An edit of FIR #628, focussing on the Carrier IQ kerfuffle and its importance for business communicators

We're on the cusp of a major shift in business transformation, the interest in companies wanting to adopt social business is on the rise. 

Businesses are using social networking concepts to transform their business into a 'social business'. According to IBM's 2010 CEO Study, 57% of companies who have invested in social business tools have outperformed their peers citing collaboration as having a direct impact on their organisation's growth. Analysts are getting on the bandwagon too with IDC estimating the market opportunity for social business software to exceed $1 billion by 2014, a 33% increase from 2010.

Listen in as Ed and I discuss the benefits of social business, including how to approach the always-asked 'ROI' question, and the other question I'm always asked: "Twitter - why would anyone do that?"

The case study that Ed discusses is the company CEMEX. You can find the case study at  http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/uk/en/socialbusiness/examples/index.html

Master business communicator, Shel Holtz, ABC, shares with us his views on why content curation is the 'next big thing' and why we should be paying attention to it right now, whether we are a SoHo consultant or an organisational communicator.

Ok, I realise it should be "around which", not "around what"... Consider me slightly distracted -- I *was* driving at the time [smile].

A short video asking if you and your organisation are considering hiring professional analysts to look at how you converse with your audiences.

You can watch this video over on YouTube (why not subscribe to my channel while you’re there?) and the audio of this video is available on my podcast feed on iTunes.

The first edition of the Hopkins & Matthews Report

Your communications-lusty commentators are back after a slight (ahem) absence.

In this edition of 'Grumpy Old Communicators' at the CommsCafe Allan & Lee talk about Twitter and its 5th birthday, as well as how useful or otherwise it has been for Allan's B&B business, especially when compared to TripAdvisor.

We also look at the IABC and gastronomic experiences, the Coos Bay case study two years on, and a probably tongue-in-cheek opportunity from the east coast of the USA to visit and have a beer named after us.

You couldn't find a better way to spend 25 minutes and six seconds, trust us! We even finish off the podcast with a sublime piece of music from the ever-wonderful Karoline Hausted, from her new album 'Drawings'.

An interview with Andrea Mat

Part two of an interview with David Boloker, CTO Emerging Internet Technology at IBM. In this interview we talk about what will be the dominant technologies for consumers in 5 years time

There is no description for this file!

In this excitement-packed edition of Grumpy Old Communicators you will hear us wax lyrical about such diverse topics as:

• Karen, her baby August, and the scandal she’s created (and if you want to know where the idea for Karen came from, check out Australia’s far less raunchy but equally seductive young lady who is looking for her Mr Right and only has his misplaced jacket to go on; the video is below, as is a link to some thoughts by a superb Aussie commentator and no, that’s not Lee!)
• Twitter follower numbers and a reference to the superb The Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein
• Simon Crisp and IBM's new division
• David Jones and his truly excellent MAIL process for social media engagement 
• QR codes, the Three Minds blog and Allan’s B+B website

All in all, 29 minutes and 22 seconds of disarmingly direct conversation over a shocking Skype line that makes you wonder if your two intrepid communicators were actually alive at the time, or were communicating via telepathy, a Ouija board and a plump and quite harmless 50-something-year-old landlady by the name of Mrs Scoggins who dabbles in the occult and thinks she’s a channel for ‘those on the other side’.

Lee Hopkins interviews Sarah and Chris from www.SnapComms.com -- an internal comms software provider that could revolutionise how you and department managers communicate with your teams

On bluehost.com, an IABC survey about twitter, Cory Treffiletti on independence from the wired world, wishing my mate Chris Bell a happy birthday, and the sorry state of Qantas and their lack of online monitoring - what a fiasco!

Today's videoblog discusses Norton360, great podcast mics from easi-speak.co.uk, book reviews on 'Online Public Relations' by David Phillips and Phillip Young, and 'Tactical Transparency' by Shel Holtz and John Havens. Plus there's a HUGE thunderstorm outside my office window - sorry about the rain noise!

We’re back!

Sorry…

Allan Jenkins and Lee Hopkins have bowed to public pressure (hi, mom) and are cranking out their irregular chats on an irregular basis.

Perhaps they need to eat more fibre.

Anyway, in this rivetting (ha ha! very unlikely – Admin) first edition they:

• briefly review the recent IABC World Conference in San Francisco
• talk about a US Governor who keeps going walkabout (a very Australian tradition)
• D. Mark Schumann, the new IABC Chair, with a great post about what IABC means
• the vagaries of the humble toilet across the continents: your Peter Stuyvesant smoking, air hostess chatting-up, international jetset playboys consider water levels and acoustics.

Honourable mentions in this podcast go out to:

• Donna Papacosta
• Shel and Michele Holtz
• Sue Horner (whose name Lee forgot in the podcast — bad boy, Lee!)

Please send your brickbats or bouquets (or any invites or swag) to Commscafe@gmail.com.

This has been an RS production – and we don’t mean ‘Rip Snorta’.

Gila Fox is just one of the hundreds of very bright and erudite folks I met at #iabc09 world conference.

She runs the Twitter account @valpakcoupons for Cox and Valpak and has fascinating insights into how and how not to use Twitter.

Gila also shares with us how her colleagues are using these new communication landscape tools.

I was personally delighted to see that her business card announced her as a ‘Communications Generalist’; in this age of increasing specialisation and unnecessary ‘boxing in’ of one’s skills, abilities and attitudes (and I think of Sir Ken Robinson’s excellent Closing Address today and his brilliant book, The Element: How finding your passion changes everything) her employer recognises the value of having someone who can turn their considerably skilled and passionate hand to a wide variety of communication tasks.

I hope that what Gila shares will encourage you to consider taking up some of these new tools and seeing for yourself how they can revolutionise your organisation and how it communicates with all of its stakeholders, both inside and outside of itself.

The guy is a true hero to many of us in the business communications industry.

A tireless supporter of others, a true gentleman and a font of wisdom and knowledge, Shel Holtz is one of my personal “one day I hope to be even half as good as him” type of individuals.

Luckily, I have finally got to meet him and during a discussion in a noisy bar we entered into a discussion about 3D virtual worlds and the presentation I gave at the #iabc09 World Conference.

So I stuck my new and much-loved easi-speak mic in front of him and captured some more gems from the man.

The result lies before you: be gentle with that audio file, Virginia!

One of the many amazing pleasures I was generously granted by attending the #IABC09 World Conference was finally meeting friends with whom I have been corresponding for many years but never met face to face.

Two such friends are Bryan Person and Donna Pepsicola Papacosta, the Canadian chanteuse behind the wonderful trafcomnews podcast.

Bryan decided to interview Donna about podcasting for his daily audio show, the Daily Boo. I decided to stick my marvellous new easi-speak microphone in between the two of them and capture what they said.

The result lies before you: gentle with that audio file, Eugene!

Interview with fabulous blogger and social media guru Jay Berkowitz.

An interview with Andrew Povolny, CEO of The Digital Edge (TheDigitalEdge.com.au) about online surveys, market research and why Australia is a leader in the field.

In this week’s report:

A rather futuristic thought piece on Second Life or other 3D Collaborative Virtual Worlds and our existing 2D web properties such as our traditional website, Facebook, Plaxo, MySpace, Twitter, et al.

Plus a request to the community at large to help me with an academic paper. I’m looking for your ‘a-ha’ moments when you ‘got it’ about Web2.0, and when your colleagues, your clients, your managers, etc., ‘got it’ — what were the circumstances around that ‘a-ha’ moment? Email to SL@LeeHopkins.net

Eight minutes and 53 seconds of …    well, I was going to say ‘audio genius’ but let us just say, ‘audio’

The Hitwise Social Networks report and latest newsletter - the implications for social network evolution.

• Interview with a few Social Media 101 Workshop attendees
• On being able to put into words and share with others what Social Media is all about - a tip

• The BetterComms Empire takes on a new staff member - Sandy, my new assistant
• The release of the Better Social Media Communication Results newsletter (and a special rate for listeners)

• The 'Back' button Vs opening up a new browser window/tab - what does the community think we should standardise on?
• Seth Godin, Web2.0 Vs Web3.0 - are we ready for Web3.0 yet?

• CarCast from the BetterComms Maserati - will Corporate Australia launch social media initiatives behind the firewall before it engages with the publics outside the firewall?
• On being a B-list bloglebrity
• Do dog doors come in microwaved flavours?

And in this week’s report:

• On a new portable digital recorder for podcasters,
• Dave Fleet's Social Media Training wiki and
• the REAL meaning of 'Twitter' (and a tip of the fez to Luke Armour for uncovering a cracker of a Twitter profile)

All in all, five minutes and 16 seconds of audio enlightenment [4.3mb].

This week:
On Janitor2.0, testing an online business building system, and fear and anger as keys to persuasion.


Links:
Janitor2.0 [http://www.mguerilla.com/media_guerrilla/2008/01/janitor-20-the.html]
Online business building system blog [http://www.leehopkins.net/nitro]


www.LeeHopkins.net
Music by Flopsy (http://podsafeaudio.com/jamroom/bands/546/)

On Second Life now that the goldrush is over, on the Australian Federal Police and pedophiles, and on why I disagree with Chip Griffin

www.LeeHopkins.net

Report for FIR#300:

On Gerry McCusker's 'best PR gaffes of 2007' list

It’s only a test of the software, but I’ve popped a video test run of a possible new-look Better Communication Results Video up on YouTube.

I’d appreciate your comments.

And in this week’s report:

• the election is over — now what will happen about Australia’s atrocious broadband?
• Australian financial institutions not ready for Web2.0, but realise that consumers are demanding it
• Australian Federal Police (AFP) acknowledge their lack of skills within virtual worlds, so will set up island in SL and recruit savvy teens and web consultants to create one of the largest units within the AFP

All in all, six minutes and 39 seconds of audio enlightenment

‘Professor’ Hopkins rises from his deathbed to encourage Australian corporations to follow in the footsteps of ABC (that’s the Australian Broadcast Corporation, to you Yanks) and Telstra and venture into social media, and to welcome the reappearance of Meryl David—a reminder that blogs can be a good way to stay in touch with friends and family, as well as a business communications tool.

Recorded a few weeks ago, Rod Quinn from ABC Local Radio interviewed me about Facebook, MySpace and web stuff in general.

In all, 14 minutes and 55 seconds of audio entertainment and enlightenment.

The first podcast in over six months!
In this action-packed explosion of erudition Lee shares his experiences on a half-day workshop on Social Media, especially his view that business communicators suck at communicating.

Allan agrees, noting that the two best ways to prepare for a presentation are to:

1. Don't work out and shape your presentation in Powerpoint; only turn on Powerpoint when you already HAVE your story.
2. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

Lee praises David Grossman for his superb presentation that obviously met both of the above criteria, and agrees that he is the 'one born every minute' as PT Barnum would say.

Allan goes into depth about how to use headline titles in PowerPoint correctly.

Allan confesses that he doesn't read blogs these days, preferring to read Twitter, Jaiku and Facebook. Lee is really concerned at the possible death of blogging at the hands of micro-blogging and wonders whether the 'attention deficit economy' means that we are witnesses to the end of long-form creativity.

But then again, 'they' all said that children were only interested in multi-colour, fast-paced, interactive blip-style media, and Harry Potter completely blew 'their' opinions out of the water. As Nassim Taleb says, a 'black swan' moment (a 'black swan' because scientific reason held that swans were only available in 'white', because hundreds of thousands of observations had shown only white swans. When black swans were discovered in Western Australia they completely and instantaneously made a mockery of 'scientific experts' and destroyed several 'truths' about swans that the scientific community held dear to their hearts.

The differences in blog usage between Lee and Allan reflect their different perspectives. Allan uses his social media tools to engage with a small group of practitioners, to swap ideas and so on. Lee uses his tools as branding and marketing outreach channels. Both of their perspectives are equally valid.

Like the 'old fart' that he is, Lee laments over the 'walled gardens' of Facebook, CommunicatorsNetwork, MyRagan, Second Life, MySpace and so on, arguing that these walled gardens are the opposite of the ethos of social media and the internet in general. Allan, quite naturally, sees these as complementary not antagonistic to the ethos, allowing small, like-minded groups of individuals to coalesce and share the conversations they would probably share around the water cooler, coffee urn or friendly pint down at the Queen's Bum & Icepack.

Allan points out that there are stylistic differences that the limitations of micro-blogging can actually work to enhance, recounting that one well-known blogger is incredibly stilted and annoying on their blog posts, but warm, friendly and very funny in their micro-posts. Allan even briefly mentions Danah Boyd's post about the socio-economic differences between the residents of MySpace and Facebook.

Agree with them? Disagree? Let them have it - both barrels! Drop your comments on the show blog, or even better send a Waxmail to their Gmail account: commscafe at gmail dot com.

All in all, 30 minutes of caffeine-fuelled hyperbole and satire.

Until next time (paying clients must always take priority) take it easy, take some risks, take your children to the park.

I recently interviewed long-time friend and ace photographer Steve McCawley.

Steve is half of the award-winning Slingshot Studios here in Adelaide, two photographers (Jim is the other chap) who are as passionate about their photography as I am about business communication.

In this interview I ask Steve about digital rights photography, in particular whether ’stock’ photography is a good or bad thing. Steve has unsurprising views, but what he also reveals is fascinating!

In all, 24 minutes and 20 seconds of audio entertainment and enlightenment.

WOW! What a day!

Not only do I finally get a vlog up and 'live', but I also get to interview online marketing legend and all-round good guy (aka 'white hat' not 'black hat') Bill Sweetman.

Based in Toronto, Canada, Bill is the power behind the 'must-listen-to' podcast 'Marketing Martini'. Like Donna PepsiCola, Bill's podcasts are short, sweet and very 'to the point', with no waffle or fluff. I cannot recommend them highly enough!

Bill graciously agreed to be interviewed by me and we discussed why blogs are so powerful and loved so much by search engines, why Social Media in general (including Facebook) is so powerful a business tool for 'connection', and Bill shared some fabulous tips for getting the most out of your search engine optimisation tactics.

All in all, 29 minutes and 37 seconds of insight, wisdom and 'stuff' you absolutely need to know. As he says on his Marketing Martini site, Bill is officially 'on holiday' at the moment so I am especially grateful that he took the time to answer my questions and give of his wisdom.

Subscribe to my audio podcast feed and receive my audio podcast every time I publish one [hint: there's another great interview coming out next week!].

On LiveWriter, burning the email bridges and a thought of the day.  

Links:
Dan York: http://www.disruptiveconversations.com/2007/07/windows-live-wr.html
LiveWriter download: http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/
Zoundry: http://zoundry.com/
Crackbook: http://facebook.com/
Twitku: http://twitku.com/
MyRagan: http://myragan.com/
Communicators Network: http:/communicatorsnetwork.com/
GreatNews: http://curiostudio.com/

And in today's vlog I look at the clutter and confusion that is the social media world at the moment - and what I intend to do about it.

Welcome from the global eruption of erudition

00:39
A word from our sponsors - GoToMeeting.com

01:58
Your two intrepid intellects come clean that Allan & I are only into podcasting for the money. From the advertising revenue we receive we will be renting ajoining penthouse suites at a swanky hotel in New Orleans. Yes, we disclose exactly how much we have received...

02:56
Ted Demopoulos' new book "What no one ever tells you about blogging and podcasting: real-life advice from 101 people who successfully leverage the power of the blogosphere" is fabulous, but Allan wants the 2nd Edition out pronto! That's because he's not in it. Lee assures Allan that the reason he's not in it, unlike Lee who IS in it [page 25], is because Allan is not worth talking about, unlike Lee. Allan doesn't like the title, but Lee is happy with it because it draws you in, just as good Direct Marketing titles should do. Lee loves Ted's writing style, and also comments favourably on 'Promoting your podcast: the ultimate guide to building an audience of raving fans" by Jason Van Orden.

07:35
Allan is jealous of Lee's new Edirol R-09 digital recorder. Lee explains why he received it and again thanks Ross Monaghan at Deakin University for the opportunity.

08:28
Lee has been called many things over the years, but is he a "professional?" The question has been keeping Allan up late at night (much to Mrs Coffee's disgust). Jay Rosen and Shel Holtz raised the question a little while ago, Lee blogged about it over at the Marcom blog with interesting answers from Robert French's PR students. Allan thinks that the question for being recognised as a 'professional'; Lee recalls his Sociology studies and attempts to sound authoritative by talking about the 'Professional Project'. Both toss the ideas around about formal, legal accountability versus informal self-accreditation (including the IABC & PRSA), plus the difference between respect for the positional title and respect for the person. Allan suggests that accredited professionals have to go for re-examination or accreditation every, say, 5 years, in order to show that they are undergoing self-development and keeping their skills up to date.

Agree with us? Disagree? Let us have it - both barrels! Drop your comments on the show blog, or even better send a Waxmail to our new Gmail account: commscafe at gmail dot com.

All in all, 23 minutes of caffeine-fuelled hyperbole and satire, which you can either download and listen to right away, or else subscribe to via your rss podcatcher. And if you are an iTunes user, you can find our podcast in the iTunes Music Store (for free, of course!) Beware, though: iTunes has a funny habit of not picking up all of our chats; you are better off copying our rss feed and then, in your copy of iTunes, go to ‘Advanced’ in the top menu bar, ‘Subscribe to Podcast…’ and paste in our rss feed there.

Until next time (paying clients must always take priority) take it easy, take some risks, take the garbage out when your wife asks you to.

G'day and welcome to a special edition of Better Communication Results.

So what's in today's show?

Employee Communications -- why they are so important!

This edition is being published as both an audio podcast AND a video podcast -- and in two 'flavours' of that, no less!

Firstly, the audio -- you can download or subscribe to my audio podcast feed and receive my audio podcast.

Video -- you can subscribe to my video feed (for playing in iTunes or your video iPod, for example) or you can download the iPod friendly version OR the PocketPC-friendly version.

Cool, huh?

If the demand is there I might even set up a separate subscribe feed for each type, iPod and PocketPC.

Whichever way you want it (audio only, iPod or PocketPC) the edition is only 16 minutes long and worksafe -- what a bargain!

G'day and welcome to a special edition of Better Communication Results.

So what's in today's show?

Employee Communications -- why they are so important!

This edition is being published as both an audio podcast AND a video podcast -- and in two 'flavours' of that, no less!

Firstly, the audio -- you can download or subscribe to my audio podcast feed and receive my audio podcast.

Video -- you can subscribe to my video feed (for playing in iTunes or your video iPod, for example) or you can download the iPod friendly version OR the PocketPC-friendly version.

Cool, huh?

If the demand is there I might even set up a separate subscribe feed for each type, iPod and PocketPC.

Whichever way you want it (audio only, iPod or PocketPC) the edition is only 16 minutes long and worksafe -- what a bargain!

Welcome :-)

It's been a while -- and we knew you missed us so we came back!

In this cheeky chat we:

• Craftily reference a YouTube video of Aussie satire show CNNNN
• Let you know that GoToMeeting.com are our sponsors (and we think their product is great, too!)
• Chat about Allan's recent 'off the grid' experience over the Dec-Jan period -- he loved it, we missed him, and he only thought of Lee twice but was blown away by how 'matter of fact' some folks in his travels consider podcasting and blogging
• Talk about the time it takes to create a podcast versus a vidcast versus a blogpost, and Allan has a superb strategy for dealing with the whole 'time it takes' issue for SMEs (Small-Medium Enterprises) -- plus he explains why he rarely listens to podcasts and explains why Auburn University takes a day off to celebrate Robert French once making the 'Coffee Stain at the Bottom of the Cup' section of Allan's blogroll.
• Link to such luminaries as Mitch Joel, Bryper, Josh Hallett, Robert French, C.C. Chapman, The Divine Miss M (nice new image for your Diary of a Shameless Self-Promoter podcast, Heidi!), Donna PepsiCola, Steve Crescenzo, Stuart Bruce, Shel, Neville and FIR, and the IABC Conference in New Orleans
• And talk about LibraryThing.com and the wonderful scanning mouse you can buy for $15-20 -- well worth it!

Along the way we rip the p*ss out of each other (as usual), disagree with each other (as usual) and shed more light on business communication than you will see at an Aerosmith concert.

Agree with us? Disagree? Let us have it - both barrels! Drop your comments on the show blog, or even better send a Waxmail to our new Gmail account: commscafe at gmail dot com.

All in all, 36 minutes of caffeine-fuelled hyperbole and satire

As part of a series of interviews with great internal communicators that I conducted for Deakin University, Brad Bellaver, currently the Internal Comms Supremo for Wells Fargo's Technology Information Group, was kind enough to run the gauntlet of my ferocious interrogative style (hah!).

I'm not sure why this particular interview fell through a gap, but Deakin forgot to publish it -- so I have instead!

Brad's views on the importance of employee communications is STUNNING!

He has so many diamonds within his head that the man is a walking jewellery store!

What does he do?

"I'm the little sheep dog you see running around cattle, trying to keep them all heading in the same direction."

So he explains how he helps 40,000 employees put all their left feet down in front of their right at the same time, including saying 'No' to those who would try to hijack the strategic communication goals.

"We need to move from 'message deliverer' to 'meaning maker'"

If you're thinking that the easiest way to communicate with 'the troops' is via the intranet, you are in for a rude and powerful wake-up!

I cannot recommend this 55 minute interview enough -- even listening to it again now I find myself getting buzzed all over again from the amount of passion and energy that Brad has; he's contagious!

Edition 28 of Better Communication Results the podcast is now live and ready for your audio entertainment.

Yes, it has been AGES since I published a podcast without my colleague in arms and good friend Allan Jenkins, but as he's not back on deck from his exceedingly well-earned break until next week I figured there was no harm in releasing one of my own.

In this edition I argue that there are still times when paper and pencil beats digital -- but not many!

Links: OneNote, MindManager, Moleskines, D*I*Y Planner

At just 4 minutes and 45 seconds long, and worksafe friendly, it's a bargain!

Show notes for Friday 15 December 2006

Drinking from the wonderful CommsCafe mug!

A beautiful day today, as usual, and we have lovely rain yesterday

Mark Fletcher is back from the schemozzle that was LeWeb3 and has come up with a brilliant idea: a bumper sticker. You can download this one and edit it to your heart's content -- let me know what you come up with!

My vidcast Pick of the Week: Don't Be That Guy! [courtesy of the Rumor Girls]

Tom Bunzel has a video on the business features of Office2007 & Vista. It's 69 minutes long and there is a zip file you can download (but I had no luck - perhaps Microsoft have pulled it due to heavy downloading)

Today's video clip reminds me of one of the many joys of marriage, and should help propel those thinking of 'tying the knot' to race down the aisle.

Until next time take care, take some business risks, and take your hands out of your trousers when you talk to me, boy!

tags: Top Bunzel,Mark Fletcher,bumper stickers,marriage,don't be that guy,rumour girls

Goodness, what do we call it: a vidblog? a vodcast? a vlog? Write your ideas on a sheet of paper, wrap them around a large brick and send them flying in my general direction...

It's boiling hot outside, hence an interior shot today, with the blinds drawn to keep the heat out.

Today's soup de jour:

• Anshe Chung projects revenues from Second Life will hit around US$2.6m for 2006. Not bad; she even intends to double her employee numbers to 50. Mind you, we still don't know how the 'Donald Trump' of Second Life feels about having more realistic hair...
• My new 'best blog of the week', CleverClogs by Marjolein Hoekstra, not only gives me a fantastic new way of organising my RSS feeds, but also points me to a free 5gb online hard drive and personalised filing system. Cool!
• Tool tip: Password Master 4.0 for Windows PocketPC
• Today's brilliant vid clip comes from the 'What Women Really Don't Want For Christmas' category
• Thanks to Donna P for her lovely card

Enjoy!

Interview with Catriona Byrne

Interview with Amy Gooen at Verisign

An interview with Meryl David, IABC Supremo and Internal Communications Manager at Zurich Financial Services, Australia.