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Fortunately, I pushed the button! Today I don’t hesitate to confirm my past thoughts: Indeed! I already gained a lot from blogging! And do you know what? Recently, my blog won the Euprera Social Media Award 2010 for the best student blog at the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (Euprera) Spring Symposium in Ghent, Belgium. This year the University College Arteveldehogeschool hosted the event (I was impressed by the modern campus). Wow! I’m speechless and very happy about that!

Last but not least, I would also like to thank Anderson Lima who run the PR and New Media Module at Leeds Metropolitan University last year for the insights into social media and Richard Bailey through whose blog I took notice of the Euprera Social Media Award.

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Golden seashore, blue ocean made of sparkling breakwater, warm sunbeams stroking your skin … Admittedly, I’m catched in this summer-like daydream again! I got lost in it for the first time when I recently blogged about the ‘The Best Job in the World, the ‘Island Reef Job’. The idea about earning £70,000 for blogging about the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef/ Australia while living rent-free in a three-bedroom villa, complete with pool on Hamilton Island is tempting if you look out of the window and all you see are trees and shrubs devastated by the stormy weather. Quite apart from the rain.

Wild Card candidate selected

But stop building castles in the air! I promised to keep an eye on the competition of Tourism Queensland for you. After the top-50-shortlist from over 34,000 applicants for the job was announced on the website some time ago, the Wild Card candidate for the final round of the competition has now been selected by the visitors of the website: It’s Claire from Taiwan. “Clare has done a remarkable job of promoting her quest for the Best Job in the World in Taiwan and has become an overnight media celebrity. She has been in virtually every newspaper, on every TV network in the country, plus online media and social networking sites”, says Tourism Queensland CEO Anthony Hayes in a recent press release.

All up 475,855 votes were received during the Wild Card voting process. Clare received 151,676 votes – almost three times that of her nearest competitor, Mitchell from Canada who received 55,532 votes, followed by George from Ireland with 30,372 votes.

A successful social media campaign

Influential news papers like ‘Der Spiegel’, Germany, reported on the progress of the competition again (just a quick reminder: the winner will be named on May 6^th 2009). As far as today the Island Reef Job seems to be still a very successful social media campaign. For instance, Queensland Tourism set up profiles relating to the Island Reef Job on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube (further information about Facebook, Twitter and Youtube on Wikipedia).

I’d like to pick up Queensland’s profile on Facebook as it is an interesting example to show that Facebook is not just a social networking site for students anymore but a great place for companies to communicate, too: Queensland’s Facebook page aims to help visitors share, plan and organize their trip to go there.

Facebook – a communication opportunity for companies

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With regard to Facebook marketing David Meerman Scott* names different useful ways to deliver information and ideas to a network of people who are interested in a certain topic of which two can be found on Queensand’s profile, too:

1. Friend-to-friend communication: In its personal profile Queensland is promoted as a amazing travel destination. You learn about the country and get reasons why it might be rewarding to travel there, for example.
2. Groups: Queensland keeps interested people informed on their profile (additional material include e.g. e-brochures and podcasts). Currently, it has got about 4.500 fans who actively take part in the communication process as you can see on the wall.

You see, Facebook can be an interesting marketing tool for companies. The following quote of Walter Doyle, CEO of uLocate, puts it in a nutshell very well: “People are sensitive to corporate content. It’s okay to be corporate if it is funny. Entertainment, fun, simple, and whimsical are all good.”  In other words: The experience on Facebook has to be very simple and devoid of commercialization. Indeed!

*Book: The New Rules of Marketing & PR – How to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing & online media to reach buyers directly’

Did you know that London has got a premier blogging pigeon? You don’t? No problem at all! To be honest, I haven’t heard of it, too, until I started planning a trip to the city some time ago. I came over the ‘Pigeon Blog’ by chance while searching for insider tips about London. Since then I can’t get the interesting idea of a blogging pigeon out of my head.

So who is ‘London’s premier blogging pigeon’? His name is Brian Pigeon. He’s living in Soho, on Beak Street, right above Bistro 1. “Soho Square’s a great place to hang too, especially in the summer. Bread bits everywhere. Heaven for the pigeon”, he says in an interview published at www.londonist.com. But what the hell does a pigeon blog about? ‘The infamous Brian of Pigeon Blog fills us in on everything from why London rocks, what’s up with the squirrels and what happens when the pigeons party in Piccadilly Circus‘. Marvelous! I love the idea of describing London through the eyes of a pigeon in a blog! Reading Brian Pigeon’s blog was a funny variety while searching for tips for my trip. Incidentally I got information about the city, too, that were different from those repeating voices about London you find all over the web on official travel websites.

Besides the stories about London the pigeon blog tries to entertain with some pigeon videos, too. To my mind, the content is better than the videos, but that’s a matter of taste.

Tell your story

The pigeon blog is an interesting example for the nature of blogs: Blogs are written by somebody who is passionate about a specific topic and wants to tell the world about it. The blog of Brian Pigeon is an unusual one, of course – but does this matter? Yes, he’s claims to be a genuine urban pigeon describing the life of pigeon’s in London – but still, he’s an independent voice in the blogosphere, too. And as you can see from my trip-example, bloggers – whoever they are – became an valuable and important alternative source for information nowadays (I came across some other interesting blogs and unofficial websites about London, too. Check them out, if you plan a trip to London:, ‘diamondgreezer’, ‘london underground’,‘london.thewayweseeit’, ‘londonist’,londonreviewofbreakfasts’, ‘kudocities london’, ‘derelictlondon’etc.).

Blogs – a viable channel for corporate communications

But not only think about all the individual bloggers, like Brian Pigeon, who make their voice heard in the internet. Think about corporate blogs, too: Blogging can be an incredible tool for a company, e.g. to reach and inform customers, to generate talk about a product or the company as a whole and to build goodwill. While investing little – as a blogs are simple to set up – companies can establish strong and interactive communication directly with the customer (By the way, I really love the following truthful quote of David Meerman Scott: “If you can use Microsoft Word or successfully buy a product online from Amazon, you have enough technical skills to blog.”). Based on my own experiences as a customer I’m convinced that customers profit from the increased access to dialogue, too: Isn’t it a good thing to get more useful information and support from a company, for example?

Surely, blogs can be used in different ways by companies. I’d like to point out ‘The Three Uses of Blogs for Marketing and PR’ by David Meerman Scott (‘The New Rules of Marketing & PR – How to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing & online media to reach buyers directly’):

1. To easily monitor what millions of people are saying about you, the market you sell into, your organization and its products.
2. To participate in those conversations by commenting on other people’s blog.
3. To begin to shape those conversations by creating and writing your own blog.

You see, there are good reasons for companies to enter the blogosphere (read more about corporate blogs at Brian Solis’blog e.g. post a) post b))! And never underestimate a blogger like Brian Pigeon – a voice is a voice, no matter who it is belonging to: it can shape the conversation about a company! Think about this excerpt from the above mentioned interview with Brian Pigeon: “How and why did you start blogging? I started the whole thing as a bit of a laugh really. Just the day-to-day doings of a London pigeon. Never thought it would catch on. To be honest, I wasn’t sure anyone was going to be that interested in a pigeon’s point of view. Just goes to show. Jesus. Last year I even got into the Time Out Top 50 London websites, and all I do is go on about stuff we pigeons get up to. Amazing, really.” Indeed!

Do you like to get a deeper insight into corporate blogs? Check the following links to get an idea how different companies set up their blog:

McDonald’s corporate social responsibility blog

Wells Fargo Blogs

Microsoft Community Blogs

Hewlett-Packard employee business blogs

Sun employee blog

Golden seashore or muddy paths? Blue ocean made of sparkling breakwater or grey waterfalls made of gloomy raindrops? Warm sunbeams stroking your skin or cold wind biting your face? What would you choose?

If you ask me, I would definitely go for the first summer-like options of all these questions! But I’m afraid, that’s too good to be true! To be honest, I’m catched in the rainy present. I recently flow back to Germany for a short stay. Guess my state when I came here: soaked to the skin – as the wind teared my umbrella to pieces when I left the airport! Gone are the thoughts of summer (at the moment even the ones of spring).

£70,000 for blogging?

Nevertheless, the summer-like options that I’ve mentioned at the beginning of my post could become reality for a lucky blogger soon: Have you already heard about ‘The Best Job in the World, the ‘Island Reef Job’? I could imagine you have because it’s a current topic in the media (e.g. BBC, UK or Der Spiegel, Germany). For the ones how may have not I found this brief summary of what’s behind it on BBC. Or watch the YouTube video below. I think that moving pictures are worth a thousand words in this context (please, ignore the advertisement prior to the start of the footage. For the ones how prefer reading please check the following press releases published by Tourism Queensland: press release 1, press release 2).

£70,000 ($150,000) salary for weekly blogging about your experiences on the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef/ Australia including a photo diary and video updates over six month? Additionally, living rent-free in a three-bedroom villa, complete with pool on Hamilton Island, one of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef? It’s tempting, isn’t it? All interested candidates were required to create a video application among other things explaining why they are the best person for the job. Currently, the top-50-shortlist from over 34,000 applicants is announced on the website. Tourism Queensland will choose ten candidates for the final application-round. Additionally, a Wild Card candidate will be selected by the visitors of the website. Finally, the winner will be named on May 6^th 2009.

A striking campaign

I think the idea behind this campaign is striking: According to one of the press releases published by Tourism Queensland “The recruitment for the ‘Best Job in the World’ is part of Tourism Queensland’s Islands of the Great Barrier Reef Campaign (…) The cooperative marketing campaign aims to highlight the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef and showcase Australia’s own unique Island experience, to the global market.”

For me some remarkable PR and marketing decisions lay the foundation of the  ‘Best Job in the World’ campaign. I just want to name the three that impress me most:

1. The ‘independent blogger’:

To my mind, it’s quite a clever strategy to choose a person like you and me for the job who gets the sympathy of the audience right from the start through the entertaining application-video. Later on, the winner will begin to shape the conversations about the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef by writing the blog. I could imagine this person will then be seen as a independent, trustworthy and authentic blogger with passion instead of an employee of Tourism Queensland by most of the audience.

2. Activating the audience:

I’m sure, the fact that people can vote for the potential candidates for the job even increases the sympathy they have for the candidates and stresses the willingness to follow the blog of the later winner. Moreover, the visitors of the website take a closer look to the content provided about the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef’s tourism.

3. A content-rich website:

The website of the contest seems to be a first successful step to promote the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef’s tourism. Incidentally, the visitors get access to photos, videos and travelling suggestions. There is also a well-considered media-centre with additional information for journalists e.g. fact sheets, images and footage. Especially the story ideas in this section seem to be interesting. I could imagine that many journalists welcome stories like  “Some of the best island holiday ideas for backpackers”.

All in all, the campaign seems to trigger impressing viral-marketing-effects. If you want to learn more about the success of the campaign and it’s reasons it’s worth reading Chris Thomas’ blog post! What do you think about it?

Rain in front of the window but fun in front of the computer

In the end, I will remain blogging despite the rainy weather outside. Perhaps, it’s the same with you? Than we should at least have some fun and watch two of the top-50-application-videos. I’ve picket out one of a German and one of an UK applicant for you – but feel free to watch other application-videos, too! Let’s start enjoying our-selves!

Achim, Germany:

Sarah Louise, UK: