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.”

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 »

Tagged: Events, Marketing, Social media
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February 21st, 2009 by mhjones

A 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 »

Tagged: Marketing, Personal, Social media, Twitter
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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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June 16th, 2008 by mhjones

We’ve got some exciting news to announce today.

Heather Jones, an awesomely talented communications exec who just happens to be my wife, has started her own corporate communications and social investments consultancy - Filtered Communications.

As Media Connect wrote today (subscribers-only, full copy below), the opportunity came about as a result of a redundancy package. It was good timing - this business idea has been in the works for some time.

The big picture story is that we’re setting up an new entity called Filtered Media Group. I remain director of Filtered Media, our digital media services division. Heather is director of Filtered Communications, a practice focused on corporate communications, social investments and corporate social responsibility.

The idea behind this structure is that it will allow us to focus on our different areas of expertise (and different client bases), while taking advantage of complimentary skills.

It’s early days, so I’ll write more about what we are doing soon. But until then, you can email heather [at] filteredmedia.com.au  and read the Media Connect story below (republished with Media Connect’s kind permission):

Jones takes redundancy, launches business

Tiffany Blatchford, IT Journo / Media Connect

Heather Jones, Lenovo’s former communications director for Australia and New Zealand, will launch her own Corporate Communications and Social Investments consultancy practice, Filtered Communications, following her redundancy earlier this month from the PC maker.

Filtered Communications will operate as a division of Filtered Media, a digital media and social networking consultancy, founded in 2007 by Jones’ husband, technology and business journalist, Mark Jones. The new Filtered Communications arm will “focus on corporate communications and values-based leadership coaching, as well as social investments consulting, for medium to large Australian companies and their internal management teams,” Jones said.

Describing her redundancy from Lenovo as being “of mutual advantage to both parties”, Jones explained she had been keen to pursue new opportunities anyway, and was looking forward to seeing if she could make a go of running her own business.

“I’m very excited about the leadership coaching aspect of my new business. I’ll be helping managers and senior executives identify what makes them personally successful in their leadership roles, and what makes the company successful, then marrying the two together,” said Jones.

Jones also expressed a lot of enthusiasm for social investment consulting because this is “a real moment in time”, when companies are becoming more aware of their corporate social responsibilities.

“Companies are beginning to understand that they have a responsibility to society and the environment, without always knowing how to manage that,” said Jones. “Social investment coaching is about helping companies develop successful corporate social responsibility strategies. I believe passionately in the power of strategic CSR to help build a brand, attract new staff, particularly gen Y’s, who are passionate about social justice issues, while importantly, positively impacting the communities and people the brand serves.”

According to Jones, during the course of her 14-year PR career and personal interests, she has developed firm connections to various NGO’s and philanthropic associations, as well as Australian business leaders, and these contacts will allow her to assist companies to develop their corporate brands, and better understand the charity landscape. She will be “industry-agnostic”, believing corporate communications and CSR skills reach across any industry, but acknowledges technology as her homeland.

When asked what she is most looking forward to about embarking on her new business venture, Jones said it would be the flexibility and autonomy, and being able to apply her skills to focus more intentionally on things she’s most passionate about.

Prior to her comms director role with Lenovo, Jones was the Asia Pacific communications manager for IBM’s PC division, and was instrumental in the management of the acquisition locally of the division by Lenovo back in 2005. She is proud of the progress the company has made in establishing its own presence and identity in the Australian and New Zealand market since that time, and her role in that process.

Jones was one of a number of redundancies made by Lenovo earlier this month. While not willing to give specifics regarding the round of redundancies, a Lenovo spokesperson said: “In an intensely competitive market such as this, Lenovo is focused on fine-tuning operational efficiency in order to keep bringing superior value to our customers. As part of a recent set of initiatives to make the organisation more competitive, some roles in the company have, unfortunately, needed to be phased out.”

Tagged: IT business, Marketing, Media, PR & Comms
Comments: 3 Comments »

March 11th, 2008 by mhjones

Today’s “duh, who knew?!” newsflash comes to us from this yarn in the NYT which reminds us that Internet companies like Yahoo!, Google, Facebook, MySpace etc collect copious amounts of personal data.

This idea has of course already surfaced before in the form of different ideas, such as the attention economy and the attention trust. The point is that all of us implicitly or explicitly make an exchange when we use the Internet. We get access to oceans of content and data, and some of the service providers collect tolls along the way - in this case the search engines and digital media companies that store, mix and exploit personal data. And that data is valuable. There’s no great socialist conspiracy here (to the best of my knowledge) - it’s simply the way the ‘net works.

But food for thought raised here is that there’s been a shift in the balance of power away from traditional media. In times past, media companies drew their strength from understanding and knowing reader behaviour. An editor is at his or her best when decisions about editorial and the media business are heavily influenced by reader behaviour.

Now, that situation hasn’t changed. Editors still understand their readers and publications. But the vast computing power being deployed by Internet giants continues to change the game regardless. Here’s a quote from the NYT piece:

The rich troves of data at the fingertips of the biggest Internet companies are also creating a new kind of digital divide within the industry. Traditional media companies, which collect far less data about visitors to their sites, are increasingly at a disadvantage when they compete for ad dollars.

The major television networks and magazine and newspaper companies “aren’t even in the same league,” said Linda Abraham, an executive vice president at comScore. “They can’t really play in this sandbox.”

During the Internet’s short life, most people have used a yardstick from traditional media to measure success: audience size. Like magazines and newspapers, Web sites are most often ranked based on how many people visit them and how long they are there.

But on the Internet, advertisers are increasingly choosing where to place their ads based on how much sites know about Web surfers.

So where does this leave big media? Do you rush out and buy sophisticated web analytics services or software? Wait for the consumer privacy outrage to swing the pendulum back in your favour? It would be foolish and simplistic to say there was one easy answer.

But for me, an interesting subtext to this piece is that what counts more than ever is the opinion of advertisers and marketers when it comes to online spending expectations. In Australia, we’ve got some really savvy online marketers, and plenty of others who sadly think digital media still equals a flashing web banner.

Reminds me of a video that I helped Foad Fadaghi produce for BRW (bottom right side of the page) for his Digital Generation report. If advertisers want accountability and metrics, and you’re in the media game, then now would be a really good time to evaluate or re-evaluate online measurement tools.

Tagged: Marketing, Media, New media
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January 22nd, 2008 by mhjones

If you read between the lines, there’s a sense of uneasiness about social media in 2008.

Facebook was the Internet’s darling in 2007, having effectively squashed MySpace’s mojo and diverted much of the blogosphere and traditional media’s attention away from discussions about blogs, podcasts and vodcasts. But as Facebook hurries in its efforts to grow up and get a real income, Facebookers like myself have taken a good hard look at the information we publish about ourselves online. Heck, if you breach the social network’s code of ethics you could get struck off, like Robert Scoble. (It’s old news now, but apparently he committed a page-scraping crime in the name of innovation.)

Regardless, it’s dawned on the Facebook community (again) that this social network is not their network. They provide content to Facebook, but ultimately they don’t own that content. Not that this should be seen as some new, evil crime by a big company, mind you. Those of us who work in the media have long understood that the trade-off for a salary, or freelance invoice, is that we surrender copyright to the organisation that publishes our work. That’s life.

But to step back a moment, these Facebook and user-generated content debates highlight an important trend that’s unfolding in 2008. We’ve become social media and online content snackers. We browse Facebook, YouTube, scan Digg for some interesting yarns, poke around on our local newspaper website, scan some RSS feeds, then get back to work (unless reading and blogging is your real job, of course).

Trend Watching has wrapped the term “Expectation Economy” around this trend, and made a good point. Our high expectations for instant access to free, engaging content on the web is also making us irritated and indifferent. Kind of like eating sugar all day. At some point you just want a really good steak (or vegie burger).

A parallel trend here is the proliferation of social media marketing tools. Vandelay lists 233 different social networking sites you can use to market your blog, or get plugged into online conversations. Now, I’ve just resurfaced last week from a long Christmas and New Year holiday. With the exception of checking email and a bit of web surfing, I was basically offline for a month. I do it every year as a way of resetting the brain. But the good thing about getting reconnected again is the sites Vandelay lists will get you up to speed really quickly. The downside is that I’m not particularly loyal to any of them. Actually, to use Twitter as a case in point, I’ve virtually abandoned the service because I found it too distracting and wasn’t delivering value. So I move on to snack on other stuff like Spock.

But there is an interesting upside. In November I invited some of my business contacts and friends to do a quick online survey on how they were using social media. I received 35 responses - all from people who were high net worth individuals, ran a business or occupied some form of senior business management role. To my surprise, they’re strongly in favour of using social networking tools to recommend products and services (see slide below). That tells me we’ve started to move beyond snacking to eating bigger meals, as it were. Product reviews, particularly by business users and consumers, are one of the most powerful developments in social media. That should be music to marketing ears and for the industry at large. What about you, how do you feel about using social media to rate, evaluate and share your experiences with products and services? And should this be the greatest utility to come from social networks?

Tagged: Marketing, Social media, The Scoop
Comments: 4 Comments »

August 9th, 2007 by mhjones

Ok, so don’t ask me why The Scoop is competing with the aussieBum video podcast on the iTunes music store’s business podcast category. Call it one of life’s little mysteries. And call it sheer curiosity, but I checked out the aussieBum vodcast (it’s an Australian brand of underpants) - and I guess you could categorise it “business”. Maybe “men’s business”? It’s actually a very clever piece of marketing. An attractive woman walks around with a microphone and camera on Sydney’s beaches, gets unsuspecting buff men to try on some new undies, and films the results.

I’ve got a sneaky feeling there’s no way yours truly & Co. can compete. But, we did have a taste of minor B-grade fame, possibly even C-grade, when our humble offering rose to number 5 on iTunes business podcast category yesterday. We’re even a “new and notable” podcast! That means we must have at least a few listeners, which is very reassuring. : )

Tagged: Marketing, Podcasting
Comments: 1 Comment »

May 8th, 2007 by mhjones

Web 2.0 is a bubble, and Second Life is arguably the brightest shiniest example.

Plenty of time has been devoted to the phenomenon from a technology and business perspective.
What’s needed is a good debate about the PR and marketing issues raised by companies experimenting with one of the fastest changing new media.

And it just so happens that the 8th National Public Affairs Convention is going to tackle this very issue on Thursday. I will be joined on stage by ABC’s head of new media Abigail Thomas and Telstra and AFTRS Second Life projects director Gary Hayes to talk about how valuable Second Life will become to the PR community. Check out the full program here.

But before I do so, what’s your take on Second Life? Do we believe their usage statistics (6 million+ users), and do many PR and marketing execs really understand what a fundamental shift in thinking is required to engage with SL inhabitants? Big companies like traditional online marketing because you can buy stuff - ads, sponsorships etc. With SL it seems the stuff you buy is a "space" where you invite people to interact with your brand. Is it working? Why/why not?

Tagged: Marketing
Comments: 9 Comments »

September 20th, 2006 by mhjones

I told a gathering of marketing and PR types at an AIIA lunch today that the press release (and the press conference for that matter) was as good as dead.

Ironically, I came across this press release today from a group of Silicon Valley types who are reinventing the press release. Obviously you’d hope that future missives from this group will be disseminated through non-traditional means?

Tagged: Marketing
Comments: 6 Comments »

March 14th, 2006 by mhjones

I’m down at Sydney’s Darling Harbour today attending the Search Engine Room conference, an annual show buzzing with search engine strategists and marketers happily disintermediating the traditional marketing and media world.

The story behind the story that 99% of Google’s revenues come from online marketing is that it’s spawned a whole new community of businesses that effectively play the middleman role in the marketing equation. Not sure how to get the best result in PageRank? Nervous about whether you should spend $1 or $2 on buying a certain keyword? According to Frost & Sullivan analyst Foad Faghadi, who spoke this morning, there are now around 40 search engine marketing companies in Australia. He also said there are 150 people working full time in the search industry (I think that figure’s a bit low), and pay per click advertising represents $124 million, or 20 per cent, of the $650 million spent in online marketing in Australia.

There are plenty of other factoids floating around here, which I’ll keep under my hat for the moment. But with 250 people in the room and a small but buzzing collection of stands, it’s obvious that there is real traction in this sector.

Oh, and yes, they have free wi-fi for delegates. Hurrah. But oddly enough, I can only see about two or three others using notebooks. Quite a contrast from the US where events like this are a live advertisement for Apple PowerBooks.

Tagged: Marketing
Comments: 3 Comments »