With the 2013 NRL Footy Season just upon us I'm prompted to go back and do a quick snapshot to see how much the clubs have embraced social media over the last couple of years.

The Brisbane Broncos lead with over 260,000 Facebook likes which you sort of expect as they are a one team city (like Melbourne).  The growth rate of 24% isn't as strong (the average across all teams 81%) but a lot of that has to do with the Broncos being the earlier adopters of social media.

Second on the ladder was last years Premiers the Melbourne Storm with 203,000 and 83% growth.

What we've generally seen across all the clubs is a greater committment to social media engagement with the total across all clubs at 1.6M people. 

What will be interesting to track is how many of those Facebook fans convert to members and how the Club leverages these channels throughout the year.  

Hi, please find below calender of latest band dates and locations

For booking details please contact us or for more information on the Band or Brett's acoustic show dates please see our Facebook page

We've (The Maxys Band) a gig tonight (Saturday 26th) and need a female vocalist who can fill in with our male vocalist Brett - our usual female vocalist Rachael has come down with the flu and can't perform.

Gig - tonight - Saturday, 26th at Canterbury RSL, 10PM-2AM

Example music - list below - need to sing about 15-20 songs max & harmony.

100% Pure Love

Ain't Nobody

Boogie

Chain Of Fools

Dancing Queen

Dreams

Finally

George On My Mind

Help From My Friends

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Hold On

I Can See Clearly Now

I Feel Good

I Will Survive

I Wish

If You're Not In It For Love

Kiss

Lady Marmalade

Let It Be

Long Train Running

Love The One Your With

Missing

Moving On Up

Mumma Mia

Mustang Sally

Not That Kind Of Girl

River Deep Mountain High

Sex Bomb

Sign Sealed Delivered

Smooth Operator

Stick Together

Suspicious Minds

Very Superstitious

Walking By Myself

What I Say

Email: scott@maxys.com.au or call 0414 792 072

• Search engine Google serves more that 694,445 queries
• 6,600+ pictures are uploaded on Flickr
• 600 videos are uploaded on YouTube videos, amounting to 25+ hours of content
• 695,000 status updates, 79,364 wall posts and 510,040 comments are published on Social Networking site Facebook
• 70 New domains are registered
• 168,000,000+ emails are sent
• 320 new accounts and 98,000 tweets are generated on Social Networking site Twitter
• iPhone applications are downloaded more than13,000 times
• 20,000 new posts are published on Micro-blogging platform tumbler
• Popular web browser FireFox is downloaded more than 1700 times
• Popular blogging platform Wordpress is downloaded more than 50 times
• WordPress Plugins aredownloaded more than 125 times
• 100 accounts are created on professional networking site LinkedIn
• 40 new Questions are asked on YahooAnswers.com
• 100+ questions are asked on Answers.com
• 1 new article is published on Associated Content, the world’s largest source of community-created content
• 1 new definition is added on UrbanDictionary.com
• 1,200+ new ads are created on Craigslist
• 370,000+ minutes of voice calls done by Skype users
• 13,000+ hours of music streaming is done by personalized Internet radio provider Pandora
• 1,600+ reads are made on Scribd, the largest social reading publishing company

Creating Compelling Content

Here’s five tips for creating content that hopefully engages and shares

1. What's your objective?  Is it just to express your personal opinion OR does it have some other objective?
2. Who is your audience and what are their needs? You can't be all things to everyone so visualise the types of readers you want and understand what they want.
3. In terms of content there are six key questions to work with - Who, What, When, Where, How Much and Why?  What answers are important for your reader.
4. Tone: Is easier to be yourself - be real, natural and conversational - we’re all becoming highly tuned at filtering irrelevant BS.  As a reader I want to get to know you - your opinions.     
5. Is the content likely to be shared?  Does it have a call to action?  Does it entertain?  Does it have a logical flow so that it is easy to read?  Write - proofread (something I'm guilty of often neglecting) - rewrite - cut - post.

I personally applaud Coke for sharing this presentation - it not only creates a framework that educates potential creative partners but also inspires (raises the benchmark) for other businesses.

The key difference is that instead of trying to work out ways of making money I've decided to follow my passion and let the money hopefully be a result of the pursuit - you see I've been bitten hard by the photography bug - I've always enjoyed photography but up until now it was like a seed that had not been given enough nutrician and taken root - any creative pursuit had taken second place.

I've also been round long enough to know about cash flow, marketing, customer service and that creating a sustainable competitive advantage are some of the key the things you need to consider for any business - new or existing.

No customers, no cash - it's not a business it's just a hobby!

Frank Sinatra  Justin Timberlake is playing Frank Sinatra - (Kutcher was busy and can't sing that I know of). They could have cast Lada Gaga to make it different - both icons of their time.  Between Timberlake, Kutcher and Gaga they have over 39m Twitter followers (source).  Maybe they could throw in cameos from Kim Kardashian, Justin Beiber or a Steve Jobs holograph - that would increase viewers and sharing.  I digress, it's gettting late.

I check the time, switch off the tele and post my last tweet - time for bed, tomorrow we're heading away for a couple of weeks R&R.

Funny,  we don't tend to have alarm clocks any more (or watches for that matter) - those period type movies are soooo... - time offers a reflective property, a bit like looking at old photos of your grand parents - that was then, this is now.

I set the alarm on my phone.

INTERIOR.  BEDROOM - MORNING

The SOUND of traffic in the background, faint light coming through the thick drawn curtains, we pan over a half packed suitcase.  Clothes strewn across the room.

CUT TO: 

On a bedside table sits a Samsung Galaxy Nexus Google Android phone and a half eaten ice cream sandwich.   The time shows 5:59AM

[Insert: gratuitous product placement and SEO link bait - Note: the ice cream metaphor also relevant to select audience]

CUT TO:

6:00AM the alarm goes off - the SOUND phone effect of a rooster crowing.

ECU - That moment of waking up dazed, the transition from subconsciousness to conscious reality and then.....?  

Picks up phone and immediately checks email and Facebook.  

Stop there!  

You're busting to do a pee but you check whether someone has sent you a message - that's bizarre!  Is there some kind of compulsive addiction thing happening here?

Last year a study by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research found that as many as one-third of women aged 18-34 check Facebook when they first wake up, even before they get to the bathroom (or sex!).  Men are generally less internet socially skilled means they'd be slightly less compulsive (as a group).   

Either way, you acknowledge how intrusive and pervausive social technology now is in our lives.  If we are not constantly connected we feel withdrawn like some alcohlic or junkie.

Internet Addiction - It's "all good" or is it?

The "technatics" (technology fanatics) will simply say this is the way it is - that it's not bad becuase it's "connecting" people and ideas - that it's "doing good". There are many strong arguments in favour - you only have to think of social media driven revolutions and the sharing of inspirational TED presentations.  

There's some "good TV"; there's some "good people" BUT (there's always a "but"), is it "ALL GOOD"?

More time is spent online today then watching television and over 20% of that time is on/ in social media; 

Another report - more than half (53%) of the Facebook users surveyed had played a social game, with two thirds (65%) starting to play in the last year including 13% in the last month. 19% of social gamers considered themselves ‘addicted’.

So, is playing games a waste of time?  

In terms game playing benefits - is watching reality TV shows any different than playing a computer game or cyberchatting with your friends?  

Is it all just escapism from the drudgery and challenges of normal life or is this just life abd we have a much more transparent window?

With everyone now being a publisher (and so much noise) - from a business marketing perspective how do brands get cut through?

What's Important to your audience?

Last week IBM published the CMO - Leadership and Innovation Report - the key findings revealed that CMOs (Chief Marketing Officers) see four of these challenges as pervasive, universal game-changers:

• the data explosion, 
• social media, 
• proliferation of channels and devices, and 
• shifting consumer demographics.

Additionally, most CMOs are struggling in one vital respect — providing the numbers that demonstrate a return on marketing investment (ROMI).

Exploring Digtial Solutions & ROMI

In terms of Digital Strategy and Internet Marketing then at the moment I'm looking at this whole corporate transmedia storytelling thing - it goes way beyond the basics of Facebook fan pages; Twitter accounts, web pages and SEO.

It goes to the essence of "shareworthyness" - of creating an interactive story experience that resonates and connects with potential customers and influencers.

Following is a recent prezi presentation mash up that looks at Digital Media Strategy and Transmedia Marketing

Times have changed - the old ways we considered the "norm" are like the alarm clocks and film only movie cameras.  How do we adapt and implement; how to we lead; and how do we engage and service our customers? 

We developed our stories - we build our teams - we create and deliver - we share, influence, sell and service.

If interested in more information please connect via Twitter; Facebook; email OR you can RSS my blog feed updates here http://feeds.feedburner.com/maxys

Cheers

Maxy

With 65% of instore purchases initiated on the web - the new battlefield for customer attention is online and, as we all know, the web is increasingly social.  

Today your prospective customers are being influenced by blogs; forums; friends; other customer reviews and what people share online.  

When we look at TV, advertising and the movies, we see the most powerful mass storytelling media is video (the majority of us are predominately visual in the way we consume information about the world around us).  

Combine video storytelling with the communications power of the Internet and you have a "social video" platform which every organisation can leverage - from the very big to smallest organisation.

It's all about strategy and creativity; your story; and the telling and sharing of it, how it resonates, that matters most.

BUT be warned - there are 48 hours of content uploaded to Youtube every minute - how is your content different?  Does it spread?  Does it connect with your audience?  Does it achieve a business objective?  Does it spread?

This week I presented at a workshop at the Online Retailer conference in Sydney on creative internet video and customer engagement.

Following is the presentation in prezi (great from brainstorming to presentation) - it's a mash up of years in business anmd marketing plus weeks researching the web on "social video"  - it is around 45 minutes long but by no means complete (note: I'll add a list of great sources soon - just ran out of time for this post).

Ironically, I didn't allocate enough time to properly edit the content down (personal lesson learnt) - will cut out 50% of the content and make message stronger (that's an overall work in progress)

I'm speaking at an online retailing conference on Monday about creative internet video.

• With all presentations (offline and on) you need to undertstand who your audience is?  
• What your key messages are? 
• What "action" you desire (and how you'll measure success?) 
• About being creative - does the content connect and share - what's the story?  What's the hook?
• How else are going to promote, engage and influence your audience?

Much of the talk today in the digital marketing space is about "earned media" (where influencers spread your brand message [think PR & Word of Mouth]).  It's about brand storytelling that resonates with your audience. 

When thinking "branding" and "storytelling" then advertising and movies comes to mind. 

In looking at digtial media and social media strategy then one of the leaders in the field is Brian Solis,  rated the world's #9 marketing blog by Advertising Age's "Power 150".

"In Time" is a new Crime/ Sci-Fi/ Thriller movie coming out on the 27th October featuring Justin Timberlake , Amanda Seyfried and Cillian Murphy.  At this time of writing 5,458,687 views, 4,000 likes.

I love the top rated comment on Youtube "Why the FUCK didn't they call this movie Justin Time?" baaahhhaaaaaa :)

The central characters name is "Will Salas" - is that serendipity (I hope that's the right use of the word) or influential social marketing?

The pre film marketing includes a Facebook photography contest - put together by Talenthouse - JT tweeted the competition announcement out to his 6.5m followers.

Sub branding engagment

Another URL offered Comic-Con Fans posters to Like and Tweet to engage

http://www.therichcanliveforever.com/

Timberlake, Seyfried talk "In Time" at Comic-Con

"(Reuters) - By now, most anyone who knows anything about Comic-Con International knows it has become a grand platform from which Hollywood's studios launch promotional campaigns for upcoming films and television shows."

We'll track progress

http://viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com/youtube/Official_In_Time_Trailer_%5BHD%5D?id=fdadZ_KrZVw

Note: I'm typing this while waiting in a Doctors reception area - my appointment is 45 minutes late.  Time is Money! 

You know the problem, you've been asked to speak at a conference or seminar.  These types of gigs are important for your business and personal growth so you want to make sure the presentation is not only great but highly effective.

Where do you start?

You need a story to tell, to understand your audience, set the opening scene, introduce your main character, create a goal, then an inciting incident (and the Antagonist), a plot point or two, conflicts and solutions and finally a climax/ resolution.  All within an easy to consume narrative. 

Introducing The Protaganist, the main character

As you may of heard Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO from Apple - this thing called the Internet that you are currently browsing, your PC, your ipod, your new smart phone or tablet is partly becuase of Job's influence.

Note: There's a great blog by BNET on Steve Jobs and Apple which I highly recommend 

Anyway, beyond the technology it is Job's refinement of presenting and communicating that I'm deeply interested in.  If you've ever seen a Job's presentation they are super slick.  His time with Pixar must have also helped refine his storytelling and presenting skills at not only engaging an audience but inspiring them - but that's too much detail for now so I'll edit it out.

There's a lot to learn from the Masters.

For the last few days I've been putting together some notes for a 30 minute presentation on Internet Video for Online Retailing - the event organiser just called - how's my presentation going? (The Inciting Incident)

I'm now thinking about "The Antagonist" - this helps flesh out ACT II - problems and solutions - to see things from their perspective.

 ACT II

It's easy to get overwhelmed by all the elements involved - you're looking for a road map with tips and traps.  How much detail do you need to provide?  Customer attention is highly valued - there's a difference between talking to kindergarten kids and adults (some would argue not a lot of difference).  You want to inform and engage.

Research - are you imitating or innovating?

Innovation is great - immitation is faster.

All innovation incorporates lessons and influences from others.  If you watched the BNET presentation above the Apple Mac mouse and GUI (Graphical User Interface) were inspired by Xero.

Presenting like Jobs

 Now comes our story telling stage (more to come) and the narrative.

ACT III

The clock has run out - it's too late to turn back.  

Your hand out is finished 

Now to work on the Storyboard.