Trevor Young | PR Warrior blog | Where PR meets social media meets content marketing

Is It Time Your Brand Took the Concept of 'Inbound Marketing' More Seriously?

Let me say from the outset that if 'outbound marketing' tactics are working for your business, then keep using them.

If taking out an ad in Yellow Pages works for you, do it! If telemarketing generates leads, or sponsoring the weather on the local TV news channel builds your brand, by all means continue to invest in those channels.

But, it must be said the time has come for marketers to think more seriously about the concept of inbound marketing - that is, marketing activity that is focused on getting found by customers. In other words, attracting people to your brand.

Generally speaking, inbound marketing involves a combination of content creation, participation on the social web and SEO.

Interestingly this 'new' form of marketing communication - attracting people to your brand - is rooted in public relations rather than traditional marketing. It skews heavily towards engendering two-way interaction and building relationships, trust and reputation. This is classic PR territory!

Philosophical Differences

The infographic below - produced by Voltier Digital (hat-tip Mashable) - succinctly shows the philosophical and tactical differences between the two forms of marketing - inbound versus outbound. 

This goes beyond opening a Twitter account for your brand but rather, requires a change of mindset compared to traditional means of 'communicating' with the marketplace.

One of the more effective exponents of inbound marketing is Hubspot. I wrote this post about the brand recently - Smart Marketing Defined in Less Than 40 Words.

My only caveat is that inbound marketing on the surface skews towards web-based activities, which is fine but I often like to add into the mix strategic 'face-to-face' communication such as events and brand experience marketing where relevant.

I think sometimes we forget that lot of online activity is also about 'offline' relationships. 

SOURCE: Voltier Digital 

MOVEMBER: Secrets of a nonprofit phenomenon

Tuesday is November 1 and that can only mean one thing: MOVEMBER is back on the agenda!

Movember is a moustache growing charity event held during November each year that raises funds and awareness for men's health.

The concept - one of the better cause-related marketing initiatives seen in years - continues to, ahem, grow in popularity around the globe.

Kicking off in Australia eight years ago, Movember has taken hold in a number of countries including South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, the UK, the US and parts of Europe including Finland and Spain.

This is a post I wrote last year for another of my blog. It's as relevant today as was then. Enjoy!

So what makes Movember the success that it is?

Movember is a brilliant campaign in so many ways:

• It doesn't take itself seriously despite being all about a very serious matter - men's health (prostate cancer and depression).

• It demands involvement - you have to grow a moustache! This in turn gives people plenty to talk about - it becomes a catalyst for conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.

• It's highly visible - participants become "walking, talking billboards for the cause"!

• It's a very media-friendly concept (Examples - USA Today, The Telegraph UK, Vancouver Sun).

• It's a very 'social' cause - always plenty of fun stuff to talk about on Twitter, Facebook etc!

• Its online 'profile' component makes it easy for participants to chart the progress of their moustache-growing efforts which in turn helps their supporters to stay involved over the duration of the campaign.

• Its online fundraising mechanism makes it a breeze to earn and collect money for the cause (gone are the days when you had to chase people for money - friends and family can now donate directly online to individual participants).

• It attracts other really cool brands that 'get it' e.g. Threadless, TOMS Shoes etc have been involved in the past.

• It brings the campaign to life by holding parties at the end of the campaign to recognise and thank participants.

• It has remained a grassroots phenomenon, gaining in popularity year-on-year but managing to stay as fun as authentic as it was in the early days.

Movember truly is one of the world's smartest 'social' brands - learn from them!

About Movember (from the website)

Since inception, Movember has continued to grow each year, both in terms of participation numbers and funds raised. In its first year, 30 Mo Bros took part and last year, in Australia alone, over 128, 000 Mo Bro & Sistas got on board, raising more than $21 million.

Having been started by mates in Australia, Movember now takes place around the world. Motivated and inspired by what was happening in Australia, a further nine countries- New Zealand, USA, Canada, UK, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, South Africa and  Ireland - now embrace the Mo in an official capacity each November.

In addition, Movember is aware of Mo Bros & Sistas supporting the cause right across the globe, from Russia to Dubai, Hong Kong to Denmark and everywhere in between.

At the end of Movember, a series of Gala Partés are held across Australia (and the world) to thank Mo Bros and Sistas for their remarkable fundraising efforts. Mo Bros (dressed to suit their Mo) and Mo Sistas (dressed to suit their Mo Bro) come together to celebrate the Mo and compete for a number of category titles in the perfect opportunity to see what Movember is really about; great mates, health, and fun.

And of course, the Mo.  Big steps have been taken towards changing attitudes and habits relating to men’s health around the world but there is still much to be done to catch up with the women’s health movement.

Via the moustache, Movember aims to continue to provoke conversation each year, with a view to breaking down long standing and traditional taboos and habits.

Brands Covet Influencers With Klout

It was only a matter of time before Klout was discovered by the marketing industry for its power in being able to identify true influencers in key consumer categories.

Welcome to the world of Klout Perks.

The video report below by Wall St Journal online is compelling viewing for anyone interested in 'what's next' in terms of marketing and communications - marketers, advertisiong agencies, PR people will all see huge opportunities in this new development.

Variety of tools

While I know many in the PR industry are already reaching out to influential people (heck, we've been doing it for decades, but now the influentials are just as likely to be 'citizens' rather than journalists), it still takes a bit of research and the use of a variety of tools.

More often than not these people are popular (in a niche) bloggers who are often also very connected elsewhere e.g. Facebook and Twitter. At Edelman, for example, we use proprietory tools such as BlogLevel and TweetLevel among other tools to try and measure people's 'influence'.

However, brands in the US are paying Klout to identify influencers in particular niches or categories. They then connect with these influencers, often giving them product to sample or inviting them to a special event.

Check out some of the results here.

What I like about Klout from a PR perspective is it doesn't just measure followers like a lot of other online measurement tools do.

The Klout Score measures influence based on your ability to drive action. Every time you create content or engage you influence others. The Klout Score uses data from social networks in order to measure:

• True Reach: How many people you influence 
• Amplification: How much you influence them
• Network Impact: The influence of your network

If you haven't already done so, give Klout a try. 

I think we'll be hearing a lot more about it in coming months!

Brian Solis on Brand Journalism and the ‘Connected Consumer’

Best-selling author and renowned new media thinker Brian Solis delivered a neatly-packaged glimpse into the future of public relations during his opening keynote address at the Public Relations Institute of Australia’s PR Directions national conference in Sydney this week.

Could Solis have jam packed any more information into his one-hour presentation? I think not. That said, social media and its effect on PR and marketing is a massive multi-headed beast of a subject, and so props to Solis for being able to paint such a broad (but vivid) picture within his allotted one and a bit hours.

It was perfect timing because he has only just released his new book: The End of Business As Usual (Rewire the way you work to succeed in the consumer revolution) and the theme of his presentation was more or less along these lines.

These quotes, from an interview with Solis that appeared yesterday in ZDNet, will give you a pretty good feel for Solis’s current pitch:

The End of Business as Usual is aimed squarely at change agents and business leaders. It isn’t about social media as much as it is about building a business that connects with a new generation of connected customers.

Think about the ties that bind in social media for a moment. Everything and everyone is connected by shared experiences. What you’re doing, what you’re witnessing, what moves you, what you’re learning, what you love, what you hate, you are compelled to share your experiences.

When it comes to businesses, shared experiences assemble to form a brand that’s co-created by the consumers who experience it. Connected customers see this pool of experiences within their social streams or in the results of a social search. Experiences are influential and they are absent from a traditional Google search.

The ‘Connected Consumer’

Solis talks a lot about the ‘connected consumer’.

He says you don’t need to connect with everybody, you just have to connect with ‘hubs’ (of connected consumers).

He also advises looking beyond the major social networking platforms, saying that just because you set up a Facebook or Twitter account doesn’t mean you’re hitting the connected consumer.

It’s how we earn relevance with the connected consumer that’s important.

“My job is to speak through you (the connected consumer)…that changes my entire strategy”.

Brand Journalism

Solis is a staunch advocate for the concept of ‘brand journalism’, saying: “We have to become the resource, we have to become the influencer”.

He introduces the idea of creating a new role within the organisation – the CEO, or Chief Editorial Officer.

People will follow you if you provide information that helps them, Solis says.

He gives the example of Cisco’s ‘The Network’ technology news site for which the company hired journalists and bloggers to write content that’s of interest to customers.

The website’s audience is in some cases bigger than the publications that cover the tech industry.

Flipboard has reportedly hired a senior editor from Forbes magazine to manage its brand journalism efforts.

Indium Corporation, which manufactures among other things solders and semiconductor assembly materials (yep, very sexy stuff!) created content around questions people were asking for/searching for online.  

The company’s portfolio of blogs (yep, they have way more than one, indeed its portfolio of blogs is written by a team of 15 writers) -  increased inbound leads by 600%! More on Indium here.

 “Content is not king,” Solis contends. “Context is king”.

(NOTE: author David Meerman Scott is also a strong advocate for the concept of brand journalism – check out his take on it here).

Paid, Owned & Earned Media … and more

In PR circles, the concept of paid, owned and earned media is now well accepted.

However, Solis throws two more into the equation – ‘promoted’ and ‘shared’ media (i.e. shared media = Dell’s IdeaStorm and the My Starbucks Idea platforms; promoted media = promoted tweets and sponsored Facebook stories).

Solis gives the example of Budweiser which created a Wordpress site that became a hub for Bud content that was interesting and newsworthy, and targeted to people who loved commercials, Superbowl and beer.

“It’s about making something so interesting it’s shareable,” he says.

“This is a time when we can become part of the story.”

Solis urges brands to adapt to a new KISS model: Keep It Significant and Shareable.

Resonance is the new ROI

Solis is big on listening to connected consumers – he says you’ve got to listen so you know what they want … “it’s about intelligence, not (just) monitoring for followers and likes”.

Intelligence, he maintains, translates into insight which in turn can translate into ideas.

“Being in public relations is more incredible than ever before,” he says.

 

PIC: Brian Solis and the PR Warrior rub shoulders at PR Directions.

The Rise, Rise (and Rise) of the Opinion Cycle

Day two of the Public Relations Institute of Australia's PR Directions conference kicked off with an in-your-face presentation by the former senior press secretary to PM Kevin Rudd, Lachlan Harris (pictured).

Harris's presentation - When your communication gets into a spin – the battle of policy vs populism - focused on "the rise and rise and rise of the opinion cycle" and why it has become more important than the news cycle.

Harris has examined the changes in the media over the past five years. His conclusion?

“Opinion happened”

He says: "Opinion has always been a big part of the media but never like it is now."

Harris contends the media industry, which has until recent years been driven by the traditional news cycle, has given way to the cycle of opinion (which includes tweets, blogs, talkback radio etc).

As far as the Australian media industry is concerned, “the apprentice has become the master – opinion reigns supreme”.

This in turn has resulted in "massive fundamental change" to the political landscape.

The rise of opinion is new and it’s fundamentally changing the way politics runs, he says.

News and opinion are intertwined but opinion cycle is "slowly smothering the news cycle".

Tweets, comments, blogs, email, talkback - collectively - are now more important and influential than the news story.

According to Harris, the difference between news and opinion is simple:

News is a flow of information that depends on facts, opinion is a flow of information that depends on argument.

“Opinion is a fundamentally different proposition to news”

 So much of the information we’re exposed to in politics has little to do with facts.

Facts don’t matter, arguments do, he says.

According to Harris, five years ago Kerry O’Brien was the most influential media figure in Australia; today it’s Andrew Bolt (because he has a talent for provoking debate).

WHY IS THE MEDIA OBSESSED WITH OPINION?

“Opinion is cheaper than fact” – it's much easier to fill a page of opinion versus the volume of output required for fact-based reportage which requires a team of journalists.

Opinion is a lot easier to package for readers, listeners and viewers.  If you give an opinion, you can’t be disproved.

“It’s much, much harder to establish fact.”

But there are consequences associated with the rise of opinion: “We have developed a lot more divisive political culture”.

“Hyper-negative, super critical” opinion is coming from the community, says Harris.

This negativity is not just confined to the politicians – sports people and artists etc cop it too.

“Opinion is driving us into a very negative place.

“Stories that divide community opinion don’t get churned and burned in the news cycle but slowly roasted in the opinion cycle.”

Harris outlined several tips for the audience largely made up of PR types:

• “Adjust your radar, look for ‘faultlines’” – whereas you used to assess media opportunities on the facts, you've now got to pick up on ‘faultlines’ … need to understand how your story is going to drive debate…how are people going to react to it emotionally, and how are they going to develop an argument around that?

• If you want to argue for change (not just political), you HAVE to be prepared for negative criticism.

• Stories don’t ever, ever, ever go away - "the wisdom of the crowd is driving these stories on and on and on".

• News judgment is being overwhelmed by the wisdom of the crowd - “We need to adjust our timelines”.

Harris sums up: “The media is now a rougher and tougher game” than ever before.

However, he suggests there may be a swing back to the appreciation of fact-based news. Eventually…

The PR Warrior's View?

A lot of what Harris says makes sense.

But Harris also comes from the hurly-burly of political spin doctoring. Participants in this space are often combative by nature and being reactive to circumstances is a daily occurrence. To them, negativity is very much a fact of life.

There must be something companies and individuals can do to offset the tide of negative opinion rather than merely bunker down through fear? What can be done in a 'positive sense' to (try to) redress the balance? Is everything really that bad out there?

I'm thinking being proactive is key. Always be out there telling your story (not just in times of crisis). Build your brand reputation through open engagement with the people who matter most the success of your business, cause or issue...ongoing. Connect directly with the marketplace rather than relying on the media filter.

Maybe the answer is to mix Lachlan Harris's hard-edged pragmatism and innate understanding of the media with Brian Solis, who kicked off the conference with a superb presentation about engaging with people in today's hyper-connected age.

It would make an interesting combo!

NOTE: My next post will be on Brian Solis's talk.

Brad Howarth Chats About 'A Faster Future' - and What it Means for the PR Industry

In the run-up the Public Relations Institute of Australia's national conference PR Directions on Monday/Tuesday next week, Brad Howarth - technology and business journalist and co-author of the book A Faster Future - kindly took time out of his busy schedule (which included tending to a newborn baby!) to answer a few questions from the PR Warrior.

Brad will be keynoting at PR Directions. The title of his presentation is: A connected society: Impacts and influence of the national broadband network.

G’day Brad – first things first, how’s your new book A Faster Future going? 

Well. It’s now more than six months old, but still selling well.

More than that, it has generated interest and discussion in the right places, and got people thinking about the broadband-enabled future that we are moving into.

You talk and write a lot about what life will be like in a super-connected world fuelled by 'always-on' access to high-speed broadband: what challenges and opportunities does this scenario present the marketing and PR industry?

Keeping up is going to be probably the biggest challenge. The rate of change in practice and procedure that broadband is enabling is quite phenomenal.

Broadband isn’t just about speed, it is about instant connectivity, and that is what many Australians have today and more will have in the future, Instant-on connectivity is what enabled social media to flourish, as the web became part of the always-on background to our lives.

It’s hard to predict how far that will go, but it is not impossible today to use the Web to deliver a constant, instantaneous data feed on those topics of interest from the world around us. Combine that then with wearable technology and heads-up displays?

Also, we can today instantly verify information – you don’t need to weigh up the word of a whitegoods sales rep anymore, you can check what others are saying online. Access to information will make it increasingly easier for citizens to verify any claim made, and technology will make that process easier.

These changes are ones that are easy to think about, but there are additional technologies coming online which will make the concepts we are learning to work with today look positively passé over the next decade.

According to Nielsen research, Australians are the heaviest users of social networks in the world, yet I’ve read lately accusations that in terms of technology and social media, Corporate Australia is still stuck circa 2008. Is this true, or indeed fair do you think?

I think it may be unfair, from the perspective that corporate organisations around the world are struggling to come to grips with social media – not just in Australia.

Part of the reason there are many more great examples in the US is because there are simply more companies there. Could Australian companies do more to embrace social media and technology – yes, of course. The question is one of how to get it up the priority list.

We are going to see a lot of companies go out of business soon as a result of being overtaken by technology – many of them from across the retail sector. Part of the reason that Janelle and I wrote A Faster Future is to get business thinking about the changes that technology has brought, and may bring in the future, and how to both adapt to those changes and take advantages of new opportunities. 

In your opinion, which companies in Australia are best-positioned to flourish in the hyper-connected marketplace of the future? Any organisations you think are thriving today in terms of their use of social technologies?

Mostly the small ones. These are the ones that are not constrained by traditional thinking. Companies like Shoes of Pray, Kogan, Freelancer.com and so on.

As far as large companies … it is hard to think of any that are consistently doing it well. Many in travel have gotten into it, such as Lonely Planet, followed by banking and finance – interestingly, these are the sectors that have been the most reliant on technology as a core part of their business for the longest.

Google's Vint Cerf believes about 99 per cent of what's possible on the internet hasn't been invented yet.  Massive statement but coming from the man some call “the father of the internet”, it has some credence. What’s your take on Cerf’s assertion?

I agree with Vint, and I hear used as a rebuttal to those who say there are no applications today that require the sort of speed that the NBN will deliver.

I think in principal Vint is right – who would have predicted Facebook, YouTube or Twitter in 2000? But I suspect there is a lot that will be possible that we can think about today – it’s just a matter of combining common sense with imagination.

The easiest place is to think about the things that cause us pain today, or the things that we are restricted from doing. Blogging and YouTube solved the problem that people experienced through not being easily able to express themselves to a wide audience. What other problems or restrictions are yet to be solved?

You’re keynoting at the forthcoming PRIA annual conference PR Directions: What can we expect from your presentation?

As always, I just want to get people thinking – hopefully questioning common assumptions and thinking about what might be possible in days to come.

Thanks Brad. We look forward to catching up with you at PR Directions.

Social Media: Corporate Revolution or Oversold and Overrated?

I was in my favourite magazine shop mag nation the other day checking out some business mag action when these two titles caught my eye.

One was the cover story of Forbes magazine ('Social Power and the Coming Corporate Revolution').

The other an article featured on the cover of Australia's Professional Marketing magazine titled 'Social Media: Oversold and Overrated'.

Forbes is one of the world's most prestigious business magazines, Professional Marketing is the official magazine of the Australian Marketing Institute.

The juxtaposition of these two publications acutely underscores the differences of where corporate Australia stands in terms of social media adoption/acceptance compared to the rest of the world (well, the US at least).

Read the Forbes article here.

It's a really solid piece that looks at how social media is upsetting the once cosy world of Corporate America.

EXAMPLE:

"This social might is now moving toward your company. We have entered the age of empowered individuals, who use potent new technologies and harness social media to organize themselves...most are ordinary people with new tools to force you to listen to what they care about and to demand respect. Both your customers and your employees have started marching in this burgeoning social media multitude, and you’d better get out of their way—or learn to embrace them."

Skeptical about the social web

On the other hand, the Professional Marketing article - while not outright condemning social media to the scrapheap and to be fair, it does acknowledge social media has worked on occasions for some brands - proffers up all sorts of reasons why marketers should be skeptical about the social web, including the fact Westpac's following on Twitter is miniscule compared to its customer base, ditto Woolworths and its Facebook page (maybe Woolies should look to a socially savvy brand such as Whole Foods Market for some inspiration?).

Now, I am nothing if not a pragmatic guy. I don't think companies and organisations should rush into social media just because it's there and everyone else is clambering to get onboard. Indeed, I spend a lot of time questioning companies why they need to be on Twitter et al anyway if they're not ready for it in terms of corporate culture and mindset.

I'm also from the school of thought that if whatever you're doing right now in a marketing sense is really, really working for you, then keep doing it.

Reinforcing notions

That said, marketers do need to be acutely aware the sands of consumer land are shifting like crazy beneath their feet and to have articles like the Professional Marketing cover story reinforcing notions that social media is nothing more than a fad is not helping the industry come to grips with what is a tantamount to a communications revolution.

Marketers are fearful enough of social media as it is. Ditto CEOs. 

No wonder decent corporate case studies in Australia are hard to come by - brands too often approach social media as they would an advertising campaign and then wonder why they don't get results.

Why haven't we got any major brands such as Ford which, according to Forbes, "...takes cues from young people immersed in social media in how it designs cars and how it communicates".

Ford has over recent years undergone a major cultural transformation internally in an effort to better connect with today's social consumer (SEE VIDEO).

This is the sort of thing Professional Marketing should be sharing with its readers: the broader changes pragmatically smart brands are making in order to get ready for, and more effectively adapt to, the real-time marketplace of today (and importantly, tomorrow).

By all means, challenge the notion social media is overhyped and that corporate brands should not rush in simply at the expense of traditional marketing methods but please consider also taking a thought leadership position befitting a "flagship trade title for the marketing industry". 

Corporate Australia is already several years behind a consumer marketplace that is digitally savvy, hyper connected, information overloaded and as cynical as all get-up.

Rather than adopting what could best be described as a cynical stance against the social web and all it represents, the marketing profession would be better served if it embraced the cultural shift that is occurring and openly discussed and debated the challenges they faced as a profession, ignited public conversations around social media opportunities, developed case studies and shared key learnings with their peers.

In the words of Jason Falls and Erik Deckers in their excellent book No Bullshit Social Media:

"Ignore the hype. Believe the facts".

 

PRIA Rolls Out 'Big Guns' for PR Directions National Conference

A diverse representation of Australia's public relations and communications profession will converge on Sydney next week for the Public Relations Institute of Australia's national conference, PR Directions.

The three-day event kicks off on Sunday (Oct 23) with two pre-conference international masterclasses.

International masterclasses

The first masterclass will be taken by prominent new media thought leader and best-selling author, Brian Solis (pictured below).

Brian's current book Engage is regarded as the industry reference guide for businesses to build and measure success in the social web. He will be covering:

• The state of social media – trends, benefits, and tools with a focus on the future.
• The rise of social commerce and the dawn of the social consumer – how the new era of social commerce represents an entirely new channel to reach a new breed of consumer who is empowered, connected, and influential.

The second masterclass - entitled  'Maximising the integration of PR and marketing' - will be led by MaryLee Sachs, author of the book The Changing MO of the CMO: How the Convergence of Brand and Reputation is Affecting Marketers.

Day One - Monday, Oct 24

Brian Solis will also open PR Directions on Monday morning with a keynote address: 'From fiction to fact to future –the story of social media'. He will then be signing copies of his new book The End of Business as Usual. 

Plenary sessions during the day will include Queensland Rail CEO Paul Scurrah and business and technology journalist Brad Howarth.

Panels across the two days will explore a broad range of topics, issues and trends relating to PR, marketing, communications and social media - For more program details: Monday - Tuesday.

MaryLee Sachs will close day one with a discussion on how PR is now often under the remit of the CMO and the greater integration of PR and marketing. 

Day Two - Tuesday, Oct 25

Tuesday will be another big day with keynotes from former Senior Press Secretary to PM Kevin Rudd, Lachlan Harris, and the Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs, Philips Electronics Asia Pacific, Donough Foley.

Australian icon Ita Buttrose (above) will close proceedings with a speech on the influence of media on society.

According to conference organisers, 300 people have registered for the conference "with a great mix of delegates coming - from corporates, universities, consultancies, government departments and not-for-profits".

NOTE: I'll be attending PR Directions courtesy of the PRIA to help blog about the event. I also hope to interview some of the speakers. Stay tuned!

The Heart of Australia's Blogging Community Gains Traction

Three months ago I 'soft launched' (via Twitter) my new blogging initiative: BlogHUB - the heart of Australia's blogging community.

The idea behind BlogHUB is to celebrate and promote blogging in Australia - to turn it into an online destination not only for bloggers but also those interested in learning more about the people who pour their heart and soul into their blogs.

The website also houses the Australian Blog Directory - a list that continues to grow.

At time of writing, BlogHUB had generated some 8300 page views; the BlogHUB Facebook page is 'liked' by 118 people while the Twitter account (@bloghuboz) has notched up close to 500 followers.

All in all, a reasonably good start but importantly, the content on the site has generated some positive comments and robust side conversations, which is definitely one of the aims.

If you haven't been on the site, here is some of the stuff you've missed :)

300 bloggers converge on Melbourne for Nuffnang Blogopolis 2011 (VIDEO)

Full House for Problogger Training Day (Interview with Darren Rowse)

The Ultimate Wrap-Up from Nuffnang Blogopolis

Opportunities for Bloggers who are Carlton Fans

Introducing Australia's 'Social Media Queens' (VIDEO)

Australia's 25 Best Business Blogs

Tips on how Bloggers can Work Better with PR

5 Questions With ... Edenland (pictured below)

FEATURED BLOGS

• Craig Pearce - public relations and managing reputation
• Meet Me At Mikes - from blog to best-selling books
• Problogger - Australia's ultimate Power Blogger
• Styling You - winner of Australia's Best Blog Competition 2011
• Start Up Blog - gem-laden advice for the start-up entrepreneur
• Mel: Hot or Not -= chronicling urban Melbourne

If you haven't already done so, and if you're interested in Australia's emerging blogging landscape, love for you to swing by BlogHUB.

 

Steve Jobs on Dropping Out, Following Your Heart & Doing What You Love

I've always enjoyed watching Steve Jobs present at Macworld. His dramatic unveilings of the iPod, iPhone or iPad have been wonderful, seminal moments in technology (pop culture?) history.

The speech below is brilliant for different reasons.

It's not about launching the next shiny new Apple product but a commencement speech at the 2005 Stanford graduation ceremony (regarded as being one of the best of all time, according to Business Insider).

"Love what you do ... keep looking, don't settle"

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life"

"Stay hungry, stay foolish."

Inspirational, insightful ... humble.

(Full transcript here).

RIP Steve Jobs.