What was hot last week:

 Social Readers

Recent reports this week state that social readers, such as the Washington Post Social Reader, are declining in use due to the over sharing onto friends’ newsfeeds annoying many users.

These apps make use of Facebook’s Open Graph which was introduced along with the new Timeline layout, resulting in seamless sharing of any articles read. These apps have been reported to drive just as much traffic as Google, highlighting the benefits of leveraging people’s own social networks to drive traffic online. It seems the abundance of new apps such as Viddy, are sharing too much annoying information which may not necessarily be as relevant to your friends as a current news article.

The barrier of allowing these apps permission to access your information before being able to read any of these articles or view the videos is another aspect Facebook users are finding irritating about these apps and should considered by any businesses considering building something similar.

It is important that any businesses who decide to go down the route of a Facebook app similar to these social readers take into account the type of information people find interesting and relevant to them and how much they will be disrupting people’s experience on Facebook if the app is to be successful.

Pinstagram

What happens when you cross the biggest mobile photo sharing app with the biggest image sharing website? Pinstagram.

This site is a great way to view your Instagram feed on a computer using Pinterest’s layout. The combination of the two allows for a view into the lives of who you are following on Instagram in the extremely user-friendly layout of Pinterest.

Have you seen any other cool API combinations recently?

Facebook Action Links

Facebook have introduced Action Links to Timeline Facebook applications allowing users to make additional actions from an app directly from their News Feed.

From the Facebook developer blog:

For example, when someone checks in on foursquare and shares it on their timeline, friends can already like or comment on the resulting post through the links that appear as part of the story. Now with action links, foursquare added another link, “Save This Place,” which enables people to save a place to their foursquare to-do list directly from Facebook.

This is a great option for any businesses with their own Facebook app to increase their user-base and interactions with their app outside of those who currently use the it.

Hey, they are preaching to the converted in a girl that currently works at The Conscience Organisation but once the stats from Dr Rajendra Sisodia, the Global Chairman, started to flow I think most people in the room were onboard. His message? Have a think about the current capitalist growth model and that it isn’t working any more. It’s become unsustainable both economically & ecologically. We just have to look at the current world economic crisis, the fact that confidence in big businesses as a result is at an all time low or, that from 1980 the world surpassed the point that we used more natural resources than could be renewed. Its no wonder then that being more ‘conscious’ & mindful of your actions and behaviours isn’t just for yogis any more it’s starting to proliferate through the business world with great effect.

So what do we mean by conscious capitalism? Businesses fundamentally caring about the people in the company and the society around them. Value for stakeholders still needs to flourish but this is not necessarily about extreme profit. This will represent a fundamental shift change in the measure of success of business. It means that economic success at the expense of other people and business can no longer exist on it’s own as a metric. If I’m loosing the cynic in you then consider the success of businesses like Google, Whole Foods & Amazon who have set themselves a mandate to work in this way.

So what are some of the principles to operating in the conscious capitalism world?

• 4 tenants; higher purpose, stakeholder integration, conscious leadership, conscious culture and management
• Creating the right setting; compassion, love, caring, soulful, joyful, authentic
• Authentic & consistent leadership behavior from leaders that are purpose and not money driven
• Flatter organizational structure
• Healthy net margin & low employee turnover with less investment in HR and marketing because the people in the company are engaged

Ultimately it’s about focusing on the right outcomes across a range of pillars (financial, intellectual, social, emotional, spiritual, cultural, physical, natural), and the rest will follow.

And, if you take nothing else out of this post, I’ll leave you with two killer quotes that came at the end of the session…

“Be the change you wish to see in the world”, Gandhi

& my personal favourite (given I’m a strategist by trade),

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast!”, Dr Rajendra Sisodia

Interested in finding out more?

http://www.consciouscapitalism.org

Or contact Kate Walker @ Human

It’s in times like this that the key thing is in danger of being forgotten, and that is the consumer. Technologies may change, but human motivations don’t. Behaviours may alter and adapt over time, but the basic human need state will remain the same. As marketeers we need to constantly asses at every step of the way – what value is our campaign giving back to the consumer?

I was recently sent a great video by Jon Steel, WPP’s planning guru. In it he said that in order to be a great planner (but this should be widened out to anyone in the advertising business), you have to experience real life. He urged people to get out and about, ride buses, visit particular stores, and experience first hand the places and the people that are actually interacting and relating with the brand.

If we’re going to get it right, lets make sure that we remember to step away from the computer and Google search, get out into the real world and make real world observations and not assumptions into the way people behave.

So what is this going to mean for us?

With Facebook being a “desktop” orientated company and Instagram being entirely focused on mobile, it suggests that Facebook may start to shift its focus towards mobile – the future of the internet.

This purchase comes just after Facebook’s recent push to standardise HTML5 and ensure it meets the minimum requirements for mobile app development. Each move by Facebook illustrates signs that the company wants to step away from Apple and Google, and a create future where development of the mobile internet isn’t constrained to the likes of iOS or Android requirements.

The purchase of Instagram also suggests a move towards evolving Facebook into a more visual communications platform. Some people believe that platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest are so popular because they communicate emotion through their imagery, and it’s this kind of soul that is currently missing from the Facebook platform.

With mixed reactions on the buyout reverberating throughout the digital space, one thing’s for sure, let’s hope Zuckerberg stays true to his word and continues to build on the strengths and features of Instagram, and doesn’t dilute the platform for its millions of active users.

WHO WE ARE

TCO is a Strategic & Creative Communications company focusing on consumer engagement. We assist our clients and partners in navigating their communications in the Earned Media and Owned Media environments. Our core competences are Content and Social Media. TCO is free-thinking, socially driven, and unique.

TCO works with some of Australia’s leading companies including: Coca-Cola, Nestle, Fosters and more.

THE ROLE

A dynamic role has become available for a professional, efficient and flexible People and Culture Manager to play a key role in the delivery of people, performance and culture objectives within TCO. You will have strong experience in office administration and are able to manage a variety of tasks simultaneously.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Your role includes:

• Primarily providing a high level of administrative support to the People, Performance and Culture functions
• Liaising with Partners and staff at all levels as a key service provider for the delivery of generalist human resources queries and solutions
• Sourcing, attracting recruiting and retaining staff
• Recruiting and managing the implementation of internship program
• Conduct regular check ins with all staff
• Facilitate and capture all information from Growth and Development reviews
• Create implementation plans for training and development of current full time staff
• Draft contracts and negotiate employment packages for new staff members
• Coordinating key people initiatives
• Working closely with the CEO and Managing Partners in development decisions, managing the learning and developing budget and providing administrative support
• Responsibility for all induction processes
• Responsibility for all exit processes
• Manage and organise the group training and development activities
• Producing relevant reports where required
• In a nutshell you will be the type of person that embodies the values of being curious, passionate, driven, entrepreneurial, welcoming, present, inspiring, insightful
• You will also practice what we preach – have an active ‘brand’ across all social media and business networking platforms
• Your behaviors will be:
• Be confident, outgoing, a positive energy that people are drawn to
• Conscious and mindful of you actions and how they impact others
• A social conscience and desire to help others
• Someone that people look up to and are excited to work with
• Bring skills to share and develop within our small, but passionate collective
• Someone that lives by the mantra of ‘EBNA’ (excellent but not enough), constantly looking for ways to add more value through every interaction
• A budding little entrepreneur, always looking for better and different ways of doing things

To be successful in this role, we expect you to have tertiary qualifications in HR or similar, be both a team player and autonomous worker, be highly motivated to provide great customer service, embrace change and committed to continuous improvement.  You will have well-developed communication and organisational skills and enjoy attention to detail.

EXPERIENCE

To be considered for this role you will be degree qualified in HR or similar, are both a team player and an autonomous worker. Be highly motivated, embrace change and be committed to continuous improvement.

To apply, please submit your CV to hr@theconscience.org.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

No recruitment agents need apply.

And what’s not to like about slow motion skating?

Aptly named MondayMash, the TCO Team will scour the interwebs to give you the best campaigns, viral videos and the hottest apps and tech launches of the past seven days. The blog will also feature ‘Twit of the Week,” the most interesting trend or #fail from The Twitterverse. We’ll also keep you up-to-date on current and future trends, and, importantly, let you know why this stuff matters.

You’ll be able to read the blog each Monday on our website. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow me on Twitter, to get it first.

Yours in an online world with a new ‘super villain,’
NV

Neil is TCO’s Social Media Manager. He enjoys reading, writing and tweeting. He once tried to live-tweet his own root canal surgery, until the dentist confiscated his iPhone.

Best Online Campaign
Invisible Children, ‘Kony 2012’ | kony2012.com
Pitch:Unless you have been under a rock without an internet connection, you will have seen and likely shared the thirty-minute short film Kony 2012, that aimed to make Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony ‘famous.’  With 60 million views on YouTube and international media attention, which included two Australian networks running the documentary in full, they have certainly achieved their goal.

Brief: Documentaries on atrocities in Africa are not new. What is different about this film, is that it distils the complexities of a 25-year civil war into a watchable short film, and tells us precisely what we can do to’fix it.’ Harnessing the power of the social web, IC asks the viewer to ‘share the content,’ amplifying voices that have long been silent and creating greater awareness of their cause.  But the real genius is the appeal for people to contact twenty ‘culturemakers’ and twelve ‘policy makers,’ using the online and real-world networks of these powerful ‘influencers’ to push the barrel on their behalf.

Best Viral Video
Kony 2012 | youtu.be/Y4MnpzG5Sqc
Brief: Without rehashing, this video has managed to achieve in a few days what governments and international aid agencies have not been able to do in decades.
Pitch: 60 million views on YouTube is nothing to sneeze at.

Best Application/Technology Launch
iPad | apple.com/au/ipad
Brief: The Retina display on the ‘resolutionary’ third generation iPad launched on Thursday makes everything sharper. It also runs considerably faster than the iPad2, and has a 5 mega-pixel camera and enhanced wireless technology for faster network speeds.
Pitch: It’s only a slight improvement from the previous model and is thicker and heavier, but you’ll line up around the block to get one anyway.

Trending
Pinterest | pinterest.com
The online pin board continues to be the hottest thing in social media and is creating a lot of noise ahead of its debut at SXSW, which is currently underway.
And locally, if you have an appetite for social media and late night burritos, the food truck trend is for you. Straight from LA, the gourmet chow vans tweet their location, so you can find them and feast. The City of Sydney is trialling ten trucks now. Find them

Twit of the Week
#coles
Another day, another social media disaster, well not quite… Coles courted catastrophe when the company accidently posted an open-ended question on Twitter, which was meant for the more controlled environs of Facebook. The company acted quickly and appropriately, heading off any trouble before it began.

Extraordinary inspiration
Steal Like an Artist: Ten Things Ever Creator Should Remember | ow.ly/9AbaZ
Writer, artist and Texan Austin Kleon’s rules for thinking and creating in the digital age.

Billed as a cross between ‘TED talks’, ‘MTV Unplugged’, ‘Tropfest’ & a ‘Meditation Ashram’ it’s no wonder they made the leap to following the social trend of smashing words together (coined in the celebratory dating world), to headline their concept as ‘enlightertainment’. My question was could it live up to the hype?

After a slight hick-up at the start (an opening ‘intense’ band that left me wanting to contract my mind), we were soon treated to ’7 ways to attain a happier life’ from Sarah Wilson who, quite frankly right now, I have a bit of a girl crush on. Presenter, journalist & now more commonly known as ‘social commentator’, Sarah explained her qualifications for pulling together such a list. Having met several times with the Dali Lama, Eugene Tan, Seth Goodin, and the list goes on… I was inclined to think she knew a thing or two. As I amble through the list let me know if you agree.

1. Create a morning routine just for your self to start the day
2. Gratitude routine – 3 things you tell yourself you are grateful for at the end of the day before you go to bed
3. Get out there rather than sitting and meditating!
4. If you hear about something 3 times then do something about it & follow it up
5. Be venerable – it connects with people, being uncomfortable means you are growing!
6. Do the right thing and the rest follows – have faith
7. Create boundaries and choose how you want to live

Amusingly Sarah’s talk was followed by a 20 minute ‘group meditation’, I’m not sure point number 3 in her list went down so well with the meditation teachers that set up The Conscious Club…

So next week I’m going to live these 7 things in the search for a happier life.  I’ll be reporting back next week but why don’t you give it a try too and let me know how you are travelling in you quest for a little ‘enlightertainment’.

                                                                                                        Coca-Cola mock-up via Mashable 

• More visual real estate        
• Stronger ‘brand narrative’
• Activity shown separately
• Newsfeed ‘hits more eyeballs’

Rumours are circulating around the interwebs about the imminent launch of Facebook Timeline for Brand Pages, perhaps as soon as the marketers’ conference in New York on Wednesday.

While the company has not confirmed the dramatic redesign, which is currently being rolled out to all users, it’s worth having a look at what the two primary changes could mean for brands.

Visual by Design
The large cover photo at the top, which most put at 850 x 315 pixels, allows brands to stand out from the crowd with creative and inspiring executions. It also presents the opportunity for a free online billboard to push the latest campaign. The above mock-up from Mashable indicates more real estate could become available in the gutters, but this is purely speculative.

The ‘scrapbook’ style is the most significant new feature, and makes the platform more personal. The chronological navigation allows us to tell the brand’s story from inception until now, showing fans that like them, companies have a story, too. The focus on images also makes the new profiles more striking and by surfacing of content, more ‘sticky.’

Greater ‘Virality’
More than ever, Facebook is designed for brands and businesses to engage with fans. With the integration of Timeline, everything a user does is visual, with each comment, “like,” or even “listen” or “read,” if you got creative with the Gestures feature, shown as a separate event.

The news feed, which was rolled out before Timeline, also surfaces much more activity, increasing a brand’s reach with non-fans. 
We will keep you posted on what comes out of the conference, or elsewhere on the social web.

Neil is @neilwrites on Twitter

Following detailed instructions about not allowing the cat and the fish in the same room, I was left in charge, content to unwind and enjoy their ocean viewed apartment.

Two nights in, no problems, Sunday morning I went to give the fish its daily feed, only to find it floating on the top of the bowl, starting to decompose.  Oh dear…

Panic set in, regardless if it had just been it’s time, or I had inadvertently done something to kill it, I had been trusted to do something, and my fault or not, I had failed.

This set the wheels in motion, where was the nearest pet shop, what colour was the fish pre rigor mortis, could I take the fish corpse into the pet store for a part exchange?  The easiest thing would be to lie right? Buy a new one and pretend nothing had happened, after all practically all goldfish look the same.

Wrong, covering your tracks by fabricating a story may help to elucidate feelings of guilt and personal failure, but most if the time it will backfire, and you will be forced to constructed a web of even deeper lies.

Always be honest. A client can always see through a lie. They might go along with the fib, and not pull you up on it, but you are essentially tarnishing the foundations of the relationship with untruths.

If you’re not going to make a deadline or an unforeseen problem has arisen, be honest.. As long as you address all problems with a solution, you’re reputation remains intact of a trustworthy advisor.

Going back to my story, that’s precisely what i did. I owned up, offering to hot foot it down to the nearest pet store. But they laughed, and all was forgiven (and least it wasn’t the cat).