In the Simon space this week:

• a trip to Napier on Monday to help AdPlus explore social media
• my zoology evolved a bit – my beavers turned into bees, after some helpful reflection from a Twitter follower.
• we finally put an ad out to share our central Auckland office space.

And coming up soon:

• the return of iJumpTV after a couple of weeks hiatus. New format, new name, same great quality content.
• two pieces in the October/November issue of Startup magazine: how to build your business with communities, and a column answering the question: what is social media!!? (You can also find the answer here)
• A book review in the next Idealog on the fascinating book Disrupting Class, all about the power of disruptive innovation in the education system.
• I’ve agreed to do a piece on interactive marketing for the December issue of Marketing Magazine. I’ll be focusing on the convergence of different disciplines like marketing, communications and customer service within organisations. It’s easy to say “it’s all about the customer” but how do you reorganise your company to make it real?

…and my time is fairly unstructured.

So… if you’d like to catch up with me, I’d love to talk with you over a cup of Wellington’s famous coffee (well, actually I’m more of a hot chocolate drinker).

Why would you want to catch up with me (if you don’t already know me)? Here are a few possible reasons:

• we could talk about how social media can help you or your company
• we could talk about your high-tech idea or product, and whether it might be something of interest for iJumpTV.
• we could talk about the future of journalism, media, entertainment, video, marketing and Generation C.

I love meeting people, so just the fact that you’re reading this blog makes you worth meeting.

How do you get hold of me? Text me or call me on

021 192 0016

Just a brief note to let you know that, after round one of speaking madness, I’m back on the blogging wagon, blogging every weekday at MadYoungThing, and every Friday (give or take) at iJump (as well as our weekly video podcast).

Marie and I are going to be on the road a lot in the next couple of weeks. Here’s a summary of where you can hear and see us:

• Monday, August 4th, 7:30am – 9:30am, at Lowndes Associates‘ Business Intelligence Workshop, at the Stamford Plaza in Albert Street, Auckland. Subject is “Online Strategies for Non-Online Businesses” Bookings here.
• Thursday, August 7th, 12pm-2pm, at the Marketing Association‘s Southern Luncheon at the Hotel Grand Chancellor, 161 Cashel Street, Christchurch. Subject: Making Sense of Social Media. Bookings here.
• Wednesday, August 13th, 2:30-3pm as part of the day-long Digital Future Now summit, at the SkyCity Convention Centre in Auckland. I’ll be on a panel with Paul Reynolds and Nicholas O’Flaherty discussing how social media can help business. Bookings here.
• Monday, September 15th, 4:15-5pm as part of the day-long 6th Annual Media Relations Conference at the Wellington Town Hall. I’m chairing a “champagne roundtable” (hic!) on exploring the potential of social media. Bookings here.
• Tuesday, September 16th, 1:30pm-5pm in a workshop entitled Blogs: Friend or Foe? Also at the Wellington Town Hall. Bookings here.

And if you can’t make it to any of these, we’ll still be producing the weekly Jump In video podcast, and appearing from time to time on Radio NZ National’s Virtual World segment with Jim Mora.

I’m getting myself out there on quite a regular basis since chairing the Interactive Marketing Summit in May. Coincidentally, most of it takes place on a Thursday. Not sure what that means.

On Thursday, July 3rd I’ll be speaking on social media at Search Engine Boot Camp in Auckland.

On Thursday, August 7th, both Marie and I address social media at the Marketing Association‘s Southern Luncheon in Christchurch, and a week later I’m back in Auckland, telling APSMA all about social media at a breakfast meeting.

And on September 15th (a Monday, not a Thursday), I’ll be at the 6th Annual Media Relations Conference in Wellington, facilitating a roundtable discussion on “Exploring the current potential of online media relations”. Two days later, on the 17th, I’m facilitating a half-day workshop on online communications. Should be fun!

There’s room for more, so if you need a speaker on the subject of social media anywhere in the world (and you’re willing to fly me there) … just get in touch.

What have I been up to? Woah, baby. What haven’t I been up to! It all started last weekend.

• I got a Nokia N95 cellphone, which has a fantastic still and video camera built-in. All the cool social media kids like Loic LeMeur and Robert Scoble are using them. Naturally, I had to share my joy. Much discussion ensued!
• I participated in a Flash Mob – a conga dance in a shopping mall. Videos here – and my video thoughts on implications for marketing here. And the angry response of the security guard just accelerated my inevitable slide towards Marxism. Kind of.
• I chaired the first Brightstar Interactive Marketing Summit on Monday. My notes. It was great to meet some old friends and synthesise some great marketing thinking from practitioners, publishers and agency types alike.
• On Tuesday I attended the launch of Nielsen’s Buzzmetrics service in New Zealand. I’ll soon be writing a post about this for iJump, but in the meantime here’s Jake’s take on it, which I very much agree with. However I do think Nielsen were actually wise to take a … well, traditional (I’m trying not to say ‘boring’) approach becauset the culture of business is so conservative. They don’t want to scare away the money. Er, people.
• On Thursday I was very blessed and privileged to attend a celebration party for Looksy.org, and meet some of the people who have been participating in Looksy’s weekly TV show on Alt TV, filming interviews to find out “what your world is like”, and supporting us in other ways. Very exciting to see something grow organically! We also made the world’s biggest collaborative cocktail, which included bemusing ingredients like lavender and tobasco sauce. Could have powered a car on it, and the exhaust would smell like bananas. That’s what Looksy’s about – leaving the world a better place than you found it.
• I also got to speak at the Marketing Association’s Certificate of eMarketing course, which is always great to hear the real life marketing concerns of students.
• I’ve been privileged to work with the pilot project of A Bigger Voice, an exciting US-based startup that’s helping people harness their remarkable wisdom and grow a business through community. Some great synergies with iJump there.

Finally, I was very relieved to buy some jeans that actually fit me last weekend. That may seem a trivial thing, but I’ve been wearing baggy jeans for months after losing some weight. It’s great to wear clothes that fit you.

On a similar note, I’ve been discovering my strengths through StrengthsFinder 2.0. I’m working on reducing the areas that play to my weaknesses, and focusing on the areas that play to my strengths. It’ll take a while, but I know I’m on my way. It’s exciting.

For the record, my top 5 strengths are:

Strategic

Connector

Intellection

Learner

Empathy

Coming up soon:

• Speaking engagements in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in August and September.
• Interesting developments in the businesses.
• Out now – an article on branding in the current NZMarketing Magazine.

So I’ve got another job title.

Not only am I creative instigator at SimonYoungWriters, catalyst and cofounder and iJump, co-conspirator at Looksy.org, and freelance journalist. I’m also “senior writer at Marketing Magazine“.

It was a title of convenience, dreamed up because Graham Medcalf, our editor, found himself double booked to give a 5 minute spiel as sponsor of the Hitwise Online Performance Awards.

Having never given such a speech before, and suffering from a massive lack of sleep this week, I took the unprecedented step of actually writing a speech.

Of course I didn’t say it like I wrote it. But if I had, here’s what I would’ve said:

I’m here on behalf of Graham Medcalf, editor of Marketing Magazine.

He couldn’t be here because he’s been urgently called back to his homeland of Zimbabwe. Apparently they’re looking for someone to run things!

I love awards nights.  Because everyone deserves recognition.

The big campaigns and sites you’ll read about in the pages of Marketing Magazine, as well as the genius ideas that build customer engagement, raise brand value and drive up profits … without fitting into a traditional case study template.

In 2008, winning ideas are small and perfectly formed.

No – scratch that, they’re not perfect, which is why they’re great.

They’re light, nimble ideas that evolve and change in response to feedback. They’re the small ideas that will move our professional forward.

In the  current issue of Marketing Magazine, my cover story looks at the painfully slow adoption of search marketing – both organic and paid – among New Zealand companies.

Why would these businesses miss out on the most accountable advertising medium ever invented?

They fail to think small. Search began as the affordable way for the little guys to level the playing field.

It just doesn’t fit the corporate model.

The same thing’s happening now with YouTube videos and employee blogs.  While 15-year-olds now have unfettered access to the tools once reserved for media moguls, big companies find themselves all thumbs when face with these powerful, small new tools.

Tonight we acknowledge organisations large and small who have overcome the barriers, thought small, and made a big difference.

Here’s to the little guys.

Have a great night!

It’s on newsstands now, my cover story for NZMarketing Magazine that gives the lowdown on the increasingly mainstream Search Marketing / Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) industry.

It’s an overview of where the industry’s at, particularly in New Zealand, and gives a few clues as to where it’s going in the future!

Read it online, buy a hard copy from any good bookseller, or subscribe.

Okay, I can stand it no longer. This poor blog has been silent for too long, and meanwhile such exciting things have been happening.

Things like:

• celebrating one year in the heart of Auckland City
• jumping on the many aggregation bandwagons out there – you can now find me on friendfeed, profilactic, tabber and socialthing (email or DM me on Twitter for an invite). Still figuring out whether they add any value!
• I spat the dummy at Skype and took up oovoo instead; trouble is, there are only 3 people I know who are on oovoo!
• being extremely busy at SimonYoungWriters – so there should be some new case studies up there soon, including the web copy we wrote for CNS Treasury (warning: contains accounting language)
• having articles published in Idealog, DLB and the cover story of this month’s NZ Marketing Magazine
• speaking at several events including TIB Presents at the Bluestone Room
• …and, of course, continuing to produce the Jump In! video podcast
• watching the progress of Looksy.org from an excited distance! (We now have a weekly TV show at 10pm Mondays on Alt TV! It’s called The Owl House.)

Coming soon…

• a holiday!!!
• our tenth wedding anniversary (tomorrow, in fact!) (Gifts welcome)
• an exciting pilot project from the US which I’m involved in
• more bloggy goodness at MadYoungThing

This week, I…

• got quoted in the New Zealand Herald, discussing social media on behalf of iJump
• got mentioned in the Czech Republic by our friend Adam Mezei
• dipped my toe in the water of The Biz, Variety magazine’s new social network. Met some new people through it, have yet to get to know them better.
• tried – with dubious success – to focus.
• co-produced Jump In Episode lucky 13 – continuing the conversation with TV3′s Roger Beaumont
• joined the gym – and loved it!