I came across a new Australian concept for a social networking site:
complementu.com.au
"A social networking interface connecting people who shared a moment. Despite age, sexuality, geographic location. ComplimentU is an outlet for positive comments guaranteed to put a smile on the face".
Interesting idea. Great website. But will it be popular in a world where every second startup is a new idea for a social network? Or on a web where every second site is some form of social network?
It strikes me that this site may work better as an app on Facebook. But who am I to judge.
Good job on the site - always happy to plug an Aussie web entrepreneur.
Labels: communities, Fun, internet, social media, social networking
Posted by Matt Vaughan @ 7:17 AM
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Interesting news from the ACCC who say that Consumers consider blogs as reliable and as influential as mainstream media.
Sounds like call to action for online reputation monitoring :P Its also interesting to consider how the ACCC see's its role in new media. Will they try to control and censor australian bloggers and online review sites.
"CONSUMERS who get their news from the internet are likely to trust a blog for reliability as much as a mainstream media site, the competition watchdog said today.
"For a growing base of users, these are all equally valid sources of news, information, entertainment and gossip, and users are not necessarily discriminating between traditional and new sources.""
This is very cool but also scary, what has made the internet great is its total freedom. Will that be eroded by Australian governments and what can we do to ensure that bloggers cannot be held legally liable if they critisise an Australian Company online.
Source: Courier Mail
Labels: Blog, blogs, consumer, conversations, internet, Marketing, online, pr, PR 2.0, reputation, reputation management, reputation monitoring, sem, seo, social media
Posted by Nick HaC @ 6:29 AM
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
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Apparently sprinters reach their highest speed right out of the blocks, and spend the rest of the race slowing down. The winners slow down the least. Its that way in most new business too.
The earliest phase is usually the most productive.
The striking thing about this phase is that its often completely different from what people think "business" looks like. When you think business you think suits, offices, boardrooms, reports. However most successful businesses are the opposite of this, and whats more they are probably the most productive part of the whole economy.
Why the disconnect? I think there's a principle at work here: the less energy people spend on performance, the more they spend on appearance to compensate.
Whats worse is that the energy people spend on seeming impressive, actually makes their performance worse!
Suits, for example, don't help people think better. I bet most executives at big companies do their best thinking when they wake up on Sunday morning and are making coffee in a bathrobe (or in the shower or reading a bedtime story to their kids). That's when you have really big ideas! Just imagine what a company would be like if people could think that well at work all the time.
I don't have a proposal for how to achieve this in the real world, but it did seem interesting to pry this topic open.
Sometimes i think professionalism is a dieing fad from the 1970's. Today we want authentic, genuine products, partners, clients, suppliers and friends. Real people who do real work. No longer does the bland, fake "take a number and get in line" sterility of professionalism cut it for the informed, seasoned, advertising-hardened consumer.
What do you think, leave a comment on the blog...
Disclaimer: Thanks to Jessica Livingstone and Paul Graham for Inspiration
Labels: advertising, behaviour, communities, consumer, internet, Marketing
Posted by Nick HaC @ 3:35 AM
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
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We just bumped into a podcast from mid 2006 from PodWorkx that we thought was was quite interesting to see some early perspectives on podcasting and the role of consumer consumer generated media coming into play.
Disclosure: PodWorkx is now part of the Shifted Group, Copyright 2007
Click to Download - PodWorkx.com - An interview with Mick Stanic.mp3 (27.86 MB)
Today we had the pleasure of interviewing Mick Stanic. Co-Founder of ThePodcastNetwork and founding GM/EP at Singleton OgilvyInteractive. We talk about the state of the podcasting industry aswell as how Advertising and Media companys can relate to Podcasting as a technology and as a marketing channel. Thanks Mick!
Labels: advertising, communities, internet, Marketing, online, podcasting, Startups
Posted by Nick HaC @ 6:35 AM
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
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We have seen an explosion of consumer choice, a new level of scarcity of consumer attention, the growth of abundance of options and masses and masses of online consumer review and comparison sites.
Under 30's have grown up with advertising, and are fully aware of the processes that corporate marketers use to sell them products.
Are there are more products than consumers need? Just go to the supermarket, you have 20 types of peanut butter, 200 types of cheese and 80 types of toothbrushes.
Want to but a tshirt online? Which one of the 10 million sites do you choose?
We could speculate that consumers and businesses make more choices based on social recommendation than advertisements.
We could also speculate that are seeing the end of the media-industrial era, and the rebirth of the pre-industrial era consumer run Market Place (this time with global, realtime efficiencies).
This new era is the market place of the people for the people. Of course there will still be a strong need for insustrial processes, but these will become commoditised as platforms, just like electricity and the railroads have become.
If you are selling a product, a service or an idea... spreading your brand will soon strongly rely on person to person social reccomendation.
But with so many products and features on offer, how do you get noticed? Instead of selling based on pure functionality, as a coat functionally keeps you warm, the new market is about style! So what defines style or fashion, social influence and reccomendation?
The drivers of social reccomendation are the early adopters, the merchants of cool. Those who take early risks and by breaking the norm send waves through the social landscape. Sometimes they succeed, and sometime they miss the mark. Aside from the risks of this space, this is the source of new social influence and trends. And this space must be recognised.
Dont think this only applies to consumer goods, business to business services and products follow the same rules. Business communities and social networks are potentially even closer, tighter and more intimate than those of the consumer social community. Is it possible that the tightness of the business community creates an even stronger desire to use the hip process or service or business practice?
The rules of consumer influenced have changed. Has your businsess shifted?
Labels: advertising, behaviour, branding, communities, consumer, design, internet, Marketing, online, pr, reputation, social networking, technology, viral, web 2.0
Posted by Nick HaC @ 5:46 AM
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
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Every single day, someone, somewhere is discussing something important to your business; your brand, your executives, your competitors, your industry.
Are they hyping-up your company, building buzz for your products? Or, are they criticizing your service, complaining to others about your new product launch?
A great brand can take months, if not years, and millions of dollars to build. It should be the thing you hold most precious. It can be destroyed in hours by a blogger upset with your company.
A new product launch could take hundreds of TV commercials, dozens of newspaper ads, and an expensive ad agency.
It can also spread like a virus with the praise of just one customer, at one message board.
A company can dominate market share, throttle competition and hold the #1 brand in the world.
It can also crash in months if it fails to listen to what its customers want.
By now, you should have an understanding of just how powerful consumer generated media (CGM) is. Your next action could be the difference between your company’s success or failure. Do you click the back button and ignore the conversation, or; do you engage a partner who can help you manage and interact with this new online community?
Shifted Pixels is managing online reputation for some of australia's largest companies, call us for a quick chat to let us know about your online reputation.
Labels: branding, communities, internet, Marketing, online, pr, reputation, social networking
Posted by Nick HaC @ 6:36 AM
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
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The Cluetrain Manifesto is a set of 95 theses organised and put forward as a manifesto, or call to action, for all businesses operating within what is suggested to be a newly-connected marketplace.
The ideas put forward within the manifesto aim to examine the impact of the Internet on both markets (consumers) and organisations.
- Markets are conversations.
- Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
- Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.
- Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.
- People recognize each other as such from the sound of this voice.
- The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.
Labels: behaviour, communities, consumer, internet
Posted by Nick HaC @ 7:59 AM
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
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Its been interesting to see the new breed of communities and publishing tools coming out in true web 2.0 style.
Of course Twitter is the darling of this breed of online apps, however there are a number of awesome new lightweight online communities and web publishing apps coming out.
Twitter, http://www.twitter.com
Tumblr, http://www.tumblr.com
Virb, http://www.virb.com/
Groovr, http://www.groovr.com/
The interesting thing about these new online conversations, is that they are inhabited by many early adopters, high profile bloggers and those who are influencers of influencers.
For example, on twitter, the upper class of web entrepreneurs and tech leaders are posting insights from every moment of their daily lives including:
Dave Weinberg - Founder Scripting.com
Adam Curry - Founder, Podcasting.com
Robert Scoble - Ex Microsoft Chief Blogging Officer
Frank Arrigo - Microsoft Evangelist and Community guru
Jason Calacanis - Founder Weblogs Inc & CTO at AOL
John Furrier - CEO/Host of PodTech.net
Micheal Arrington - Founder of TechCrunch
Rafe Needleman - Chief Editor Business 2.0 Magazine
Mark Jones - IT Editor, Australian Financial Review
Aswell as Real World Influencers
Barack Obama & David Brent :)
By making a presence in these communities you have a unique opportunities to hear inside news, and to converse with those who make news happen.
Shifted Pixels is working with brands helping them make presence in these new emerging online communities. Contact us for a quick chat on how we could help your brand online.
Labels: communities, internet, pr, social networking, web 2.0
Posted by Nick HaC @ 5:11 AM
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
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Color is probably one of the most powerful psychological tools and we are often not even aware of its power. If you didn't know it by now, the industrial psychology has a special field that studies the in-depth psychology of color.
Color is a very important factor in online branding, not solely for logos, but for web graphics in general. A simple shade of red could either send a good, positive message or generate an aggressive state of mind. To put it clear: color drives emotions and emotions are the most important factor in decision-making.
Color psychology is rather hard to define when we consider cultural differences, personal beliefs and subjective meanings. But some general aspects might help you in choosing the right colors for online branding.
First of all for a business website you should avoid dark backgrounds, especially black. It is true that dark backgrounds, when used wisely, might create a 'charmed' atmosphere, but is this the message you want to send? Shouldn’t you be focusing on 'reliability', 'trustworthiness', 'quality' and other such positive values? For a business website, avoid the 'Twilight Zone' look and feel, unless you sell magic potions, books of mystery or other such products.
Light backgrounds are the best choice to create uncluttered layouts. This is also the latest trend in web design. The 'heavy' websites of the past, with their saturated colors, their marble tiles patterns and their stripped backgrounds are passe. Sophisticated designs employ light colors with random dark hue accents, simple layouts and high quality, unique graphics that match the color scheme of the design.
Logos should still employ powerful, recognizable colors, the kind of colors that capture attention and appeal to the senses.
Usually, blue logos don't fail because blue is the favorite color of a clear majority of people. A look at the clear blue sky would help your body produce the chemicals you need to relax. But when it comes to dark blues, too much might cause stress and nervous tension. Commonly logo designers use navy blue for business-to-business logos, for financial logos and for official logos, as this color suggests dependability and straightforwardness, precisely the values needed for such affairs.
Green, in its various shades, is perfect for the hospitality industry, food industry (especially for BIO products) cosmetic (if we consider Yves Rocher and Garnier) and ecology.
Although each color has its audience and its industry, there are cases when one color might be successfully employed for atypical applications. It’s just a matter of 'how to' design using that color and other hues to create the best color combination.
Reds and orange are not so easy to deal with, especially online. But they do have their fans (Ferrari, Coca-Cola, etc) and with a good design they will reach the targeted audience faster than other colors. That's because red is the color of energy, movement and excitement.
For more information on Corporate Branding and Website Useability and Psychology, Contact Shifted Pixels.
Posted by Nick HaC @ 2:55 AM
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
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How has online PR become the medium of choice in the ever-widening Internet marketing spectrum? First, a little history...
In the 1970s and 80s, advertising and direct mail were the love objects of every serious marketer. Then came traditional PR, trumpeted as the cost-effective tactical alternative in a fragmenting media market.
With the advent of Internet marketing, traditional offline PR has begun to lose some of its lustre. The simple fact is, 'online' is sexy. Like global warming and environmental issues, 'You're nobody til somebody loves you' - as the old song has it.
No matter that media consumption currently includes both offline and online reading. The online tsunami is about to change the media landscape for ever. Or is it?
According to a recent White Paper by Daryl Willcox (of the eponymous UK publishing company - http://www.dwpub.com), traditional PR could be replaced in as few as ten years by online PR whose foundation of 'search marketing' accountability will make it the primary tactical weapon in most marketers' armouries.
This is an interesting scenario and one which must frighten the pants off 'old media' types. Only time will tell if the soothsayers are correct in their predictions. The evidence currently available suggests that most of us will remain omnivorous in our choice of media.
Yes, we'll go a-Googling. We may even sign up for an RSS feed or two. But we'll also take a tabloid to bed, and maybe even a magazine or book.
For hard facts and instant information, the Internet is an awesome animal. To have multiple Wikipedias at our fingertips is something few of us would have foreseen ten years ago. Maybe the next ten years will see the media go in a similarly unforeseen direction. But these will only be 'in addition to' and not 'instead of' current choices.
PR practitioners should embrace online PR. Combining it with traditional offline messaging will provide essential belt-and-braces support to reach publics who are themselves caught up in this maelstrom of (welcome) choice.
Shifted Pixels offers Online PR advisory services for Traditional PR Agencies, Contact us for more information.
Posted by Nick HaC @ 2:36 AM
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
