Should a Blogger Contribute or Create?

Since I started this blog I have usually had a post idea or two in my pocket for when the time comes to write a post. However this week the three post ideas I have are taking a little longer to develop than I had anticipated ... so I was stuck with no pearls of marketing wisdom to impart on you!

It occurred to me that I often contribute interesting view points (well I think so anyway) to conversations on other posts that I could, instead of contributing to the conversation, hold back and develop the idea/point into my own blog post.

An example is a comment I made at Consumer Psychologist where Adam Ferrier commented that "I think people with a history in social media who want careers in marketing and communications should get educated in the broader aspects of human behaviour and marketing. Please. Some of the comments people are making in this space are at best naive".

You can read my comment here. As I was writing the comment I almost stopped and kept it to develop into my own post but then decided that would be against one of the general concepts of blogs - to create conversations.

So I am wondering, do you wrestle with the same problems? Do you often start to write a comment on someone’s blog but then keep it for your own post development? Do you have a trick where you can contribute and create at the same time?

Is Television Actually Killing Itself?

I see lots of proclamations that traditional media is dying with dwindling viewers/listeners/readers and that traditional advertising doesn't work. I am not sure if this is true or not but cannot see in the foreseeable future that radio/tv/newspapers will fall over all together.

However, it occurred to me, that in the case of television, that maybe it is the TV stations who are to blame for the spruiked decline. And maybe this is linked to reality TV.

I think TV stations are lazy and are too happy to trundle out some shitty reality TV shows. In turn, I think the viewers are bored of the same concepts and if others are anything like me then they don't know which show they are watching because half of them look the bloody same! So I don't bother watching TV as much.

Here is an example - Bondi Vet. You won't check it out but if you want to click here. WTF! Who cares? This show sounds so boring that it will be lucky to make it into a 2nd season. Is it really that different from other animal shows such as RSPCA Rescue or Animal Hospital (I think that is what they are called :)

Hey TV execs ... no wonder people turn off and advertisers are jumping ship. Wake up to yourselves! Create some good shows and people will watch them. If a restaurant serves shitty food do expect that the customers will return? Of course not. So stop serving up shitty shows. It is not a hard concept. If you can't grasp that concept then maybe you should check out this link.

However, as more and more advertisers jump ship, then does the space left, which is occupied by less advertisers, actually become an easier space to advertise in? Will advertisers get better returns because there is less clutter?

Ok, that's enough of a rant. Here a a few things to round off with ...

MARKETING TODAY PODCAST

Wags has asked me to provide some regular content to the podcast. It was born from a suggestion that he incorporate a social media moron award into the podcast. He suggested back that I should do it myself! So I will and am about to record my first segment after I finish reading this blog. I will be talking about a bloke doing 200kmh on his motorbike and David Armano's recent efforts. Be sure to check out the Marketing Today podcast here ... not because I will be on it but because Wags and the gang do an outstanding job.

CANBERRA SOCIAL MEDIA BREAKFAST

I got in contact with Stephen Collins of acidlabs to instigate a Canberra Social Media Breakfast (ala Friday coffees in Sydney and Melbourne). If you are in Canberra, or know of anyone who is, and would be interested then we will be starting this Friday at Cream in Civic. Check out the event here.

The Influence of Sponsors

I want to introduce you to a friend of mine. On this blog only, he is going to go by the name of "Lying Mattress". He is a real friend and isn't a character I have made up. He'll make guest appearances from time to time. He promised me a picture to use but didn't deliver the goods ... so he is stuck with this one until he delivers.

You see, Lying Mattress a) loves a conspiracy theory and b) he hates marketing. That's right, he thinks it is all a bunch of bullshit and hates how a lot of it is filling every available space and controls everything! He has some cracker views and some pretty nice conspiracy theories as well so I thought I might start sharing some of them with you.

Lying Mattress loves the cricket but he, like me, thinks the Channel 9 commentary is pretty boring - certainly nowhere near as good as the commentary on ABC Radio (O'Keefe is an absolute cack). During the boxing day test I tried to play the ABC Radio commentary through the net while having the TV out on the deck but they were not synced well. I just put it down to internet vs live TV gremlins but Lying Mattress thinks their is evil work afoot.

Lying Mattress recons that Channel 9 deliberately ensure that the TV telecast and the radio commentary are out so that you can't turn the TV sound down and listen to the radio commentary instead. This then ensures that you have to listen to all the advertising messages that Channel 9 have saturated the cricket with.

I recon he might just be on the money.

Not trusting anyone, Lying Mattress also noted that in one of the Johnny Walker trivia segments the correct answer was "3" which one commentator then nicely plugged something along the lines of "The answer is 3 which is nice as 3 Mobile are the test series sponsor". Coincidence or deliberate?

Once he got of the phone Lying Mattress sent me this link about how players might only be being kept in the team because the sponsors have them in their ads in the summer, particularly Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symmonds . Both have both been in very poor form and plenty of questions are being asked of the selectors. Admittedly , I had recently thought it would be pretty uncomfortable for the sponsors to have an ad with Hayden or Symmonds in it if they were no longer in the team. But it was just a passing thought. What do you think? Are they only being kept int he team because of their starring roles in major sponsor ads?

Do you think the influence of sponsors in sport has gone to far?

BTW - I hope Hayden smashes a ton tomorrow if only to see the sheer relief and joy in his celebration.