Working as a social media consultant isn't all social, media, or technology, as Stephen Collins explains. I talk. A lot. I listen more. Two ears, one mouth used in that proportion. By doing this, I can build an understanding of my clients' business and get across the problems they face - whether it's collaborating internally, talking to their customers and stakeholders in the right way, or understanding how the ... Read full entry

Laurel Papworth has posted her Social Media Marketing Campaign presentation, from last week's The Edge Of The Web conference, in Perth. Create - or better yet, find - social media assets you didn't know you already had. Powerpoint presentations from the shareholder meeting? Put 'em up on slideshare. FAQ's and Customer Service Tip sheets? Put them in a wiki or a blog post. That sort of thing. Don't ... Read full entry

Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan unveil The Age of Conversation 2: Why Don't They Get It?: It brings together the written thoughts on the role of conversation in marketing today from 237 marketing professionals from 15 countries. And, as one of the few people who have read all the contributions, I can ... Read full entry

Marketing agency Shifted Pixels have compiled a list of Australia's 100 most influential twitterers, or Twitterati. While the list has created some controversy in regards to who should actually be ranked, it nevertheless makes a great place to find local twitterers to follow. Hmm, Malcolm Turnbull influential? Not in Kingsford Smith he isn't. ;) Via The PR Warrior.

Step into the Social Media Classroom a growing resource of all things blogosphere, Web 2.0, and social media. This website is an invitation to grow a public resource of knowledge and relationships among all who are interested in the use of social media in learning, and therefore, it is made public with the intention of growing a community of participants who will take over its provisioning, governance and future ... Read full entry

The recent marked improvement in micro-blogging website Twitter's performance, that you may have noticed, is in-fact not a figment of your imagination. According to uptime figures from Pingdom, Twitter has been doing very well recently. According to Pingdom, Twitter's uptime the past couple of months has been stellar. The site went from down 11.5 hours in July to down just 54 minutes last month. And has been ... Read full entry

A sign of the times perhaps? Gavin Heaton, author of The Age of Conversation, and branding and marketing blog Servant of Chaos, has launched a new jobs board, Social Media Jobs, especially for, need I say it, people looking for social media related work. As Gavin points out though, finding such work isn't particularly easy... Looking for a new job can take a great deal of time and ... Read full entry

Ten signs that you are a Weblebrity, or worse still, think you are, put together by David Armano. Items 7 and 10 are my favourites, especially the last one. I'm in a place this week where, aside from a little Facebook usage, virtually no one has heard of social media or even blogs. The real world feels startlingly unfamiliar... 7. Total strangers you meet at conferences know more about you ... Read full entry

Actually it's not just social media dialogue or exchanges of communication. I'm looking for a term that describes the ever disparate discussions we have with each other, particularly friends and acquaintances. I'm talking about the snippets of conversation that can take place by way of blog comments, social network messages and wall posts, instant messaging, forums, photo-sharing sites, and micro-blogging, such as Twitter. Then there's the same thing through voicemail, text messaging, ... Read full entry

Twitter resident social media commentator amandachapel speaks about her social media de-vangelism mission with Tom Cunniff. Social media is the widely-celebrated fad that has elevated idle chitchat to quasi religion. It is the abandonment of commonsense business that was once ruled by presentation and meritocracy. It is a stage for a cult of amateurs empowered to act out Lord of the Flies. It is the great Cluetrain ... Read full entry