Friday, 09 July 2010 14:42

Customer service via Social Media

Almost exactly two years ago, dp dialogue posted a punishing article, raking Optus over the coals for their total lack of social media presence during an unfolding outage that affected thousands.

Since that time Optus, and many other major companies along with them, have completely overhauled their communication strategies.

Social media has become such a prominent method for consumers to discuss brands that it is now the case that you cannot afford to be without a strategy for monitoring and responding to your fans and detractors online.

How did Optus change to reflect the need to address customer service socially?

Monday, 05 July 2010 14:03

Liking, sharing and when to use them

By introducing the 'Like' button, Facebook has effectively created a recommendation engine for the internet.

Since its introduction, the Like button has spread like wildfire throughout the web. But is it the best tool for the job?

There are several 'Like' tools available, in addition to Facebook inherent sharing capability. In this post we take a look at the differences between Liking and Sharing and how to decide which is the right tool for the job.

Saturday, 03 July 2010 10:01

Social media. You're doing it wrong.

If there is one hard and fast rule for social media engagement, it's this:

Be Genuine.

Social media is not your Grandfather's marketing medium. It's not Mad Men. Social media is the over-the-fence conversation, the pub chat, the coffee & cake catch-up.

Real people hate being marketed at. None of us likes TV advertising, we suffer through it to get free content. We don't look at display ads on websites (it's called 'banner blindness') but we put up with the tokyo-city blinkfest to view the sites we like.

Sure, Facebook runs some paid advertising along the side. It's not intrusive, usually contextual and easily ignored. Some apps do push themselves into my newsfeed, but it's easy enough to block that app. Twitter is, for the most part, advertising free.

Today I witnessed a massive two-fer of social media ineptitude, all in the name of trying to turn users into paid advertisers.

Sunday, 13 June 2010 07:21

Integrating Disqus with K2

One of the biggest weaknesses in the Joomla! content management system is its lack of built-in commenting. Where platforms like Wordpress are forging ahead with powerhouse new features aimed at serious content generation, Joomla! is still mired in its Mambo legacy structure. It is not, out of the box, a blogging platform.

While the shift to core Joomla! embracing MVC has allowed designers to leave behind the uniform look of previous iterations of the platform, Joomla! is still first and foremost a CMS, not a blogging platform.

There have been a raft of commenting solutions available for Joomla!, however I am increasingly of the opinion that without some level of social integration, commenting wastes the potential of wider promotion and engagement. Further, I am absolutely sick to death of having to create new user accounts at every site I visit.

If a site offers single-sign-on through social services I breathe a sigh of relief.

So when a commenting system came along that offered both single-sign-on and social integration, I was utterly thrilled.

That system is Disqus.

JoomlaWorks offer a nice Disqus plugin for Joomla!, but it doesn't integrate with K2 (their content construction) kit very well. I love K2 unashamedly. It allows me look and feel customisation that Joomla itself can't easily match. I can also create multiple templates per view, making it a much simpler publishing option for users who just need to upload one image and K2 will resize it for each view and place it according to the template.

A plugin can't match the level of customisation that I require, so I prefer to integrate the Disqus code manually. Here's how:

Thursday, 01 July 2010 11:52

Facebook. Not just for kids.

I was recently discussing social media with a friend in the antiques business looking for new ways to market online. Having just launched a new online store he was casting about for marketing opportunities to engage a broader range of customers beyond search marketing.

Facebook and twitter immediately came to mind. We eventually came to the conclusion that these channels might provide his business with an opportunity to engage a younger audience, both for the investment and aesthetic value of antiques.

While that's a great answer, one with the opportunity to create a significant market niche, I've had a nagging feeling we missed something critical in our casual dismissal of the typical antiques demographic.

It didn't take much to discover that, as in so many areas, baby boomers are hitting social media big time.

Thursday, 24 June 2010 17:03

Classic Rock Package

A one-off landing page for CC Entertainment during their Lez Zeppelin tribute shows.

We created this page to promote the massive amount of products they'd amassed to give away as a prize on the night.

Based around a registration form, this microsite was promoted via social channels (and featured social media sharing) and allowed customers to opt-into the promotion. Visitors were upsold on purchasing tickets immediately.

Thursday, 24 June 2010 17:00

Whole Lotta Love

CCE approached us wanting a new look for their tribute show promotional materials. 'Epic' is the only word to describe the performance that CCE puts on. Not content to simply ape the sound of the bands they tribute, CCE attract the finest A-list vocalists in Australia backed by one of the most incredible instrumental ensembles seen in this country. Their shows pay homage to the originals, they make them their own while producing a tribute that's as close as you could get to the spirit of the original.

In that vein, we wanted to create a set of posters for each show that would be instantly identifiable as part of a set while simultaneously giving the impression of a poster you'd had on your wall since the 70's.

To that end, we created a poster series, of which this is the third.

Taking iconic imagery associated with Led Zeppelin, we created a Gibson Les Paul from scratch (the guitar most associated with Led Zep, CCE are also sponsored by Gibson), created an aged paper texture and incorporated a dynamic shot of one of the vocalists, ex-noiseworks member Steve Balbi. We also used fonts designed to be reminiscent of that used on 'The Wall' album.

The end result was used in posters, standees and postcards.

Thursday, 24 June 2010 16:55

Beggars Banquet

CCE approached us wanting a new look for their tribute show promotional materials. 'Epic' is the only word to describe the performance that CCE puts on. Not content to simply ape the sound of the bands they tribute, CCE attract the finest A-list vocalists in Australia backed by one of the most incredible instrumental ensembles seen in this country. Their shows pay homage to the originals, they make them their own while producing a tribute that's as close as you could get to the spirit of the original.

In that vein, we wanted to create a set of posters for each show that would be instantly identifiable as part of a set while simultaneously giving the impression of a poster you'd had on your wall since the 70's.

To that end, we created a poster series, of which this is the second.

Taking iconic imagery associated with Rolling Stones, we re-created the mouth and tongue from scratch, created an aged paper texture and incorporated a dynamic shot of one of the vocalists, Simon Meli. We also used fonts designed to be reminiscent of that used on 'The Beggars Banquet' album.

The end result was used in posters, standees and postcards.

Sunday, 24 January 2010 17:42

Great Gig In The Sky

Our first work for CC Entertainment.

CCE approached us wanting a new look for their tribute show promotional materials. 'Epic' is the only word to describe the performance that CCE puts on. Not content to simply ape the sound of the bands they tribute, CCE attract the finest A-list vocalists in Australia backed by one of the most incredible instrumental ensembles seen in this country. Their shows pay homage to the originals, they make them their own while producing a tribute that's as close as you could get to the spirit of the original.

In that vein, we wanted to create a set of posters for each show that would be instantly identifiable as part of a set while simultaneously giving the impression of a poster you'd had on your wall since the 70's.

To that end, we created a poster series, of which this is the first.

Taking iconic imagery associated with Pink Floyd, we re-created the prism from scratch, created an aged paper texture and incorporated a dynamic shot of the lead guitarist, Joseph Calderazzo. We also used fonts designed to be reminiscent of that used on 'The Wall' album.

The end result was used in posters, standees and postcards.

Monday, 21 June 2010 10:35

Helmsman

Helmsman Consulting are Australia's leading project services and support company.

Realising their range of sites didn't properly reflect the stature of the company, they turned to thinksync to provide a look and feel that matched their image.

Such a broad-reaching company requires several sites to properly encompass the scope of their organisation, so we were contracted to develop the look and feel for all their online properties, changing colour for each but maintaining a structural consistency.