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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’

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Sunday morning – already reason enough to feel comfortable: The working week is mastered successfully and hopefully a bit of relaxation is on the agenda on this day. I know that work can be time consuming even at the weekends but let’s forget it for a bit. What’s the perfect pastime at the weekend for you? It’s hard to say, isn’t it? A thousand nice things come to my mind when thinking about it. Spending my time with my family and friends is only one of them. But apart from the perfect pastime at the weekend, which is hard to determine because of the variety of opportunities, I can tell you easily what the perfect start into the weekend is for me: A cup of freshly ground coffee! Of course, I drink my morning coffee every day within the week, too. But it’s a different as chalk and cheese to drink your coffee hastily before work or to enjoy it to the full, isn’t it? Do you know what completes a delicious cup of coffee? The smell of freshly ground coffee beans which emerges when you open a bag of coffee! I often asked myself: Why does coffee smell so good?

The chemical riddle behind coffee aroma

I found a very well developed answer to this question in the online media room of the international chemical company BASF (it’s portfolio comprises chemicals, plastics, performance products, functional solutions, agricultural solutions, and oil & gas). In the section ‘podcasts’Jeff, the company’s Chemical Reporter, answers questions of BASF’s Podcast listeners on Chemistry in our everyday life: Why is sugar sticky? What makes lipstick kiss-proof? How does a plasma monitor work? – as just to name a few of them.

Listen to the answer of my question about the coffee aroma yourself. Click here.

It’s interesting that until today, no one has been able to produce coffee aroma artificially, isn’t it? Do you think a perfume with coffee aroma would sell? Kidding aside: In the end, it was not the answer that aroused my enthusiasm but the well thought-out online media room of the company.  

The open secret of the beneficial effects of an online media room

According to David Meerman Scott* a company’s online media room is a great terrific opportunity for PR people to get content out into the marketplace. Just think about all the people who might visit it: I’m convinced that not only journalists take a closer look at the corporate online media room but also people like you and me; students, suppliers, customers, investors, employees etc.. In other words: all kinds of people visit a company’s online media room. It would be an utter disgrace to miss this chance to communicate effectively, wouldn’t it?

Let’s take a closer look at the online media room of BASF because for me it’s a very good example to demonstrate how a well developed online media room could attract people’s attention. First of all, the online press room’s space is well-arranged, navigation is easy and corporate colors underline the corporate design. The navigational design is clear. Moreover, BASF’s online media room is not simply a list with contact information for the organization’s PR person which I’ve unfortunately seen on other online media rooms. Information is available in German and English and in many different formats, e.g. news releases, publications, videos, podcasts and press photos.

As the advantages and reasons for this particular construction of a content-rich online media room are quite the same as of the content-rich website, I suggest you to read my recent blog post about this topic if you want to know more about the benefits of a good design or information in different formats.

A room not only for the media

I’d like to take up the good idea of BASF’s podcast ‘The Chemical Reporter’, which revalues the company’s online media room to me. This idea relates to David Meerman’s suggestion to design an online media room for the company’s buyers which will make it at the same time a better media site for journalists. I personally got useful information from the Chemical Reporter podcast. Moreover, BASF offers interesting background information as a support of the different topics. Concerning the riddle behind the coffee aroma the online media room provides additional material like The story’ September 29^th is coffee day’, The animation ‘See how the brewing unit puts the temperament of Italian espresso into the coffee’, prospects, an info box and downloads. To my mind this kills to birds with one stone: Not only the customer, who wants to learn something new but also the journalist, who searches for  interesting material for his article are offered interesting information on the BASF online media room.

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What remains to say? Did you know that a well organized online media room often has higher search results and drives more traffic than other parts of an organization’s website? Why? Because of the way the search engines work: “A news release dynamically builds out a new set of content in your online media room, with each news release generating its own indexable page, which the search engines all capture.” (Dee Rambeau, founder and managing partner of The Fuel Team quoted in David Meerman Scott’s book* )

*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

(later comment of the author: please note my epilog comment before cursing my post for its length, please – I’m just a novice in the blogging filed and I’ve already learned my lesson for the next  post)

I am addicted to mobile phones! Besides their indispensability in today’s world of constant communications – for professional as well as for private use – (just image you lost your mobile with all your contacts as my fellow student Vanessa did. Read more about that topic in her blog.) – I’m enthusiastic about the constant technological progress and the over and over changing designs. It might sound a bit crazy, but for me my mobile is more than just a communication tool – it’s some kind of lifestyle, too. While it is important to remain true to your partner you fell in love with in human life it’s the opposite with the mobiles I ‘fall in love’ with: It’s a frequent change of brands and designs. Consequently, I follow the development in the mobile phone industry with keen eyes. (By the way, as I don’t want to waste my money I only buy a new mobile if I could lucratively sell my old one e.g. on ebay – again: all over Web 2.0 activities).

The last mobile I ‘fell in love’ with was a Sony Ericsson (SE). And it has not been my first ‘liaison’ with this brand. How is this possible? Definitely because of the mobiles of SE in general – they are technological up to date, reliable and stylish. But there has to be something else… any idea? Right! The communication of the company with me as a potential customer – in my case their communication via the corporate website: Because if I want to buy a new mobile the internet is always my first stop on my shopping trip and almost ever the final stop, too. Let’s take a closer look at the website of SE together. Why? The answer is easy: I’m convinced that an informative and interesting corporate website is indispensable for winning new customers and selling products in the Web 2.0 environment.

Will the SE Website stand the test?

Has the company realized the potential of its website? Did it catch me directly? Did it enrich my time with content?  I’m sure you’ve already got an idea how the test will end, haven’t you (as I’ve just betrayed that I’ve bought the phone)? But keep it to yourself Here we go!*

*My reflections are based on the findings on content-rich websites by David
Meerman Scott in ‘The New Rules of Marketing & PR – How to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing & online media to reach buyers directly’.

First ‘brownie-point’: design

Let’s go to the UK SE website. Quickly the side opens, right? My first visual impression: Lively colors, well-arranged space, easy navigation. ‘Brownie-point’! But, I’m sure you share the following opinion with me: An appealing design does not make a good website at all! Never overlook the content aspect, please!

Second ‘brownie-point’: site organization

Let’s click a bit on the different icons – the content of the entire page is very well organized, isn’t it? From the front page which is broken into several main sections including products, fun & downloads up to useful categories within the several topic based subpages. ‘Brownie-point’!

Third and ‘fourth brownie-point’: content-richness and entertainment

Fifth ‘brownie-point’: cultivating relationships

The last brownie-point I’d like to give today is for the following: It seems as if SE especially makes an effort to keep its customers (e.g. me!) after they bought  a mobile as the website offers a lot of support and entertainment for SE mobile users. To my mind, not only winning new customers makes profit but also cultivating the reached relationship is an important step to company success.

What would be interesting but seems to be missing so far is a forum or wiki where customers can share their experiences and help each other. That’s why I fell back on the following useful websites as an alternative:

xonio.com: A reliable German website testing mobiles and computers. Offers a blog and a forum, too.

blog.se-nse.net: Unofficial SE blog.

se-world.info: Because of 240 000 members the provider calls this website the biggest German community discussing SE mobiles.

cellphonesail.net: By chance I found this wordpress blog. I like it because it discusses unusual or new variants of existing SE mobiles. In fact, I found the first picture of my current SE in this blog even before the German SE website published it.

Anyway, in conclusion the SE website provided all the information I needed and took me through my consideration process as a customer very well.

Epilogue: No ‘brownie-’ but minus point for the length of my post

In the end, I’m afraid I have to give a minus point to myself as my ‘never ending SE story’ is much too long for a blog post! Learning by doing!