Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make WordCamp Auckland this year – family commitments take higher priority. But if you can, you should be there. Here’s why.

It’s a mixture of set speakers and unconference-style bits, with lots of creative people sharing their secrets, and sparking discussion. That’s what I love about BarCamps and the like; they actually put into practice the promise of social media – dialogue, not just speeches.

There are the speakers I know – people like Courtney Lambert (who’s talking about markcomms), Rachel Cunliffe (who’s talking about design and, hopefully, community), Michael Brandon (who’s been on iJumpTV, talking about SEO), Jayson Bryant from The Wine Vault (talking about online video), Suzanne Kendrick (who’s also been on iJumpTV) talking about community management, Bill Bennett (who’s talking about online writing – a topic dear to my heart!) and of course Jason Kemp, who’s one of the key organisers and advocates of WordCamp.

There are of course other people who I know through social media and will have to meet in real life another time – I could list them all but check them out on the speakers page.

In a phone conversation earlier, Jason told me WordCamp has become about more than just WordPress. It’s attracting an ever more diverse and creative group of people, who are all using WordPress as part of what they do. The “part” part is important – although it’s a cliche to many, social media really is all about having an ecosystem, where the whole is more powerful than the sum of the parts.

If you do head along to WordCamp NZ, please write a blog post about it for me – it’ll be almost as good as being there. Register here.

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We're just like this guy ... every day

This blog has been a wee bit quiet lately, because there’s a lot going on with us.

I thought it might be helpful to get the word out about some of the upcoming excitement.

BarCamp Auckland: 17 July 2010

(That’s this Saturday!) BarCamp is an unconference, which means anyone can speak, which includes me. I’ll be debuting my Ragtag Leadership concept and look forward to some great discussions.

Online Marketing & New Media Masterclass: 19-20 July, 2010, Wellington

Our 2-day masterclass will be in Wellington on Monday and Tuesday next week. It’s very soon, but I don’t think BrightStar would mind a few late registrations! These are comprehensive and very interactive, we always come away with some good questions. Register here.

NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants, Auckland, July 27th

Social media affects everyone, including accountants. This presentation will look at how social media is affecting internal communication, and also introduce some Ragtag Leadership ideas. Register here.

Wordcamp, 7-8 August

I won’t be speaking but will be attending this gathering all about the popular blogging platform (and for many sites, including this one, a full content management system) WordPress. Details here.

Marie Workshops, Auckland, 18 August

Our very successful one-day workshop continues in Auckland at the University of Otago centre on Wednesday August 18th. We’ve had great feedback from these workshops, particularly about the personal touch we bring to the workshops. We’d love you to join us if you’re new to social media (or even in need of a refresher course).

Google BarCamp Auckland

Another BarCamp, but this time all about Google. Not speaking, just attending (as long as I’m in Auckland) and listening and learning! Info here.

3rd Annual Marketing Education Services Summit, Wellington, 25-27 August

I’ll be holding a special one-day workshop for educational marketers wanting to harness social media to reach potential students. I’ll also be giving a presentation in the main summit, alongside some pretty high-calibre presenters including our friend Charlotte Mayne from Lincoln University, who’ll talk about how Lincoln revitalised its brand without losing its essence. Register for the summit here.

We’ve also got some exciting in-house engagements with clients coming up, including a talk to some research scientists, educators and PR people. It’s really exciting to see awareness of social media’s influence beyond marketing and PR. These are truly exciting times to be alive.

If you’re interested in getting us in for a workshop, or to speak at an event, please contact us.

Why websites don’t work

Okay, so maybe I exaggerated. Websites do work, and our website plays an important part in letting people know who we are and what we do.

But most of our enquiries don’t come through our website. Our latest two speaking engagements came through Twitter and Facebook respectively.

A simple benefit of social media is being available on multiple channels, so you can serve your clients/customers more effectively.

Also interesting; these enquiries came through a personal channel, rather than the official Twitter account or Facebook page. Again, it points back to the increasing importance of personal brand.

More on this soon!

(Clever calendar pic borrowed from this ingenious page)

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Simon's iPhone alarm goes off on stage, while Alistair Helms laughs

Didn’t make it to Social Media Junction? Missing a conference is never the same in the age of Twitter.

There’s photos, videos, and tweets. There’s a pretty darn thorough writeup in StopPress.

I got asked what I got out of it (see my comments and others’), especially considering I probably know a lot of the stuff already. Admittedly, I didn’t get a whole lot of new knowledge. But that’s not why people go to conferences.

Conferences are about making personal connections, meeting the “imaginary friends” you already know online (and making sure they’re real!).

Conferences are often about getting inspired to do what you already know you should do. Never underestimate inspiration.

I had a huge dose of inspiration from Julien Smith, one of the keynote speakers, who was also an “imaginary friend” I listen to on the Media Hacks podcast. Julien’s also co-author with Chris Brogan of the book Trust Agents.

Julien’s presentation, which kicked off the day, went to the heart of adopting social media – the need to be courageous and choose innovation. Here’s a taste of what he said.

It was great to speak to Julien before and after the conference (video coming soon), and to be challenged by this NYT bestselling author to do what I do (reasonably) well – write.

So watch this space. And it won’t be a book about social media, it’ll be about leadership, because that’s what social media will require of you. I’d better hurry up, the topic is on the radar already.

Other highlights:

• The irrepressible Aisha Hilary’s case study of how SBS is using social media to connect with its TV audiences (yes, audiences, they have 4 main segments who are very diverse)
• The practical (and full-of-local-examples) practitioner’s panel, chaired by Vincent Heeringa.
• Mike Hickinbotham’s in-depth case study of culture change and social media adoption at Telstra.
• The very entertaining Andy Beal’s very detailed and practical session on social media monitoring. Full marks for some great local examples – and pronouncing nz as en zed!
• Justin Flitter gets what social media is all about – the opportunity to create a customer-centric organisation.
• Our former neighbour Paul Reynolds (the incumbent, not the Telecom CEO) had some inspiring case studies of social media in the cultural sector.

Heard from the floor

I caught up with marketing veteran Steve Bridges, who at 69 years old has just bought an iPhone. He was loving the conference, enjoying the new information while also reassured that good marketing is what it always has been – creating a customer-centric organisation.

While Social Media Junction had good representation from telcos – with Telstra from Australia and Vodafone, Orcon and 2degrees from New Zealand – it was a bit of a mystery why Telecom weren’t part of the practitioners panel. It was a mystery to Rebecca from Telecom, too, who nevertheless was an enthusiastic live tweeter during the conference.

Fortunately, Rebecca gave a great presentation at last week’s Social Media Club Auckland. Video coming soon…

My top tips

I had the privilege of chairing a bloggers’ panel made up of some veteran bloggers (and one newcomer): Bernard Hickey, Mauricio Freitas, Russell Brown, Alistair Helm and Greer McDonald.

Themes from the panel, in no particular order:

• Have an opinion. Bernard Hickey put it this way: the best bars have the best bar fights. Be controversial.
• Promote your competition. Another one from Bernard, strongly echoed by Alistair. The main aim is to provide interesting stuff for your audience, whether or not it comes from you.
• Adapt to your audience. Greer expected her audience to be people like her – penniless generation Y women. Instead, it’s “old fat rich white men” … although perhaps that’s not too surprising!
• It’s an ongoing campaign. Mauricio runs the metrics on his blog like a perpetual campaign. He sets regular goals and keeps track of them.
• Do it yourself. Alistair’s first post was by a PR company and he didn’t like it at all. The best content comes from inside the company.
• Use the whole ecosystem. As other social media platforms have arisen, they’ve been very powerful as blog distribution mechanisms. I mentioned a Korean study that showed how Twitter is a broadcast medium, with the ability for dialogue when needed.

And finally, here are my top 5 tips for compelling content:

5 top tips for compelling, relevant blog content

What was your favourite part of Social Media Junction?

Updated: here’s what I said (it makes the slides make more sense)

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A year ago it was hard to find a central place to find out what was happening in social media specifically in New Zealand.

Now we have a wealth of conversations covering social media in New Zealand on multiple levels. Here are the ones we know about:

Social Talk NZ features contributions from a wide range of social media types exploring questions and issues from a business perspective. Includes yours truly as a contributor, although I haven’t yet contributed since the #sy launch.Watch this space! Even better, comment on some of the posts already there.

Social Media NZ features more of the tech side of social media, and has an international team including contributors from Canada and Spain.

What’s interesting about these two efforts is their use of Posterous. Posterous sits somewhere between Twitter and blogging, and makes it very easy for people to create and comment on content. That’s an exciting space to watch, and may even deserve it’s own blog post.

And NZ’s arts community The Big Idea has some great discussions about social media from the perspective of arts organisations, with special guest Vicki Allpress Hill from The Edge venue in Auckland (we interviewed Vicki’s colleague Josie earlier this year). Although the conversation centres around arts, the issues (control of the message, authenticity, return on investment) are pretty universal.

There’s a weekly internet radio show called NZTalk, which features more conversation about social media in New Zealand.

And then we also have the NZ Social Media Network, which is not as lively as the conversations above, but is a great place to find others in New Zealand with an interest in social media. I’ll be posting this here and hoping to get some crossover between the network and these other exciting conversations.

If you’re in Auckland and want some real-life, face to face conversations about social media, come along to the NZ National Tweetup (yes I know, typical Aucklanders, we think we are New Zealand!

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Josie Campbell, Communications Manager at The EDGE Performing Arts Venue, tells us how she uses social media to build buzz and hold conversations with her customers.

Follow Josie on Twitter. And let us know what you think? How do you use social media for more than just one-way announcements?

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We’re trying to keep the numbers manageable, so if you’re not sure if you’re a practitioner of social media based in Auckland, you’d best stay away from the meetup we’re having on Tuesday in Freeman’s Bay.

Enough said.

(Kidding! We’d love to see you there!)

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UPDATE:  See TVNZ’s coverage of the Auckland Twestival

This Thursday Auckland , Wellington and Christchurch will be the first places in the world to kick off a worldwide Twestival .

Twestival is like a normal tweetup , but it’s raising funds for CharityWater .

For just $10 at the door (or paid on the website) you can enjoy:

• meeting other "imaginary friends" (people you know on Twitter but not in "real life")
• free alcohol
• possibly some music
• being part of a world event that’s doing a lot of good!
• and if you don’t even know what Twitter is, it’s a great opportunity to find out!

iJump is supporting the event and we’ll be saying a few things about social media and how it’s changing the world on the night. But only for a few minutes

The Auckland Twestival 2009:

• Venue: Sale Street Brewery
• Time: 5pm – about 9pm
• Cost: $10 – all proceeds go toward Charity Water
• Partners: Zendesk is the main sponsor; Sale Street Brewery are contributing; and little old iJump is helping get the word out.
• HELP NEEDED: We’re still looking for someone to provide a laptop, large screen/projector and internet connection, so we can hook up with all the other Twestivals around the world! Contact Justin Flitter to help, or just leave a comment.

And thanks so much to Joi Design for putting together the nametags at such short notice.

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I inadvertently left out two important events from Monday’s roundup: Webstock (Wellington, Feb 16-20) and Web09 (Auckland, 17-18 April).

These events are for the more technically inclined, but there are social media tie-ins.

Webstock has social media consultant Derek Powazek and Flickr’s community manager Heather Champ , as well as New Zealand’s own Russell Brown (publisher of the Public Address blog and community) and Nat Torkington (organiser of KiwiFoo and a regular tech commentator).

Web09′s speakers will be talking about interface design, open APIs, iPhone apps, mobile and creating a great user experience. Lets hope many designers and developers get that message!

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On Twitter? Want to be? Want to learn more? In Auckland?

Come along to tonight’s "Tweetup ", starting from 5pm at the Sale Street Brewery .

There’s also the Auckland Twestival , a charity event raising funds for Charity Water , next Thursday at the same venue.

Want to be notified when the next Tweetup is? Join the Auckland Twitter Meetup Group .

Will I see you at either one?

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photo credit: nyki_m

We’re about to enter a slightly crazy time of public speaking engagements, which means just as much listening and talking – if we do our job right.

Here they are, in short order:

• Monday, August 4th , 7:30am – 9:30am, at Lowndes Associates ‘ Business Intelligence Workshop , at the Stamford Plaza in Albert Street, Auckland. Subject is “Online Strategies for Non-Online Businesses” Bookings here .
• Thursday, August 7th , 12pm-2pm, at the Marketing Association ’s Southern Luncheon at the Hotel Grand Chancellor , 161 Cashel Street, Christchurch. Subject: Making Sense of Social Media. Bookings here .
• Wednesday, August 13th , 2:30-3pm as part of the day-long Digital Future Now summit, at the SkyCity Convention Centre in Auckland. I’ll be on a panel with Paul Reynolds and Nicholas O’Flaherty discussing how social media can help business. Bookings here .
• Monday, September 15th , 4:15-5pm as part of the day-long 6th Annual Media Relations Conference at the Wellington Town Hall . I’m chairing a “champagne roundtable” (hic!) on exploring the potential of social media. Bookings here .
• Tuesday, September 16th , 1:30pm-5pm in a workshop entitled Blogs: Friend or Foe? Also at the Wellington Town Hall . Bookings here .

And if you can’t make it to any of these, we’ll still be producing the weekly Jump In video podcast , and appearing from time to time on Radio NZ National’s Virtual World segment with Jim Mora .

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