#sy takes over the business consultancy side of iJump, which will remain as a hub and resource for New Zealand’s marketing, communications and social media communities.

Why the change? While iJump was an attractive and interesting brand, we kept getting confused feedback from people, and the question “how do you make money?”

We believe #sy sets out clearly how we make money for ourselves and our clients – through workshops, public speaking, and tailored consulting services to organisations.

iJump, meanwhile, has gained a reputation (and some great Google juice) as a trusted resource about social media, specifically in New Zealand. We’ll be continuing that conversation, turning the iJump website into a shared resource to grow our collective wisdom about the future of business.

Whether it’s as a client of #sy, or a reader/participant in iJump, I look forward to working with you!

(Thanks to the amazing James Hancox for his photography and strategic thinking around our launch event. You can see his whole set of event photos here)

• Co-writing an article with Jake Pearce on the future of banking (or even of money itself!), especially as it pertains to Generation C.
• Developing the brand philosophy of iJump with help from 7degree. Incredibly challenging, yet also incredibly valuable.
• Reading We Think, by Charles Leadbeater, which in turn is introducing me to a lot of other books (many available free online) such as Yochai Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks and Erich von Hippel’s Democratising Innovation.
• Ruminating on the concepts of value, agility, relationships and experience.
• And I went for a wee swing in Taihape! (I tell you what, a near-death experience is good for you every once in a while!)

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

• 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!

Made a case for content writers in the web development process.

Thought aloud about some inspirational movies.

Attended my first Auckland Web Design Meetup.

Got the latest Marketing Magazine and found I’d written two pieces in it!

Released Jump In episode 11, an interview with Professor Jonathan Schroeder on “Brand Culture”

And began work on Marketing Magazine’s April cover story on the subject of search marketing – encompassing both paid and organic search,  and how it fits in companies’ marketing plans – and budgets.

If you’re in the search industry, I’d love to get your comments. Please either leave a comment below, or email me direct: simon [at] simonyoung dot co dot nz.

This week I also started a very disciplined programme of podcast listening, to make the most of the podcasts I’m subscribed to. By sheer coincidence, I heard some really interesting SEO-related podcasts this week – The Advertising Show’s interview with Kevin Lee, and Eric Schwarzman’s interview with Lee Odden. Both really good, they asked the questions I would’ve, and then some.

If you’re interested, my new podcast listening plan is:

Monday: Sales. Kicking me off for the week. There are a few good sales-related podcasts I’m subscribed to, but they don’t update very often. Can anyone recommend some more?

Tuesday: Leadership/Management. Getting me to think at a higher level and see the big picture.

Wednesday and Thursday: Marketing. There are a lot of these, which is why I need two days.

Friday: Media. A bit of crossover with Marketing.

If I get any interest in comments or emails, I’ll link to some of the podcasts I actually have in these daily playlists.

Last week I…

Answered a question on LinkedIn about naming a web 2.0 startup. (Some pretty good advice from others on this post, too!)

Cautioned a startup against skimping on sales collateral.

Joined a few groups on Xing.

Produced and introduced episode 9 of our video podcast, Jump In.

—

This week I…

Signed up to Naymz, and Twittered about it.  (Note to self – and to Twitter – it’d be great to link to the discussion that followed)

Read Socratic Listening, and summed it up in my own words.

Produced Jump In episode 10.

And I’m about to unleash a whole can full of 8 things you (probably) didn’t know about me!