Becoming a man: Dealing with personal problems.

15yr old me

In Year 9 after two years of bullying, I admitted defeat, I trudged into the school counselors office and made an appointment.

Asking for help in my eyes was seen as a weakness. I was an independent soul. I disliked playing in team sports and I got annoyed at group projects. Even more embarrassing about the defeat was that, I was going to a counselor! Going to the counselor meant that I must have massive problems.

So with reluctance, I sat down and talked about my bullying problem, the counselor told me that I cannot look like a victim, next time I walk past the bully, look him straight in the eye and keep walking.

I didn’t believe that it would work. I gave it a shot anyway. To my surprise it bloody worked! I was so surprised that I ran back to the counselor’s office and recounted the event.

From that week out, I started rocking up at the school counselor every week. He was a sounding board for all my thoughts.

I never thought anyone would be able to help me with my personal problems. I thought, as men we were meant to be able to deal with all that emotional stuff by ourselves. I thought that my problems were too small. I was wrong.

Today, I worry that a lot of men still think that asking for help with personal problems is a sign of weakness. To me an attribute of a modern man is someone who is not scared of their feelings and understands when they have a problem and is not afraid to ask for help.

I cannot recommend seeing a counselor enough. Counselors are great because they are not involved with your life so there advice is always impartial. If you have kids, make sure to let them know that they can talk to a school counselor about anything they like.

I was nervous about writing this post, but I found the guts to write it from seeing fellow bloggers Mark(who has a post on becoming a man coming up in the next few days), Matt and Gavin who have shared their feelings in the public forum of online. Thanks guys!


This post is part of Man Week organized by Reach Out. I urge others to lead by example and share your stories about what it means to be a man.

Like your High School Librarian - My presentation for AIMIA Connect

Conan the Librarian
Remember at school when you had that Librarian who was able to point you in the direction of all the good books for your assignment? Well, that is what I am planning on doing when I speak at AIMIA Connect next week.

I am going to keep the presentation layout, pretty loose. I am going to ask the audience what sector they would like to hear case studies from and then go from there.

So the following is a list of the sectors I am thinking about;
Entertainment (Music/Film/TV)
Finance (Banking/Insurance)
Telecommunications
Technology Products and Online Sites
Fashion (Clothing/Make Up/Designer Brands)
Tourism (Travel locations/Airlines/Hotels)
Advertising Agencies
Not For Profit
Real Estate
FMCG
Automobile
Government

I want to get 3 examples for each sector and I imagine I will get through about 3 sectors.

There are 1,001 social media case studies so I have a simple ranking system to get the most relevant ones for this presentation.

Firstly, I will include all the case studies from The Population as these are the ones I will have the best knowledge on.
Then any Australian examples for that sector.
To round it out I will find the most effective SM examples from around the world

Can anyone think of any other sectors I may have missed? or know of any good Australian Social Media case studies?

Marketing to Melbourne Hipsters- The story of Nelson Beer

This is a story of multi-national chasing down the elusive Melbourne Hipster market.

In December 2008, beer Goliath Foster Group decided to take on the unattainable beer drinking market of the Melbourne Hipsters. They hired their brains, Gen-Y focused agency The Taboo Group. They were set to work on creating a lifestyle beer brand for this fickle market.

Their first move caught the Hipsters by surprise, Taboo dropped white cooling containers (normally used to transport human organs) into influential media and creative offices across Melbourne. The coolers had no description on them just the beer inside. It created chatter and hype about the beer. They then went back to these people asking how they could make it better and on the naming of the beer?


Then it was time for a big reveal, they got some shit hot designers (Sonny Day and Biddy Maroney) to come up with the design on the bottle and they threw a party for the launch.

The beer was then released in a small section of hipster bars (the likes of Revolver, Mr Wilkinson, Electric Lady Lounge, Trunk, Nevermind, Windsor Castle).

In the latest chapter, they have teamed up with local/international band The Temper Trap to come up with a limited edition bottle design.


Finish this sentence

In December 2009, Nelson beer will......

Wearing your heart on your digital sleeve

Expressing your emotions online is an extremely hard thing to do. So it is amazing when you come across storiess online where you can actually feel someones raw emotions.

The most recent example, which I urge you to read over the weekend, is an amazing story about a mans life. You can find it in the bizarre location of the Poker Forum Two Plus Two On Changing Your Life .

Here are some other great examples of people being real online;

Mark Pollard wrote an amazing touching piece on Finding beauty in watching someone die

Zoe Scaman found a really great story about two homeless people falling in love over twitter.


Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Have you got any other examples of amazing stories online?

Top 164 Australian Marketing Pioneer Blogs

Top 164 Australian Marketing Pioneers Blogs		Pioneer Ranking	Google Page Rank	Tech Authority Score	Tech Reactions 10	Alexa Rating Score	Total
1	Bannerblog	8	6	7	5	9	35
3	Acidlabs	8	6	7	6	7	34
2	Servant of Chaos	9	5	7	6	7	34
4	Inspiration Room Daily	7	5	7	5	9	33
5	mUmbrella	9	4	6	4	9	32
6	Marketing Magazine	8	5	5	4	8	30
7	Laurel Papworth	8	4	6	3	8	29
8	Young PR	8	5	4	4	8	29
9	Adspace-Pioneers	8	4	5	5	6	28
10	London Calling	8	5	4	4	7	28
11	Personalize Media	8	5	4	4	7	28
12	Amnesia Blog	7	4	5	4	8	28
13	Get Shouty	8	4	4	5	6	27
14	Brand DNA	8	5	4	5	5	27
15	The Marketer	8	4	5	4	6	27
16	Copywrite	7	4	5	3	8	27
17	Online Marketing Banter	8	4	4	3	8	27
18	Media Hunter	8	4	4	4	7	27
19	Better Communication Results	7	3	5	4	7	26
20	Three Billion	8	5	4	3	5	25
21	Gold Coast Web Designers	6	4	3	3	8	24
22	Angus Whines	7	4	4	4	5	24
23	Pigs Don’t Fly	8	4	4	3	5	24
24	PR Disasters	7	4	4	3	5	23
25	Creative Is Not A Department	8	4	4	3	4	23
26	A perspective	8	4	3	2	6	23
27	Gourmet Ads	8	4	0	3	8	23
28	Business of Marketing and Branding	6	4	4	4	4	22
29	Marketing Easy	6	4	4	2	6	22
30	Zakazukhazoo	8	4	2	1	7	22
31	Kate @ Stickywood	8	4	3	2	5	22
32	Mark Pollard	8	3	3	2	6	22
33	Zebra Bites	8	4	3	2	5	22
34	Sticky Ads	7	3	2	4	6	22
35	Corporate Engagement	7	4	2	3	5	21
36	Shifted Pixels	8	3	3	1	6	21
37	Mark Neely's Blog	7	4	2	2	6	21
38	Talking Digital	8	3	3	1	6	21
39	In My Atomosphere	8	4	3	3	3	21
40	Preneur Marketing	7	3	2	2	6	20
41	Word of Mouth Marketing for Small Business	5	3	3	4	5	20
42	The Digestif	8	4	2	2	4	20
43	PR Warrior	8	3	2	2	5	20
44	The Flasher	8	3	3	2	4	20
45	Who is in conrtol of your b****	8	3	3	1	5	20
46	Another Advertising Wanker	8	4	2	1	5	20
47	Dominique Hind Collective	8	3	2	1	5	19
48	Innovation Feeder	6	4	2	2	5	19
49	EcioLab	7	5	2	0	5	19
50	FRANKthoughts	8	3	2	1	5	19
51	Ryan's view	6	2	2	1	8	19
52	The Zeitgeists	7	3	3	1	5	19
53	Digital Buzz Blog	7	3	0	1	8	19
54	Taming the beast	6	4	2	3	4	19
55	Campaign Brief	6	4	0	0	8	18
56	Tim Longhurst	7	4	2	1	4	18
57	Tony from the Population	8	4	2	1	3	18
58	CIIMS	8	3	1	2	4	18
59	Publicity Queen	8	3	2	1	4	18
60	Consumer Psychologist	8	4	0	2	4	18
61	WayCoolJnr	8	4	0	1	5	18
62	B&T	4	5	0	1	8	18
63	Start Up Blog	4	3	3	2	6	18
64	Scott Drummond	7	3	3	1	4	18
65	Lexy Klain	7	4	2	1	4	18
66	Ineedhits	6	5	2	1	4	18
67	The oyster Project	8	3	2	1	4	18
68	Publicis Digital	7	3	1	1	5	17
69	Filter Media	4	4	2	2	5	17
70	Will Scully Power	7	3	1	0	6	17
71	Insight + Ideas	8	3	1	2	3	17
72	Business and the internet	7	4	1	0	5	17
73	Sitemost	5	3	0	1	7	16
74	Matt Jones Blog	8	1	2	1	4	16
75	Diffusion	7	4	1	1	3	16
76	How good you want to be	7	3	1	1	4	16
77	Beyond Digital Media	7	2	2	1	4	16
78	Free Beer	5	3	2	1	5	16
79	Ben Cooper	8	3	1	0	4	16
80	The White Agency ffffff	6	4	0	0	6	16
81	Re: Turn On	8	4	0	2	3	17
81	Fresh Chat	6	3	1	1	4	15
82	Uneven Distribution	7	1	2	1	4	15
83	online marketing sydney	5	4	0	0	6	15
84	doingwords.com	7	2	1	1	4	15
85	BMF Sticky	6	3	1	0	5	15
86	Slide Media	7	2	2	0	4	15
87	Send Up a larger room	7	2	0	1	5	15
88	OMG with Emily	7	3	1	0	4	15
89	I hate ads	7	3	0	1	4	15
90	Australian SEO blog	4	0	1	3	6	14
91	Peter Sheanan	6	3	0	1	4	14
92	Australian Small Business	6	3	0	1	4	14
93	The Wayfarer	8	2	0	1	3	14
94	Adnotes	6	4	0	1	3	14
95	Jax Interactive	7	3	0	1	3	14
96	Semfire Search Enging Marketing Blog	5	3	1	1	4	14
97	The Gloo	4	4	0	0	6	14
98	The Communications Room	6	3	1	0	4	14
99	Strike a Cord	7	3	0	0	4	14
100	Lets refresh	7	1	0	0	6	14
101	Marketing Results	6	4	0	0	4	14
102	SEO Company	5	5	0	0	4	14
103	Dan Pankraz Vs. Youth	8	2	0	0	4	14
104	Digital Oz	8	2	1	0	3	14
105	Digital Tip	8	0	1	0	5	14
106	The F Rant	8	4	0	0	2	14
107	Frontiering Talking	8	0	0	0	5	13
108	David Wesson Digital Entertainment	8	3	1	0	1	13
109	The Jason Recliner	5	4	1	1	2	13
110	Pixel Paddock	7	2	1	0	3	13
111	Mobilista	5	3	0	1	4	13
112	Stellar Blog	8	1	0	0	4	13
113	Idea Garden	8	0	0	0	4	12
114	Josh Anstey	6	3	0	0	3	12
115	Classy Marketing	6	3	1	0	2	12
116	Pity the Cool	8	3	0	0	1	12
117	Who put the devil in you?	8	3	0	0	1	12
118	Simon Reynolds	7	2	0	0	3	12
119	Arrow Internet SEO	5	3	0	0	4	12
120	Joely Righteous	8	0	0	0	4	12
121	Digital Marketing Lab	7	0	0	0	5	12
122	To the WordUp	6	0	0	0	5	11
123	Layman's Term	6	3	0	0	2	11
124	Chalkboard Websites	6	2	0	0	3	11
125	Simons Says	7	3	0	0	1	11
126	Gruen Transfer	6	2	0	0	3	11
127	Quintessentially Digital	6	2	0	0	3	11
128	Portz Interactive	7	2	0	0	2	11
129	Work.netx	5	2	0	0	4	11
130	Community Girl	7	0	0	0	4	11
131	Refined Geek	6	2	0	0	3	11
132	Wunderman Aus	6	2	0	0	3	11
133	Kevin C Ferry	7	2	0	0	2	11
134	Influencing the Influencers	7	0	0	0	4	11
135	Behind Digital PR	7	0	0	0	4	11
136	Feeding Kat	8	0	0	0	3	11
137	Hothouse	4	0	0	0	6	10
138	Marketing is a dirty word	7	2	1	0	0	10
139	Via Media - The Way	7	2	0	0	1	10
140	Know Your Tribe	5	0	0	0	5	10
141	The Lost Agency	7	0	0	0	3	10
142	Kruppy Rants	7	2	0	0	1	10
143	Down with 30kb	7	0	0	0	3	10
144	Digital Strategy - Clear Blue Day	5	0	0	0	4	9
145	The Odd one out	6	0	0	0	3	9
146	Tick Yes	4	0	0	0	5	9
147	Reputational Democrarcy	6	0	0	0	3	9
148	Frank, Hayley and the circus	7	0	0	0	2	9
149	Winged Wicked Things	7	0	0	0	2	9
150	Words, thoughts and other stuff	7	0	0	0	2	9
151	Virtual Ryf	5	2	0	0	1	8
152	Ponderings of The Orange Cow	4	3	0	0	1	8
153	Love number 2	6	0	0	0	2	8
154	Just Another PR	7	0	0	0	1	8
156	Latin Ocean	5	0	0	0	2	7
157	RMD's Marcom	6	0	0	0	1	7
158	Roger Down Under	5	0	0	0	2	7
159	Stop, Collaborate and Listen	4	2	0	0	1	7
160	Geared for Profit	4	0	0	0	3	7
161	Write across media	6	0	0	0	1	7
162	Death by Digital	6	0	0	0	1	7
163	Check Later	4	0	0	0	1	5
164	The Social Pages	4	0	0	0	0	4

If your blogs main subject is 'marketing' and you are not on the list, shoot me an email julian@thepopulation.com.au and I will put you on the next update that I do (December 2009). Thanks to Zac Martin for doing all the counting for this one, if there is a problem with your submission please shoot me an email.

A tip, if you would like to improve your Technorati Authority score make sure that you register at Technorati.

Feel free to put this badge on your website.



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5 practical learnings from working on Social Media campaigns

I have been working at The Population for just over 9 months now, In this time I have worked on a number of campaigns. I learn something every project I do. The following are six learnings from working on these campaigns;


The best conversations occur in online forums
We looked after the Al Bino - Beautiful Day for Cancer online properties, what we found was that the best conversation around the topic were occuring in forums. Blogs and Twitter are rarely as engaging as forums.


News Portals still break and hold most news stories
People who say that they will only read blogs in the future are joking, what we found when doing the online audit for Listerine after the Cancer scare was that all the chatter was occuring around the major news portals, people would just repost the stores on their blog or twitter links to the stories. No one was actually discussing the matter except on the news sites.


Facebook Pages work after the transaction.
Working on the My Year Without Sex fanpage, we saw that it was very hard to get people to become a fan of the page before they had seen the movie, people needed to see the movie then become a fan.


In online publicity it is all about the subject line
Doing the blogger outreach with Dosh Wallets and Skins we found that we needed to get straight to the point, long emails will get no response, you need to get your information across in one paragraph.


Getting video content into newsportals will significantly boost your audience
We created the video content '5 things that stop sex' for the movie My Year Without Sex, when it was picked up by Fairfax blogger 'Ask Sam' we saw a dramatic increase in views.

The most important lesson of all is;
Social Media does not work on its own it needs to work as part of an overall digital strategy

Have you had an learnings from working in social media? I would be interested to hear them.

11 new examples of musicians using social media in 2009

I got the idea for 'new examples in 2009' from Kate who wrote '5 new examples of branded entertainment'. Well here goes;

1. AC/DC created a 7 part online documentary series, Fannation about the band getting back together. Amazing use of Facebook, Youtube/Vimeo and Twitter.


2. DJ Paul Van Dyk created an iPhone App to help out DJs, check out the tutorial with the man himself here.


3. A Twitter application for Trav$dJam which allowed you to download his latest single if you retweeted about the launch of the deal.

4. DJ Tiga created a satirical interview about the launch of his new c.d


5.A really cool video clip where you control who plays by Cold War Kids

6. There are a number of good bands/artist using Twitter; some of the standouts are MC Hammer, Snob Scrilla, John Van Der Slice, Timmy Trumpet, Eminem (which got a write up in Ad Age)

7. Shoot The Player films musicians playing in interesting locations around Sydney. The idea has been around for awhile, here is the latest video starring Reggie Watts.

Reggie Watts: Sasquatch (for Shoot The Player) from shoottheplayer.com on Vimeo.

8. Kickstart gives bands the chance to get micro-financed for music ventures. At the moment the band The Rural Alberta Advantage are trying to get $3,000 to create a limited run 7" record.

9. Kitsune are giving people the chance to feature on the cover of their new compilation. All you have to do is email your self potrait sketch in and one lucky artist will go on the cover.

10. Possible the best Australian band using social media Short Stack have been amazing with growing their band through Myspace and Youtube. They have a channel on Youtube where they have over 20 episodes from the band.


Other notable artist using vlogs effectively include Imogen Heap, Souljah Boy, and 50 Cent.

11. Short Stack also held a flash mob concert in Pitt St Mall earlier in the year.


12. Short Stack have just announced their SMS pre order deal where you will not only get a copy of the new single but if you are in the first 1,000 they will give you a personal phone call.


12. Mike Skinner released 3 songs through Twitter for the hell of it. (via Sam)

13. Music video clip for ArcadeFire 'Black Fire' where you control what happens similar to the Cold War Kids idea (via Sam)

14. Wilco organised car pools via Facebook to their show, this is an awesome idea. (via Sam)

Thanks to everyone on Twitter who gave suggestions and if you have any other great uses of social media by musicians please share in comments and I will add to the list.