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Have you watched The Scoop podcast?

September 14th, 2009 by mhjones

Once a month for the last few months we’ve been trying something different at The Scoop, a technology business podcast I produce for the Financial Review.

Two guests join me in the Fairfax studio for a chat in front of the cameras. The format is shorter than the regular audio program, but I’m hoping the video format will help broaden the show’s appeal. Hope you agree…

Check it out each week under The Scoop tab at tv.misaustralia.com.

Here’s an embedded version of a recent episode that is served up from the same platform, titled “Online travel takes off.”


Talking social media business with Peter Switzer

September 14th, 2009 by mhjones

Hello if you’re visiting us after listening to Peter Switzer’s Talking Business show on Qantas Radio.

I don’t have an audio version handy, but you can read the transcript in PDF format here. Peter invited me on the show to talk about social media, particularly from a corporate perspective.

And surprisingly enough he also asked me to talk about my own business, something that I’ve not done much of lately! I’ll blame a combination of too much project work activity, and much of my social media attention directed to my twitter feed. Having said all that, I’ve got more content & changes planned for this site coming soon, so stick around and subscribe to the RSS feed.

Tagged: Media
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The Scoop wins a Lizzie

April 29th, 2009 by mhjones

Way back in 2007 I had this idea for a business podcast. A technology podcast that brought together the best minds in the technology business to uncover a few pearls of wisdom for CIOs and technology leaders. I called it “The Scoop.”

mj-awardFormer publisher of The Australian Financial Review’s MIS Magazine, Matt Rigney, backed the idea and helped sell it to editorial and management at Fairfax Business Media. And FBM has backed me ever since.

Fast forward to April 2009 and  I received a huge thumbs up from my tech journalism and media colleagues when The Scoop received a Lizzie Award for Best Audio Program.  Obviously I’m stoked by the win, particularly given that The Scoop returns next week after a long summer hiatus. I’ll write more about that soon.

Read the rest of this entry »

ad:tech Sydney’s marketing “love-in”

March 11th, 2009 by mhjones

I read someone on Twitter describe this week’s ad:tech Sydney conference as a “love-in for marketers and ad agencies.” (Read ad:tech twitterings here.) It’s an interesting description that betrays an obvious slant towards the “other camp” which I heard one ad agency exec describe with a hint of derision as “all these social media consultants.”logo_adtech_sydney

As an aside, we’ve also got the “tech” part of this whole “ad:tech” meme. But that’s been conveniently sidelined in the battle of marketing ideologies. Maybe we just take technology (ie. the one giant computer called the internet) for granted now, since it’s use-case scenarios that matter.

So all this got me thinking. What is it about the mindset of agency-types, and the mindset of social media consultant-types (I tend to fall into the latter), that causes mild friction at events like ad:tech? Read the rest of this entry »

Life as a digital media speaker, workshop host

February 21st, 2009 by mhjones

Mark Jones keynote at FPA ConferenceA few people have asked me what I’m doing these days so I thought it’s about time I wrote an update!

Many of you already know I’ve been a technology journalist for more than a decade, and I’ve continued to work as a freelance contributor for The Australian Financial Review, producing video interviews and The Scoop (which is on an extended summer break). But what you might not know is I’m also a keynote speaker and workshop host focussed on, you guessed it, digital media and internet trends (btw, you can book me direct, or via agencies like Saxton and ICMI). Why? I’ve always made career decisions based on a simple premise. If the idea sounds scary, I do it! Life is more fun that way.

So last November I found myself on a big stage at the Financial Planners Association Conference on the Gold Coast speaking about social media in front of a few hundred people. It was one of a dozen or so keynotes and workshops I have delivered over the past 6 months or so.  The folk at the FPA were kind enough to send me some photos of yours truly on stage, pictured here. Read the rest of this entry »

Life, mashed up

February 13th, 2009 by mhjones

I live for moments of clarity, when all those passing thoughts and observations suddenly collide and create something new. And this time it was during a chance encounter on ustream.tv, the free video channel community.james-valentine

One of my twitter buddies had linked to a test broadcast by ABC personality James Valentine. He was in a radio studio with an engineer (off air) and trying to figure out how to possible weave a live video feed into his radio show.

And here we were, some 92 people who had caught wind of the experiment and buzzed by to see what the fuss was about. James was engaging directly with the assembled onlookers. He wanted to get the sound working. Technical stuff. As an aside, it was fun to discover one of the ustream participants was an old friend who I’d not seen for years – the online equivalent of bumping into someone in the street.

Meanwhile, I had other stuff happening while ustream’s live comments unfolded. I was glancing at my twitter stream (you can find me here, btw), reading email, doing some online research ahead of a social media workshop I was to host the following day, synching my ipod and smartphone. Just your regular Joe with an digital attention deficit disorder. Read the rest of this entry »

Social media simplicity

October 12th, 2008 by mhjones

Amid all the economic commentary, there’s a quiet murmur among digital media and social networking people. Will the bad times hit the marketing and tech industry’s brightest light and snuff it out?

What’s clear to me is that the return to economic fundamentals will rub off on everything else. In tech, media and marketing circles, that means a flight to quality companies, quality products, and the radical pursuit of simplicity.

So it’s incumbent on the digital media industry to clearly articulate the social media value proposition. I think we need less talk about social media theory, less industry obsession with jargon and the wow factor, and more focus on real results achieved by companies using social media. Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: Marketing, Social media
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Twitter-nomics

July 25th, 2008 by mhjones

As I wrote previously, I’ve spent time exploring the Twitterverse over recent weeks. Micro-blogging is an art form, I’ve decided, but more on that idea another time.

Today’s uh-huh moment comes from Twittercounter, a service that give you statistics on anyone’s twitter subscribers. Yours truly still hasn’t hit the big-time because unlike many of my peers, I maintain a tight, select, or if you like elite list of followers. So we’re talking hundreds, not thousands of fans following our every thought.

But yesterday’s technical glitch meant Twitter wiped more than a hundred of my subscribers away. Today, they’re apparently back and the list keeps growing. Here’s what’s interesting - Twitter is now in the business of predicting subscriber growth. I’m growing at an average rate of three people per day as this chart illustrates. Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: Twitter, Weblogs
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The good media story

July 22nd, 2008 by mhjones

Ok, let’s be honest. Would you rather read a good story or a bad story? Do you like happy endings (non-Hollywood style), or the dramatic melancholy of an unresolved dissonance?

If you think about the new media meta-narrative, it strikes me that we’ve become fixated on the drama that’s affecting incumbent media. You’re familiar with the story: mainstream newspapers and TV are “losing” while new media like consumer-generated content and social networking is “winning.”

Just about every media debate I can think of – blogging vs. journalism, the future of advertising, digital rights management, mobile content – fits into this paradigm. Every conference, panel discussion or private meeting I’ve enjoyed over the past two years has roughly echoed this story. And it’s a fascinating story, even if it sometimes seems overplayed. It’s fascinating because it echoes other big underdog stories that capture our attention: David vs. Goliath, Vietnam vs. the United States, Maxine McKew vs. John Howard. Read the rest of this entry »

Attention divided, Twittered

July 7th, 2008 by mhjones

If you’re one of my select, loyal readers you might have noticed that I’m tending not to write as frequently on this blog as times past.

My interest in the convergence of media, technology and marketing hasn’t changed. If anything, it’s deepened. What has changed is that my attention is increasingly divided between different forms of social media. And most of my social media time is currently soaked up by Twitter. If you want to follow my twitter musings, check me out at twitter.com/markhjones.