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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Vodafone loaned us the brand new HTC Magic for a couple of weeks. It’s the first handset in NZ to feature Google’s Android operating system. What does this mean? Find out.

For a more in-depth (ie: techie) review: see NZBen’s review.

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Vodafone discovered the wrath of the Twittersphere last week, and to their credit, they listened.

Lance Wiggs has a fantastic blog post explaining the background, and the comments are well worth reading too.

It made waves, even worthy of a mention on Radio NZ’s This Way Up programme . (MP3 recording here )

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(Side note: the fact that Radio NZ interviewed a tech correspondent from the UK about a marketing/comms issue in NZ just shows how converged the world is becoming!)

Some observations:

• Transparency is no longer optional. Issues of corporate strategy are going to be discussed, whether you plan for it or not. Full credit to Paul Brislen from Vodafone for actively participating in the comment thread on Lance’s blog.
• Beware of the expectations you set. Paul set very high standards by being a genuine participant in social media. While his temporary replacement 3Gguy did interact with people, it was a radical departure from what people had become used to. While 3Gguy may have been a fantastic tactical campaign if it started from scratch, the distance the audience had to travel was too far.
• Having a strategy helps. Vodafone’s Twitter involvement began as an under-the-radar experiment by Paul, and whatever strategy has been developed has been in retrospect. To be sure, a lot of innovation happens that way (penicillin, anyone?) but when more than one person is involved, it’s good to set some guidelines. (And maybe, ahem, get some help from, say a social media consultancy .)
• You can’t please all the people, all the time. Some people were quite happy with 3Gguy. After all, he was giving away free stuff! What’s interesting is that, in general, those who didn’t mind 3Gguy are relatively recent to Twitter, while those who resented his presence have been on Twitter for a long time . Within every tribe there will be sub-tribes, and while you can’t please everyone, it’s good to have an idea of who you do want to please.

Last word: It’s easy to throw stones, and have 20/20 hindsight. Vodafone made an unwise decision, but has been excellent in listening and responding to the community.

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Last week Twitter upgraded the way it told people someone new was following them. Previously all you got was a name; now you get more details so you can decide whether to follow back, without having to click through.

Interestingly, two other services, Twimailer and Topify , already offered these features (plus a few more).

Here’s Twitter’s new notification style:

And here’s a notification from Topify:

I’ve often wondered how Twitter is going to successfully add features, because they’ve made it so easy for others to build infrastructure on top of their own.

As a public good, this is a great idea, because we consumers get a huge range of services we can use with Twitter, and it also helps us realise the value of Twitter, therefore increasing our loyalty.

But I didn’t realise until now what Twitter’s other motive might have been … to provide an open infrastructure so others can innovate, and to then take the best ideas and make them their own.

Is this co-creation in action? Or is it a bit predatory? What do you think?

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Some connection troubles prevented me from posting this update until today. Enjoy! This is from Wednesday 15 April.

What are the new rules of marketing and PR? What does lead generation look like in a social media world?

Those were some of the questions covered today with two of the world’s top social media teachers, speakers and doers.

David Meerman Scott’s New Rules

David Meerman Scott kicked off the day with the new rules of marketing and PR. One of those rules is to give things away, and David backs his theory up with solid practice: download his free ebook here .

After a morning break he got onto his latest book, World Wide Rave , a study of why things ‘go viral’.

Towards the end of his session, David shared his own experience of what hasn’t worked – as well as what has – in promoting World Wide Rave. Not an easy thing for any marketer to do, but a really heartening thing for any other marketer to see – that any experimentation will have its share of mistakes.

That’s why you need to think like a venture capitalist or film producer. It’s not about the success of a single campaign, it’s about launching a portfolio of efforts, and measuring the success of each one.

Chris Brogan’s Lead Gen 2.0

Chris Brogan took the stage in the afternoon, and beguiled us all with stories about people he knew, experiences he’d had and … us! I wondered why he’d been taking photos all morning instead of listening to David. He’d been gathering material for his presentation-on-the-fly, a brilliant way of keeping our attention and helping us see things differently, by seeing ourselves!

I’m not going to try and summarise everything David and Chris said – that’s what live tweets are for . But I will note what stood out to me:

• The more you release control, the more you stand to gain. For example, the old way to generate leads is to give something in exchange for an email address. But that limits the number of people who will make that effort, and it reduces your ability to spread your message. Give it away, don’t just half-heartedly give it away.
• You are as valuable as your content. That’s a direct quote from David, and it was a chilling reminder for me to get back into blogging! Particularly since I was nodding in recognition of many things they were saying, and yet realising, I haven’t expressed this information! So I apologise, iJump readers. It’ll never happen again!
• Marketers love rules. At iJump one of our sayings is, there are no rules, only relationships. I strongly believe this but I marvel at the outstanding success of David’s book (which we all got a free copy of, by the way!). It shows me that marketers hunger for boundaries, for the rules of the game, and it means there’s a lot of opportunity (and responsibility) for those who seek to delineate this new world. David has done an admirable job, giving clear guidelines while avoiding strict black-and-white rules.
• Marketers are impatient. And rightly so. It’s your hunger for action that has got you where you are. The culture of social media, on the other hand, is discovered over time, like finding your way around a new neighbourhood. You could get a Lonely Planet guide, or you could take a gift to your new neighbours and get to know them up close.
• Marketers find Twitter hard to understand. This isn’t from Chris or David, it’s from my continued observations. As a rule (remember, though, there are none!) people who communicate well in person struggle with twitter, while more introverted people like me take to the medium naturally. Of course, just as I have learnt to turn my personality up for face-to-face meetings (and I love presenting to a crowd), an extrovert can learn to navigate the body-language-free world of Twitter (and social media) with a willingness to explore, and some friends to help them.

That’s all from day one. More soon!

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Matt at Kurb thinks Twitter’s not good for branding, because it only allows 140 characters. I disagree.

Branding has always been about a simple, big idea. Just Do It. I’m Loving It. etc.

What’s changing now is that audiences are getting more involved, expressing their own perceptions of brands.

In one way, it’s nothing new. My version of Nike has always been idiosyncratic and different to your perception.

But now we have the tools to mash up our favourite (or least favourite) brands and express our own perception.

If you have a brand, you’d be smart to get into that conversation with others about your brand. You may find hidden facets, things people think about you that you never thought of.

Because it’s a conversation, Twitter gives you the opportunity to practice your brand, and co-create it with your customers and prospects.

Where’s the money? There’s not a straight-line path between exploring your brand on Twitter, and money in the bank. But the line is there. It’s called strategy, and it’s preparing you for next month, next year, two years from now.

And, as my recent post shows , brands don’t need to be commercial. Simple, big ideas can like Twestival and Blackout can cause social change, whether it’s digging wells or changing laws.

And it all comes down to the new world of branding that’s being created on Twitter and other conversation platforms. Are you there? Are you learning?

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Rob Holding of NZ’s Rhema network interviews Simon about Twitter, Twestival and where all this is going.

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We’re living in the age of the mobile social movement – and I don’t just mean you can get it on your mobile phone.

It’s mobile because you can do a lot of good without being deeply committed to something. That doesn’t mean you’re not sincere, but it means it’s never been more convenient to act on your best impulses.

Examples:

Twestival shows how short the distance is between idea and execution.

In September 2008, Amanda Rose had an idea for a tweetup that collected donations for CharityWater. In February this year, the idea went worldwide.

Because the infrastructure was already setup (Twestival.com used WordPress MU so each city could easily manage its own page), getting your own city was relatively simple. The community was already there, and as you might know, Twitterers tend to be better educated, wealthier and better networked than most people, so venues and other details were easy to organise.

In Auckland we had 28 attendees (not bad considering the short lead time of about 2.5 weeks!) and raised $200 which went towards the worldwide total of US$250,000. See the TVNZ coverage here , and our background post here .

Not only did we raise money, we also got to meet fascinating people, like the Dutch student who’d been in Auckland only two days, and was leaving the next day, but wanted to donate and meet some other Twitter people.

#blackout

If you’re in New Zealand, chances are you’ll have heard of the "online community" causing the government to defer the proposed amendment to the Copyright Act for a month.

Interestingly, opposition had been going some months, with the development of the Creative Freedom Foundation website, but it wasn’t until February 16th that the big idea took hold, and became the #blackout protest .

It’s another example of how people will rally to a cause they believe in, as long as you can communicate it in a simple way that:

• shows how it affects them
• incites curiosity
• takes less than 3 seconds
• is spreadable
• translates to multiple platforms (eg the blacked out profile pictures, the banner ads, and even the placards used in real-life protests)

Notice that both of these "mobile social movements" had one thing in common – there was no big corporation involved. While there were corporate sponsors for individual Twestivals, they were in a service role, rather than telling people what to do.

If a business wants to insert itself into a mobile social movement – or start its own – it will face scepticism if its goal is anything but helping people do what they want to do.

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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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Well it’s not quite an invasion, but there are an awful lot of very smart people hitting New Zealand in the next few months.

Feb 19: The Great Word of Mouth Experiment – Jaffe, Sernovitz

It starts in just 18 days with the Great Word of Mouth Experiment . Details here , but you won’t find registration details. This is an invitation-only event to map the marketing social networks of New Zealand (and, no doubt, further afield).

Speakers for the event are Joseph Jaffe , author of Join the Conversation , and Andy Sernovitz , author of Word of Mouth Marketing .

March 11-12: 2nd Digital Media Summit – Hopkins, Horne and more

In March there’s the 2nd Digital Media Summit , chaired by Australia’s top Social Media bloke Lee Hopkins , and featuring MySpace’s Rebekah Horne. Not to be outdone by the Aussies, there are also some pretty good kiwi speakers and panelists, including Jake Pearce , Helen Baxter and Ben Young .

The conference also features an unconference session, where the passive audience becomes an active contributor to the conversation.

April 15-16 Marketing Now – Brogan, Scott and more

The excitement doesn’t stop, it just gets better. On April 15th and 16th Marketing Now hits Wellington, featuring social media superstar Chris Brogan and David Meerman Scott , author of the The New Rules of Marketing and PR .

This conference has been organised by Siobhan Bulfin , an extraordinary person we met on our recent Wellington trip. She’s been learning social media for a year and already she’s put this conference together. Great skills!

There’s a Twitter-only special for Marketing Now , which is a significant discount , but available only if you’re on Twitter.

Interested?

Sign up for Twitter , and follow me , Marie or Siobhan (all or any of us). And, using an @ reply, or a direct message, ask us about the Twitter-only special.

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