food also works for selling enterprise software products.
Mike Cannon-Brookes is a fellow mentor/investor in Startmate.com.au and also the co-founder of one of the most successful Australian software companies of this generation.
When Mike recently spoke at a Sydstart event in Sydney, he said he realised some time ago that Atlassian’s most effective marketing strategy was not to sell software, but to sell very witty, cool t-shirts that developers will kill to get their hands on. “We sell great t-shirts that you have to buy a software licence to get,” he said.
Most of the Sydstart audience thought he was joking, and he was funny, sure, but he was serious. By selling t-shirts individuals want and bundling them with software corporations need, Mike has been practicing the ‘good’ kind of bait-and-switch — the kind that creates a desire so powerful for one thing, you end up buying another just to get it.
Why bait-and-switch? Well, there’s nothing funny or exclusive about selling software that helps developers track bugs and publish internal wikis. So getting customers passionate about Atlassian and its products would be tough, if the company restricted itself to just marketing software.
But after trialling all sorts of give-aways and branded items, Mike and his team hit upon the ideal marketing medium for Atlassian: short runs of exclusive, clever and usually very funny t-shirts.
It’s impossible to underestimate the importance of clever t-shirts in developer culture, but if you are a developer, you likely have a problem expressing yourself in conversation, and a great t-shirt message makes a great warning signal, much like the yellow and black stripes on a poison dart frog, except, well, less cold and slimy. Usually.
A great developer t-shirt will include a message, graphic, or both that will leave passers-by in no doubt that they haven’t watched enough cult sci-fi movies, played enough cult XBOX games, listened to enough undiscovered bands, or compiled enough great code to really understand the person wearing this t-shirt. One of my favourites of all-time just had the message, “Of course you realise I could replace you with a shell script?”
You see, a shell script is… Oh, never mind.
T-shirts are also great because they make the fashion decision for you — wear a business shirt to work and you need to decide between stripes or plain, tie or no tie, etc. A t-shirt is a t-shirt and a developer can pull one out, tug it on and be one pair of jeans and one pair of shoes away from being ready for work. That’s how stereotypical developers roll.
Atlassian’s newest promotion, playing off the popularity of the iOS/Android game Angry Birds is wonderful marketing. See how it plays off a current meme, borrows from exactly the kind of landing page design that nearly every web business other than Atlassian uses these days, and most important of all, stacks on the developer in-jokes that only they will truly understand (or will believe that’s the case).
The key to good bait-and-switch marketing (and all subculture marketing) is to make your audience feel like you are peers in the same subculture, and this promotion achieves that beautifully. There’s even what I think is a clever stab at Mike and his fellow co-founder Scott under “The Founder” (at least, I think it is, after all I’m not truly a member of the Atlassian customer subculture). You can’t be peers with Mike and Scott unless they are brought down a couple of pegs.
Finally, this may look like a promotion for what might be the lowest-selling iPad game of the year, but it isn’t. It isn’t even an ad for Atlassian software (see their products, or any of their features, or benefits, mentioned anywhere on the page? No.)
Instead, it’s an opportunity to buy a witty/cool t-shirt or plush toy. A t-shirt or plush toy that, had you not read this, you would not be cool enough to understand. Which would make developers wearing the t-shirt very happy, and more likely to feel that Atlassian was a brand that understands them.
If I were Mike, I’d make sure I had very limited stock of this merchandise, and I’d make it clear that if you’ve missed out, there will be no reprints. You’ll just have to pay closer attention to Atlassian, act faster next time, spend less time considering the purchase decision rationally and get used to making emotional decisions about Atlassian products.
Because Mike’s clever enough to know he’s not selling software, he’s selling emotional engagement, in XS, S, M, L, XL and XXL.
YAAARGH! Warriordash.com
// February 12th, 2011 // 0 Comments // Other news
Well, other than Gelo dislocating his shoulder, #warriordash was the BEST!
// February 12th, 2011 // 0 Comments // Other news
Anybody want to buy a family kayak?
// February 11th, 2011 // 0 Comments // Other news
Posted via email from Trailwalker Tips Still time to Donate now!
Two great items for wallet fetishists (and who isn’t?)
// February 8th, 2011 // 0 Comments // Other news
Huh? Doesn’t Google Maps know where Redfern railway station is?
// February 7th, 2011 // 0 Comments // Other news
Time to pay for my own endorphins
// February 7th, 2011 // 0 Comments // Other news
This year I’ve decided to put in an extra effort on my personal physical challenges.
In 2010 I competed in a 50km trail relay walk called WildEndurance, the 18km Kayak4Kids kayak race, the 90km Sydney To Gong Ride and my personal favourite, the 100km Oxfam Trailwalker Sydney.
This year I’m going to add the 90km overnight Hawkesbury Classic kayak race!
Those paying attention will notice these events all have more than long distances in common – they are also charity fundraising events, where competitors are expected to raise a minimum fund-raising amount to qualify to compete. Last year in addition to the minimum charitable contribution I raised about $8,000 for these charities, thanks to the support of many friends, family members, colleagues and social media friends.
This year I’ve decided to take a break from raising more than the minimum amount, and I’m going to donate the minimum amount myself instead of asking others.
Why? Charitable fund-raising disguised as endurance competitions are clever marketing ploys, but they’re psychological marketing strategy too, exploiting common weaknesses in the male psyche as effectively as the sugar-laden energy bar manufacturer telling you their product is healthy and good for you. It works on two levels.
See, human males have evolved to be risk-takers. I can only assume that in cave man days it was the males of the tribal group who did most of the hunting, risked their lives driving off predators, and of course, competed with each other for dominance and access to breeding age females.
From an early age, young boys start taking physical risks, from climbing to the top of their first flight of stairs to swinging off a rope or throwing themselves off the roof of the carport hoping they’ll fly. Risk-taking is a big element in determining what a man thinks of himself and what other men think of them. As they age, the surges of testosterone moderate and the demands of relationships, families and careers tend to moderate the risk-taking urge, but it still lurks within, seeking expression.
In their fourties, men are commonly stricken with mid-life crises. With the ego and emotional maturity of a young man stuck in the suddenly aging body of a middle-aged man, we rebel against this sudden awareness of our own mortality. We take off with a younger woman or buy a convertible, make a surprise career move, take up electric guitar, start playing soccer or, in extreme cases, all of the above. It’s all risk-taking.
It’s this same instinctive rebellion against ageing that I think is the reason most of us have many friends, mostly male, competing in an endurance event with a charitable fundraising compenent. The typical endurance event speaks directly to the risk-taking centre of our brain; it says, “here’s a chance to pit yourself against nature, to prove you can still climb that mountain, conquer the wilderness, succeed at something that looks impossible”.
The fundraising element gives us a higher cause to hide behind, a reason other than fear of aging to take the time needed to train and compete, to spend the money needed for equipment, meals and transport. It’s handy justification for the wife, kids and workmates who’ll be seeing less of us during training.
Problem is, for many of us, endurance events are addictive. The endorphin high is as addictive as any drug and much more socially acceptable. We like how we can run up a flight of stairs without losing our breath, how we can eat what we like and still lose that little pot-belly the odd gym session could never quite shift.
But get addicted to endurance events and there’s a hidden toll – if you’re a friend of mine, last year I would have asked you for a charity donation at least four times. One time is fine, four times maybe, but if I do five events this year are you happy to support me with a cash donation nine times in a two year period? If our positions were reversed, I wouldn’t be, and I say that as one of your closest friends!
If it was really all about the charitable cause rather than the masculine cause, maybe, but not while at least a part of it is sustaining my endorphin addiction. So this year I’ll take the year off. I’ll pay my own endorphin tax. You’re welcome to donate if you wish (I’ll post the links here) but you won’t hear me asking. If you do, please do it for the sake of the charity, not for me.
Posted via email from Trailwalker Tips Still time to Donate now!
http://www.irlgaming.com/beta/
// February 5th, 2011 // 0 Comments // Other news
Coming soon to a zombie-ridden suburb near you!
Now with added online market research services!
// February 3rd, 2011 // 0 Comments // Other news
- Custom Survey Design, URLs & Redirects Upon Survey Completion
- SPSS export
- A/B Testing
- Question & Answer Piping
- Text Analysis
