Here Comes Everyone

I am half way through reading Clay Shirky's book Here Comes Everyone.  This is a book well worth reading.  It was published two years ago and I'm uncertain if it achieved best seller status but neither fact detracts from its significance.

The book is about how social media empowers people to self organise around their issues and interests.  

In tightly argued prose it asserts that social media has collapsed the costs of communication and created an entirely communication ecosystem which is as historically significant as when printing presses first replaced the medieval scribe.

Today social media have smashed the economics of communication and the entry fee to create, manage and create content is negligible for most of us.  This has allowed the mass amateurisation of communications particularly in the traditional media process. As it embeds in our culture social media has moved the news cycle away from  publishers and producers towards individual citizens, consumers and communities.  
 

The professional class of editors, producers, reporters, photographers and film crews are no longer the gatekeepers of the information that reaches our communities. We now have other ways to learn about our world.

Yes I can hear the old guard saying that so much of the information that passes through social media channels is inane and banal.  

But doesn't that reflect more on the quality of our conversations than the intrinsic value of these exciting new tools? Although they give us opportunity they are only as worthwhile as we make them.

Thank You Notes Work

I'm a great believer in thank you notes as a communications tool.

So I was delighted to come across this article from the latest IABC Communications World.  It talks about about the power of thank you notes and when to use them 

SeeThanks and No-Thanks: Write letters that make a difference by Claire Meirowitz.

Three Tips For Not For Profit Advertising

We don't cover advertising much in this blog and many PR people shy

away from it. But it is one channel that should always be considered

and never overlooked in your advertising planning.

True advertising in the mainstream media can be expensive, but it
remains a partcularly powerful way to quickly raise awareness while
keeping total control over how your information is presented.

Three ways to contain what can otherwise be an expensive undertaking
are to:

• Consider working with smaller start up advertising agencies to
develop your creative copy. "Newbie" companies can often be leaner and
hungrier than their larger counterparts and more eager to make a name.
They are more likely to go the extra mile for your limited budget.
Alternatively work with advertising students who may need to bulk out
their post graduation resumes. These "juniors" can often surprise and
delight with the freshness and energy with which they approach your
issue.

• Most of us want our ads on the front page or at least in the
earlier section of a print publication. But specialist sections - such
as a motoring supplement or the school pages - often attract "rusted on" and loyal
readers. Although they may not be as obvious as the early general
news (ENG) option, at the end of the day they might be prove more
effective in reaching the people you need to engage.

• The advertising world is replete with all kinds of special deals
such as distress space, last minute offers and discounts for multiple
placements. So before handing over your cheque ensure you inquire
about the current deals on offer.

Advertising is among the more costly communication options available
to you but it can also be one of the most effective to create instant
impact.

Recording The Next 100 Years Of The ANZAC Legend

During his ANZAC Day speech at the Australian War Memorial Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the creation of a national commission to set up a program to commemorate the centenary of ANZAC Day in 2010.

The commission to be headed by former Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Malcolm Fraser will call for suggestions from communities, schools, veterans and other organisations.

Social media can play a key role both in the consultation process, recording the centenary activities and then preserving and enriching Australia's Gallipoli experience for the next 100 years.

Some early thoughts are:

• Could the Commission use online as well as other consultations to broaden its outreach to people in regional areas, younger people and the large numbers of Australians travelling or working overseas?

• For the first time a national wiki would allow us to link the stories of individual families and communities right across the country with the broader events in our military past.  Australia's network of councils and shires are well placed to carry the local coordination a project of this size and scope demands.

• We should continue efforts, already underway, to ensure we have a digital photograph of each of the 102 000 Australians who have died in conflict and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial. (Assuming of course these images still exist perhaps in old suitcases or in long forgotten packing cases in garages throughout the country.)

And at an early stage the Commission should engage with Australia's multicultural communities.  With over 25 per cent of Australians born overseas, people from different backgrounds need the chance to engage with and interpret the ANZAC legend in a meaningful way.

Twitter Etiquette for ANZAC Day

25

ANZAC Day is fast approaching - 25 April the day when Australians and New Zealanders commemorate their countrymen and women who died in conflict.

With the increasing popularity of Twitter many of us will be sharing our experiences online as we attend dawn services, parades and get togethers around the country. But when symbolic ceremonies meet new technologies a few simple protocols can help determine what is acceptable and what might cause offence.  

On ANZAC Day Twitter can be a powerful tool to:

• Share family ANZAC stories online. 
• Ask others about a particular campaign or research a loved one's service history (A good place to start is www.awm.gov.au).
• Swap details of the services, ceremonies and marches in your area.
• Arrange to meet with friends.
• Tweetpic our ANZAC images.
• Share recipes for gunfire breakfasts and ANZAC cookies.
• Tell mates where the Two Up is. 
• Report on veterans and their units as they march proudly through our towns, suburbs and cities.

But please leave your mobile in your purse or pocket and turn off the tweets during:

• The dawn service (between 5:30am and 6:00am on 25 April).  This is the time for quiet reflection on the deeds of those who stormed Gallipoli's beaches 95 years ago and the fallen who followed.  Tweeting is likely to annoy others if  the LCD screens of Blackberries and Iphone light up the pre-dawn skies.
• During the bugle calls of Last Post and Reveille.

This ANZAC Day please tweet in the spirit of Lest We Forget.