Leslie Nassar is a senior manager at Telstra. He’s also the person behind the Twitter’s Fake Stephen Conroy.

Telstra has a social media consultant Mr Mike Hickinbotham and he talks through Telstra’s blog – http://www.nowwearetalking.com.au/

You can read a better coverage on Mumbrella.

Leslie, the fake Stephen Conroy, is asked by Telstra to stop doing Twitter. Telstra initially denies this, then later they came back and say – yes, we did it.

Telstra’s attempts to cover up the fact that it tried to silence the Fake Stephen Conroy has backfired spectacularly.

Cameron Reilly on comments at “now we are talking” Telstra’s blog- “So your original statement was both factually correct and factually incorrect at the same time? Is that your way of saying it was wrong? ;-)” great!

I tried for the last 2 hours to place a comment on Telstra’s blog, but it was impossible.

I tried to fill out the subscriptions form (a.k.a. job application) but this is what I got

“Now we are talking”? ………..probably talking too much and they’ve forgotten to listen….

Anyway, my view about the facts.

1) Mr. Mike Hickinbotham on his first post asks:

“Here’s the question I propose for discussion – if Leslie worked for a ad agency would the tone and nature of the conversation be the same or different?”

What sort of stupid questions is this?

Of course it would be different! Not better or worse just different! Gosh, of course.

It’s like asking if Michael Phelps marijuana’ episode would be different if he was a rock star!

Ok, let’s get over this.

“Luckily Telstra was already pretty advanced in developing policies for social media. If other corporates haven’t begun writing their policies, this illustrates it’s time to do so now.”

So Telstra, you think you’re ‘pretty advanced’? Somehow I doubt it..

Did you Google your company this morning?

Give a try

Did you measure the outcome of your mess Telstra?

Listen

Most major change initiatives-whether intended to boost quality, improve culture, or reverse a corporate death spiral-generate only lukewarm results. Many fail miserably.

Why?

Mr. Phillip Kottler maintains that too many managers don’t realise transformation is a process, not an event.

It advances through stages that build on each other. And it takes years. Pressured to accelerate the process, managers skip stages. But shortcuts never work.

We live in an age of unprecedented opportunity: If you’ve got ambition, drive, and smarts, you can rise to the top.

Personally I think that people who rush in throwing stones and criticizing companies that try to keep the interaction under control are so full of shit.

Social Media created lots of opportunities both for companies and employees. But with opportunity comes responsibility. We must each be our own Chief Executive Officer and be liable for our acts.

“Free time”, “Different personalities” – that’s all very beautiful in theory – the reality is you are the company you are representing. In this case even worse because Mr Leslie was in a senior position.

Question - What happens with all the theory if Telstra loses money because of an employee shares information (through social media) he has because of his position?

In earlier eras, companies told business people what their contribution should be. Today, business people have a much broader range of choices and they need to be accountable for their choices.

Big ideas come from tackling big problems.

Much of today’s most valuable management knowledge came from wrestling with such issues.

I bet my ass Telstra and Leslie Nassar have now learned a valuable lesson,

Cheers

Lucio Ribeiro

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I’ve been busy.

I’ve been absurdly busy.

Normally I’d write a post like “Sorry guys, I haven’t updated this blog as I’d like, it happens….blablabla” However since we keep preaching about social engagement and online conversation I decided to really share my last movements

Why I am so Busy since my last post?

I’ve been busy with

1) The Online Circle – My Internet Marketing Consultancy Company in Melbourne

• I’m working in an Internet Strategical and Tactic Consultancy proposal including SEO, SEM and Social Media Integration for an International Bank in conjunction with a Top and wise Direct Marketing Agency from Melbourne.
• Couching Internet Marketing and taking a seat on the Advisory Board of Media Saints – A new web2.0 Widget Marketing Company
• Working on a proposal for Customer Acquisition and Brand awareness  for a New E-commerce website
• Waiting decision for a proposal we sent out to a movie industry related company
• Still on  pitch for PPc Management for a Construction Company (Damn you Crisis )
• Finishing a new product / New website for our Parent company (our new baby company)
• Seeing Venues to kick off with our new company
• Working on my most complete and most excited Internet Marketing Presentation I ever done
• Interviewing two great technical all-coder’ style buddies for our projects
• Discussing new campaign with all clients – with potential Media coverage   (need to talk to Trevor Young about it)
• Rebranding The Online Circle.
• General Management -  Clients

2) My Personal Blogs and Websites (marketingEasy.net , Webaustralia.org, Australiasportscentre.com)

1. I started more than 6 posts and couldn’t finish it
2. I started a plan for guest bloggin in other websites and a plan to invite people to write here.
3. Planning to finish my  Blogroll – For the first time myblogroll will me mainly Ozzy blogs I think have achieved a higher level of excellence
4. Trying to integrate, redesign and optimized two recent purchased websites – a Golf Course Locator for America and a Free classified Website
5. Finalizing, correcting minor mistakes and creating new content for our Social Media Club Melbourne Breakfasts

Personal life

1. Organizing furniture and settling on the new house – just moved from South Yarra to South part of Melburne – Bentleigh suburb
2. Having the worst Headache dealing with a dishonest Real Estate professional from WentWorth Real Estate.
3. Spending more time than I should  trying to convince the  swimming pool cleaners to come over.
4. No Internet connection yet. Using my cousins Wireless. Organizing  IINET to get it done.
5. Dog got a skin allergy, two times on the VET
6. Ahh, washed and waxed my motorbike

Other Profesional Related Stuff

1. Studying materials to give me  some background for an interview I’m doing in March with Ex Chairman of Publicis for MarketingEasy Blog – courtesy of the lovely Diane from  Publicity Queen
2. Trying to Finish a Material for Kate – Marketing Mag
3. Trying to finish an article for Anthill Magazine
4. Trying to write a basic article about basica internet marketing for a Local Newspaper
5. Trying to get a page profile of Internet people on SocialMediaClubmelbourne.com
6. Trying to answer up to most 200 DM from Twitter since my last post about Australian Twitters
7. Trying to make some time and for people I need to talk in person

• James Duthie from OnlineMarketingBanter
• Zac from PigsdontFly
• Shai Rotman
• Darren Rowse problogger

1. Write emails to people as Julian Colen thanking for the ranking, John Kappa from Perception Design, Stephen Sammartino from Rentoid.com and Ross Hill
2. Wanting to leave better or new comments on Tim’s Blog, Mumbrella, Kate Richardson, Stephen’s Blog and ServantOfChaos

What I’d love to be doing right now – not necessarily on this order

- Swimming on my pool

- Making love to my wife

- Watching New Season of Heroes or one of the new 10 movies I’ve got

- Seeing more smiles from my clients

- Walking my dog

- Helping someone in need

- reading Again David Ogilvy’s book “Confessions…

I need more time. I need time to make each of these contacts points relevant and important

When my action involve people I believe that whatever we are  making, designing, shipping, selling, emailing, talking it’s a Big Event for the people “buying” it and using it. It may be just another contract or contact to us, but someone is counting on it being remarkable.

Not a necessarily strategical post but a conversational one.

How about you? Let me know a little bit about you on the comments. Share something you’re doing or something you did or planning to do. That’ll be fun

Cheers

Lucio Ribeiro

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I thought I would suggest some of the people I am, and would recommend following on Twitter, and being a Online Marketing guy in Australia, obviously all these are Australia based.

Before anything I’m Lucio_Ribeiro on twitter

Darren Rowse
Company/Website: Problogger
WHO?: Probably the most notable and famous of Australian’s bloggers.
WHY: Hugely popular, highly respected and well worth following
WHERE: http://twitter.com/problogger

Gavin Heaton
Company/Website: servantofchaos
WHO?: Gavin works at SAP in Global Business Development and writes The Servant of Chaos blog.
WHY: Well connected, interacts and bring value for conversations.
HERE: http://twitter.com/servantofchaos

Andrew Richardson
Company/Website: newsdigitalmedia.com.au
WHO?: Creative Director at News Digital Media
WHY: Good source of information
HERE: http://twitter.com/Andrew303

Chris Sylvester
Company/Website: www.iworldcreative.com
WHO?: Web and Marketing Consultant.
WHY: Great sense of humour, well connected, interacts a lot
HERE: http://twitter.com/ChrisSylvester

Jacob Cass
Company/Website: Justcreativedesign.com
WHO?: Designer
WHY: I look forward for his Twitts “Logo of the day”
HERE: http://twitter.com/justcreative

Duncan Riley
Company/Website: Inquisitr
WHO?: Editor, The Inquisitr, CEO Nichenet.
WHY: Hugely experienced blogger, ex TechCrunch and VERY well connected
HERE: http://twitter.com/duncanriley

Mark Pollard
Company/Website: http://budurl.com/markpflickr
WHO?: Digital & brand strategist. IA, SEO, SM, content, community, utilities. Strategy Director (Sydney) / McCann Sydney. CEO / Stealth Magazine.
WHY: Great, down on earth, collaborative guy.
HERE: http://twitter.com/markpollard

Keith Don
Company/Website: World Vision Australia.
WHO?: Digital Project Manager
WHY: I can’t stop learning from his twitts.
HERE: http://twitter.com/keithdon

RossHill
Company/Website: Yabble / Deloitte Digital / The Hive Co-Founder
WHO?: internet entrepreneur
WHY: Great guy, Ross is my guide for Web related events in Melbourne.
HERE: http://twitter.com/rosshill

Steve Hopkins
Company/Website: Thesquigglyline.com/
WHO?: Internet Savy Man
WHY: Great Person, and hugely entertaining twitter read
HERE: http://twitter.com/stevehopkins

Kate Kendall
Company/Website: Thezeitgeists.blogspot.com/
WHO?: Online Editor of Marketingmag.com.au | Writer | Blogger
WHY: Kate, participates and integrates Twitter ideas to the MarketingMag
HERE: http://twitter.com/KateKendall

Markus Hafner (Eskimo_Sparky)
Company/Website: Happener.com
WHO?: Online Recruiter & business grower
WHY: Velociroflcoptersaurus admirer
HERE: http://twitter.com/eskimo_sparky

Liamalexander
Company/Website: Liamalexander.com/blog/
WHO?: Guitarist, artist, web designer, teacher, geek
WHY: Can talk Dexter, politics, art, photography, technology, the environment and something else.
HERE: http://twitter.com/liamalexander

Trevor Young
Company/Website: PRwarrior.com
WHO?: The PR Warrior
WHY: Talks public relations, marketing and communications, PR 2.0, social media, word-of-mouth and brand engagement
HERE: http://twitter.com/trevoryoung

Laurel Papworth (Silk Charm)
Company/Website: Laurelpapworth.com
WHO?: Social Networks Strategist
WHY: She’s been listed in the top 150 marketing and media bloggers worldwide (Power150) by AdAge and in the top 5 Australia (B&T)
HERE: http://twitter.com/SilkCharm

Pete Williams (Preneur)
Company/Website: Preneurmarketing.com
WHO?: Australian Entrepreneur
WHY: Referred as Australia’s Richard Branson
HERE: http://twitter.com/preneur

Stephen Collins (Trib)
Company/Website: Acidlabs.org
WHO?: Internet Strategist
WHY: Stephen is the prominent Twitter voice from Canberra, his blog at acidlabs is in the AdAge Power 150 and I need to s, He’s a great guy to have a chat!
HERE: http://twitter.com/trib

Julian Cole
Company/Website: Adspace-pioneers
WHO?: Digital Strategist @ The Population
WHY: Julian connects people
HERE: http://twitter.com/juliancole

John Johnston
Company/Website Jjprojects
WHO?: Social Media Manager, Global Team at Earth Hour
WHY: Enthusiasm for generating conversation
HERE: http://twitter.com/jjprojects

Michael Specht
Company/Website Specht.com.au
WHO?: HR Technology, Recruiting & Enterprise 2.0 Consultant
WHY: He’s a twitter Shotgun
HERE: http://twitter.com/mspecht

Others to follow/watch:

http://twitter.com/waynemansfield

http://twitter.com/KevinRuddPM

http://twitter.com/mumbrella

http://twitter.com/stokely

http://twitter.com/KateRichardson

http://twitter.com/iggypintado

http://twitter.com/dministry

http://twitter.com/SantaClaus

http://twitter.com/TferThomas

http://twitter.com/BrandDNA

http://twitter.com/JoelyRighteous

http://twitter.com/Taezar

http://twitter.com/fulltimecasual

http://twitter.com/Mister_Black

Thats just some of my recommendations, Please feel free to add yours on the comments

Cheers

Lucio Dias Ribeiro

www.twitter.com/Lucio_Ribeiro

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This is not a post about referrals in marketing, but it is still about references.

Oprah Winfrey often recommends books in her TV show and usually the titles she chooses sells like crazy.

A few days ago she praised a tool called, Kindle, an e-book reader Amazon has been selling for about 1 year.

“I’m telling you, this is simply my new favorite thing in the world” – she said.

On the same day, the visits to the site of Amazon rose 6%, says Hitwise.

80% of all Kindle mentions on blog posts were also mentioning the name Oprah!

On the day that Kindle was quoted in the program, the search for the word ‘Kindle’ increased 479%, according to Google Insights.

So, What Can We Learn From This?

In terms of believability, there is a strong assumption that a woman like Oprah is a book-carrying, Kindle user.

She reads, she is smart and she is credible.

Anyone can easily imagine her reading and using the technology.

Good Deal – Celebrity ->Endorsement->online

Celebrities for online marketing campaigns

It’s extremely popular in the advertising environment to use celebrities to endorse mass marketing campaigns. Celebrity endorsements remain a popular tool for marketers.

The right celebrity, at the right time, for the right brand at the right price is fantastic.

However using a celebrity who has no “believability” with your brand is money and time down the drain.

Now, let’s flip the coin to - Engaging with an Online Celebrity.

Nowadays there are many online celebrities; people like Seth Godin, Perez Hilton, Daily Kos (Mr Koz), Michael Arrington, Harry Knowles, Darren Rowse, and many more.

Question: Is it worth it to build a business relationship with Bloggers?

My answer is…

1) Meet Mr. Frank Warren,

he’s the editor and creator of http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

If you don’t know, his website works like this – Got a secret? Write it on a homemade postcard and send it to PostSecret.

Since its inception in 2005, the project has collected and displayed upwards of 250,000 original pieces of art on its blog.

Audiences have fallen for the formula:

Two books of the postcards have been published, a third is on the way and in 2006 the site won six Bloggy awards, including Weblog of the Year.

For his part, Warren hasn’t kept himself a secret: he’s appeared on Today, 20/20, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Fox News and more.

Beautiful Idea – You’ll both enjoy the romance

Who was the first book Editor to approach him? Who was the first company who saw value in approaching a blogger with great material and saw a potential business out of this?

Opportunities?

- How about art galleries exposing the material?

- How about Hallmark engaging with the website?

- How about the movie industry?

ahhh…so many ideas…

Do you have any suggestion?

Cheers

Lucio Ribeiro

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Here’s some friendly advice: Don’t. And if you’ve already got one, pull the plug.

This is the Headline-grabber at a Wired blog post about how blogs are “so 2004″, and how services like Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr even are here to replace them.

Writer Paul Boutin says:

“Thinking about launching your own blog? Here’s some friendly advice: Don’t. And if you’ve already got one, pull the plug.

Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.”

Some commenting on the Wired post itself say things like:

“Nice headline grabber, but this analysis is so wide of the mark it’s laughable.

I won’t deal with every point – but for example:

“Today, a search for, say, Barack Obama’s latest speech will deliver a Wikipedia page, a Fox News article, and a few entries from professionally run sites like Politico.com. The odds of your clever entry appearing high on the list? Basically zero.”

I’m afraid the above has been written by someone who clearly has no technical understanding at all. Ever heard of the long tail? Clearly not….. Check it out – it might give you a more balanced copy next time…..”

and

“I do agree with one thing in the article: “it’s almost impossible to get noticed”

My personal view – Bullshit.

Online Marketing is evolving every day, with new platforms, new behavior, however far more important…. much much more users.

I dont see the new tools as Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, etc, replacing the “old” ones, but complementing.

They cant be seeing as independent tools, screaming for users to drop their old habits into new ones.

They help each other, they solidificate and leverage users from one to another.

My blog is here, however thanks for Twitter I had some top guns guys coming on it – Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse are some of the guys who came to MarketingEasy.net because of dialogs started on Twitter.

Another example,

Last Friday I started a business relationship with a player in America. We talked on linkedin, after some talks he landed on my online marketing blog. After reading it he got convinced my company, The Online Circle was able to perform as his partner in Australia.

How can blogging be dead when it helps me to generate conversation, influential thinkiness and business?

How big bullshit Mr Paul Boutin.

By the way, next time you decide to write the end of Blogs, please don’t do it using a Blog Post.

What is your opinion?

Cheers

Lucio Dias Ribeiro

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