SMiB '10 was a graet event and I fell priviledged that I spoke at it as it was a great crowd and very inciteful speakers with lots of lessons to be shared. Below are my slides from the day, I thought Slide share would include the notes but unfortunately not (or I just can't find the setting!) so a bit of the detail is lost. I've also embedded my iPadio interview with Benjamin Ellis prior to the event if you feel like giving it a listen.

Apparently a video of my talk will be put online by the SMiB guys so I will update my blog with that when it is ready. Hope you like it!

iPadio interview:

What if social media was defined as the set of tools that a Community Manager/executive/strategist used?

That would imply that anyone involved in social media is a Community Manager of sorts which in my opinion is the truth anyway because anything you do in the space sends a message out to a community that needs constant attention and response essentially making social media practitioners Community Managers whether they like being called that or not!

For me, ‘Community Manager’ is a much more sustainable and believable title for businesses, years from now anyway, when the dust settles and social media marketing slots in alongside all the other traditional channels. Well, much more believable that guru, genius, tsar, hero (and my favourite) rockstar anyway.

It seems even President Obama can’t escape the spammers!

Some intrepid internet abusers have realised that Obama’s Facebook updates get tons of view so and in true opportunist spammy style, have started posting comments trying to send punters off to somewhere else. Even the Haiti disaster can’t escape the ‘free designer bags’ scam, these people clearly have no shame and no class.

It’s also interesting to note that the pioneering Obama social media team seem to have adopted a completely open stance on comment moderation (ie they leave everything up) which is really progressive and respectable considering some of highly emotional and sensitive topics he needs to cover as a president.

Me personally, I’d delete the spam.



Nokia are smart people. They make great phones and it seem their marketing department is just as sharp.

Nokia have been sending around a  'hacker box' to key voices in the mobile community. It is quite obviously a buzz generating gimmick for the N900 and they have nailed it! The buzz is huge on Twitter and its getting coverage on some of the top blogs and websites in the tech space.

How did they get it so right?

• It's all about the unboxing. Nokia have realised that when a new tech product comes on the market, people love to do unboxing videos and they went to great lengths to make it one of the best unboxing experiences to date.

• Spare no expense. That hacking box must have cost a fortune to a) make and b) ship because of the size and weight! It shows that they really value the opinions of the people that got one.

• Increase the N900's percieved value. Only an item of high value and much importance would demand such high quality promotion and effort. It is and it does

• Target the right people. They know that the N900 is going to taken up more by tech minded people than general consumers so they have targeted voices in that space like Techcrunch, Engadget the Nokia fan blogs and of course www.unboxings.com. Their video on Youtube here.

• Add smoke to seal the deal!

Nokia really went all out on this campaign and didn't spare# any expense thus ensuring a great viral response. Was your last campaign the highest stanard it could be?

Posted via email from Jon's posterous

Obviously, you want your company to be on Youtube. It’s a great engagement medium with a massive population.

But how? My company is boring, what will we make videos about?

Blendtec, is still the best example of this. Take a boring blending company, throw some cool gadgets into  their blenders, and blend the hell out of it and you’ve got a classic series of Youtube videos.

My first foray into Youtube for Gumtree has been to make user guides which gives us a valid reason to be on Youtube and benefit from the exposure but also more importantly, it helps educate users on using the site correctly and safely. We even set up a dedicated page on Gumtree using the Youtube API, which was fun, here: http://guide.gumtree.com

If a blending company can find an entertaining angle to make videos for Youtube, so can your company!

It’s still a big question, does Twitter marketing work? Well if you’re Gumtree, you want lots of traffic so that there are lots of buyers for the posted ads so one of my tasks is to drive traffic from Twitter and it is working great!

I’ve started Twitter accounts in a few Gumtree cities and only started tracking the results half way through October but as you can see from the graph below, its really starting to pull in quality traffic.

At this rate, we would have pulled in 350 000 hits per quarter via Twitter to which we can put a cash value, making Twitter a very valuable tool for us.