Rolling Talks

Whats up? Summer news

While some clients are enjoying a well-deserved summer break, others are more than happy to benefit from more attentio(n). Summer time will definitely be a good mix of work and 'me time', and the opportunity to finally get ready for more personal professional projects I've had in mind for a couple of months.

One of them is the launch of a brand new Social Media Task Group within the IAB Belgium. The first meeting has just been planned to September 25th in Roularta offices. Sara Rachdi and I will introduce the goal of the Task Group and share ideas and plan on what is to/could be achieved in the first year of practice.

I'm really looking forward to discussing my favorite topic with great brains from the industry and to see it evolving from overhyped, undervalued (love this - stolen to Microsoft Advertising;) 'just tools' to a more legitimate strategically structured discipline. The group is open to anyone (meaning advertisers, agencies, freelancers, media groups ) willing to contribute actively to educate the market, share best practices, you know what I mean :) If you're interested, join us at 2pm at the usual Zellik meeting point. I have a few names in my wish list, lets see if I'll be heard :).

A second project is to go ahead with the initial interviews I planned when I started Rolling Talks. Now that I'm equipped with more professional tools I'm really excited to eventually be able to let the Belgian actors in the market share thoughts on what they're up to in Social Media. Get ready for video updates. (Along with a new blog for end of September).

A third one will be to disconnect. Completely. For 4 weeks (I know jealous people, and they know my answer: You can do it too). To start "school" with pure, fresh energy. I'm planning a trek to Ladakh, little Tibet in north of India. Any experience to share, any books recommendations? let me know. Any legal stuff to bring back? I'll be traveling light.

Thats it for now folks ;)

Cannes Festival

Obviously too busy these last past weeks. This week is quite hectic too but in sunny Cannes with Microsoft Advertising. If you want some 'offical' updates (MA related that is) , follow the Cannes Twitter account and join the Facebook page .
Going to be a crazy day - and night- tomorrow: seems like Bring the Love Back won Bronze Lions!

All she needed, all she wanted..

..was genuine affection, say a bit of inspired love. Who would blame her? Lets pray she eventually gets what she wants. She sure deserves it. Hat tip to Kris ;)

Listening - Attentio Case

For the IAB Net Café on Social Media I asked Attentio to present their case on the Mobile industry to illustrate the very first step to make while developing a Social Media strategy: listening. I find this case very powerful in demonstrating not only who is speaking about the brands and how brands are being discussed but especially in showing the correlation between buzz and volume of conversations. For an audience of marketers, slide 15 only is worth..well listening. Now I realise that the case needs to be demonstrate for full understanding. Any question, or need for in-house presentation, let them/me know.
Ignite  Social Media is currently started a series of posts on Social Media Mistakes. Guess what's mistake #1? "Not listening. Not responding. Not good". Be it with free or pro tools, start listening today!

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IAB Social Media Net café- Notes

Last Thursday I introduced the first Social Media Net Café for IAB Belgium. 112 attendees- average presence for a hot topic and for me definitely my biggest audience ever (Im not precisely a showwoman :). I wanted to do it a bit differently: after pointing out my key messages I introduced the 4 other speakers as an illustration of the flow marketers could keep in mind to remember the 'big picture of Social Media (more in following post). Here's how my intro sounded like:

• I started by pointing out my own mistake i.e. entering SM by the little door of blogging, focusing on one tool only makes me miss the big picture for a couple of months. I notice the same mistake in the majority of my clients' approach today. Picking up one or two tools, they completely miss the big picture of SM and lose time - money and trust too- in developing a successful approach to SM.
• Then I showed this slide, mentioning that 90% of the presentations I attended on SM start with this picture. I admitted mine too till I realised showing this slide would be answering my clients' first question: "which ones shall I be using?". And this is not the good question to start with. First question should not be focused on tools.
• I then switched to this picture Laura Fitton showed us at Going Solo. I guess I use it with a similar meaning as the one she meant as I remember precisely when I took a note while listening to her to use this to make the strategic framework crystal clear:  don't focus on the tools/the ingredients. Focus on the benefit you're going to deliver to your audience (which might just be as for this cookie brand, never an ordinary day again). The first good question is focused on people and objectives. Thats when I mentioned briefly the POST framework.
• But before starting with the POST framework, I urged them to check one more thing. If they plan to join the party out there with this mindset - here comes slide 3, also stole from Laura's presa- they're not going to have fun, and neither will the other participants. " Make sure you 're ready to see what is out there to be seen, hear what is out there to be heard, talk with who is out there willing to talk with you" . Which made it a perfect transition to Attentio monitoring business case.

I guess it was kind of surprising as a lot of people would have expected numbers, tools' description, impact, reach and so on. I felt I really have to stress this key messages though. While it minds sound obvious when you read it, believe me, the gap is huge between theoritical know-how/ evidence and practical approach. Thanks to @pistachio for visual inspiration ;)

Belgian marketers quotes on Social Media

Working on the Net Café on Social Media I'm organising for the IAB Belgium tonight. Was greatly inspired by all the recent talks I had on the subject with a couple of people I admire a lot (more on this after the IAB- want to keep content fresh for the audience ;). Was also greatly inspired by all the talks I had with existing clients or prospects. Thought about it before but gave me the idea to share some of the comments I got from my meetings. Some have made me laugh loud, some almost cry out of despair, some have proned more interesting discussions or thinking on my side to see how/what I should explain to answer them. Just decided to create a new category to share inspiring or not so inspiring quotes with you. The idea is to share a mindset not too make fun out of a particular person, so its going to be nameless obviously.

If you have some you'd like to share, shoot in the comments or by e-mail I'll publish them.
My favorites right now:
Quote 1
Me: "what are your objectives? " Him "nothing specific". Me "your audience? Him "Not defined".

Quote2

" Why should we care? Marketing existed well before bloggers".

Quote3

"Bloggers are paranoid people".

Quote4

First contact, e-mail brief: "My client wants to create a Facebook group. Develop a blog. Reach out to  possible audience on YouTube. Can you send us a price estimate?  For tomorrow? Thanks!"

Attending Going Solo

If you want to see where I'm for a couple of days, follow the guide . Coming back in a couple of days with hopefully new videos of freelancers in the connected world ;-)

WOM Conference : Viral, Buzz & Influential Market

   

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Wow, thats a pretty fast 'embed' feature...Would have like to introduce it, choose a category, add tags,.. but ok, here you go, Emmanuel Vivier's presentation from the Marketing 2.0 Conference. Inspiring and when attended, very energizing ;)

Advices from market leaders

Last week I attended Marketing 2.0 Conference in Paris. Great opportunity to meet new persons who are part of the leaders in the buzz market like Emmanuel Vivier, CEO of Vanksen group and to catch up with a couple of great marketing speakers and persons like Mary Beth Kemp, Forrester principal analyst. I stole a couple of minutes from their busy agendas to ask them recommendations for marketers willing to 'begin a Social Media effort' as opposed to' launch a social media campaign'. In the first video below, Mary Beth is explaining Forrester POST approach. POST stands for People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology. If it should stand for only one key message it would be this one: don't start at the end of the process thinking technology is key. Getting to know how your audience is engaging - or not- with existing social platforms and defining objectives are the success factors to determine the foundations of your strategy, then chose the social tools you're going to tap into or develop for your own community. Mary Beth is also referring to the Social Technographics Forrester has been working on: great tool to understand and categorize how consumers are behaving online. For more info on the topic, I advice you to read the Groundswell blog and contact Mary Beth. Start by listening to her 3 min wrap up : Mary Beth Kemp, Forrester Principal Analyst from Rolling Talks on Vimeo. As for Emmanuel, I challenged him at the end of those 2 hectic days with the uneasy task to sum up his inspiring 1 hour long presentation featuring best buzz campaigns. He did a great job doing so in a bit more than 8 min. No magic formula, but a couple of viral successful ingredients based on his wide experience with a number of brilliant campaigns. Worth listening till the end.
Emmanuel Vivier, CEO Vanksen group from Rolling Talks on Vimeo.

Girls, you're beautiful

Before dashing to Paris for the Marketing 2.0 Conference, I wanted to quickly wrap up the Forum Jump I attended last Friday and Saturday. Quite a different experience for me this year as I was 'back stage',  running from one speaker to an other to record videos interviews along with Sabine. One experience kept the same perfume: I met and discussed with very inspiring women from Adrienne Axler-  Sodexho so human CEO, confirmed by one of my male friend working over there- to writer Lulu Wang and Marie Bejot founder of Oenobiol (Martinette before you asked: no, no samples :-), and thats just to name a few of the guest speakers. Adrienne would be a great mentor and definitely an example to follow. Her passionate behavior echoes mine, jumping from one moment to the other lead by her heart, no business plan nor objective whatsoever. And yes! it seems to be working just fine :-) As for the key points, I loved the 100% american energy radiating from Lois Frankel. The wonderful 'you'll tell them to go to hell and they'll look forward to the trip" alone made it worth it :-) Nothing feminist here (like nowhere in this event, but thats my own perception), it can be apply to you guys too :-) After dedicating her new book 'Nice girls don't get rich' she waved you goodbye with a very assertive 'Get rich' order-like advice. I've always wanted to have first fun in my job. But for once I'm willing to try and consider the order. Will make it 'have fun & get rich' :-) Good timing to practice: this week conference in Paris is subtitled: 'how to make money from web 2.0 :-) BTW, probably going to twitter it rather than blog it; I become lazy carrying my Mac over in such places. Last words will go to Clo who fortunately catches the magic of the event like I did last year. Who you are and what you want to be when you attend Forum Jump can make it a complete different event. Worth a 3rd edition for me, thats for sure. Thanks Isa.

Clo Willaerts @ Forum Jump from Rolling Talks on Vimeo.

Ogilvy makes my day

Last September I spent a day in Paradise and was blissfully given my own Key to Paradise. And lost it last month while preparing for the Emakina/Attentio Academy. Kind of a loss really, losing your key to paradise! I thought about it from time to time then decided to send a quick mail to Veronique VanHoorickx, Ogilvy Brussels Communication manager, to share and grieve over my loss.  And maybe because her 6 year old daughter is a cell-angel-ist or most probably because she's a compassionate  woman she sweetly mailed me my second key to paradise. Confirming me 2 things:
- There's no such thing as The key to paradise- nor 'The One' anything really
- 'Ask and you'll receive' is a nice counterpart to my other favorites 'Give and you'll get'
Thanks Véro!!!!!!!!!!!
Psst: want to know what my key looks like? Take a quick look here  -->

Fresher updates are on Twitter ;-)

Or here.

Forum Jump THE networking event for active women

Seems quite an other life since last year and my first post on this event. A loooot has happened - for the best- but there's one thing that has not changed and that's my enthousiasm for these 2 networking days, coming at the end of this week. Should I add as a disclaimer than since I met Isabella a year ago she has become one of the person sI have privilege contacts with?  (I hate the word 'client' and 'business partner' is sometimes seen as "non appropriate" to others so lets try this one). Well believe me or not that has nothing to do with my excitation! But true these privilege contacts will lead me to spend two perfectly energizing days among famous -and less famous- women as I'll be interviewing some of the speakers along with the amazing Sabine Clappaert from Muse Communication (videos will be posted on Jump's blog). Avivah Wittenberg, Béa Ercolini, Corinne Hubinon, Maryse Wolinsky, Paule Salomon and Harriet Rubin are definitely on my list. Have a look at the program here,
register there and lets meet on Friday and Saturday! (Pss: special discounts here if you're a Geek Girl ;) Plus que 5 fois dormir ;)

Marketing 2.0 Conference

Delighted to post about this great conference I'll be attending in Paris in May 5 and 6!  Marketing 2.0 Conference program looks really exciting: My Space VC Jay Stevens, SixApart VC Olivier Creiche, VC Netvibes Stefan Lechere, CEO CultureBuzz Emmanuel Vivier, Psdt Azoomma Marketing Lab (one of my first and best presentations readings on influence measurement), etc, etc.

I'm looking forward speaking with Forrester principal analyst Mary Beth Kemp whom I met in Barcelona last October and with Fred Cavazza whom I should thank for posting and congratulating the Club Med innovative campaign. If' you're going let me know. If not, you'll be missing something ;)

Interact Congress Blog - second season

Wow! Gloups...Yesterday I've been invited by e-mail to join some of the "prestigious European bloggers" posting on the Interact Congress blog, the platform developed for the second IAB European Congress which will take place in Berlin beginning of June (more info).

It was an automatic mail sent from the admin Blogger platform without a word on my mission. No question if I'm going to accept it though; there's contribution you can't just say no. I guess I'll try to stick to the Congress objective being to "discuss trends and innovations in Online Advertising and Media across Europe"- and yes probably focusing very much on my own bread and butter, Social Media input. I'd also like to take the opportunity to learn more and hopefully interact with fellow bloggers I dont know yet and to interview leaders from the market. So when the content is scarce here -well, even when is not actually- go and check this place.

Yulbiz Brussels- Radionomy interview

Been to Yulbiz last Saturday on beautiful Halles St Gery. Met a couple of nice and young bloggers. Wanted to test new Flip camera so I took the notes from the Radionomy guys and their bloggers interview (still waiting for the link to point to mine) and with Alain's help we played their game. Had trouble then with the sound file while downloading from Flip to my Mac which seems after a quick forum search quite usual... and explain why it took me so long. Now too tired to link but will do tomorrow.

Had trouble then with YouTube :Just realised today while updating the links YouTube upload cut my 5min video (not supposed to happen since I've been using their heavy video feature..). Tried again, seemed ok but once upload done, the video is mentioned not to be available right away...On Luc's advice I bought  QuickTime pro, compressed and changed format file, uploaded it to Vimeo: 500mb free par week. Nice. Nice interface, nice features (like just the basic fact that while uploading the file it gives you % of the work done, easy but so important. YouTube, you can do better!).

Must change one of my answers to Radionomy interview: no more Youtube - only. As to launch the next  shootings, I'll go for "Rolling!" ;-) And now off to bed with hands-on guide to video blogging & podcasting . Call it pa/ssion- /thetic :-)

Yulbiz 3 Brussels - Radionomy interview from Rolling Talks on Vimeo.

Slide to keep- Not a kids world anymore

Quickly going through an nth study on Social Networking - found here . Stumbling upon this slide I'll use and re-use, take my word for it. I love the colors. And on an other note, there's hardly a day going by without me mentioning "its not a kids' world anymore" and till today I've been using this slide (source: Nielsen Netratings august 2006):

Now I hope I read the first slide correctly - as being the standard age breaks reported by Nielsen Online - independently from this particular study. Won't check (now) - hey, blogger's priviledge :-)
Please point me if I'm wrong. An other blogger's priviledge . Its week end after all. Time for the Chimay bleue!

Me and my cello

Had a great laugh after a great but stressful day playing this cello game on the web. Its the first time I touch my bow in 2weeks - and it has to be a virtual touch of course. I have to congrat my cello teacher who sent me this link- she understands her client, she gets right to my heart :-) I got as many fingers cramp with the trackpad though 'playing" the Swan from Camille Saint-Saens than the ones I got 'playing' life kids' ritornellos.

Fun promotional campaign idea for the Berliner Philarmoniker.

Drop the bread

Club Med & Social Media

Working for Club Med is probably the best way I could find to get the feeling breaks are just a call away. That is at least true for happy bloggers like Ine who's enjoying a short trip at Chamonix to share one of the great Club Med villages 'haut de gamme' experience - with a special focus on gastronomy, wellness and design- not speaking about skiing... This is the first step the brand is taking to seriously engage with Belgian bloggers- and surely not the last one, stay tuned.
A special thanks to Adhese for developing an other première on the Enchanté network this time: a banner giving life Twitter and FlickR updates posted by Ine (like the one you can see on my blog as of today) will be displayed on a dozen of influencial Belgian blogs till April 9, day Ine will be returning from the trip. This action would not have been possible without Interel, Club Med PR agency, which strongly understands and proactively integrates Social Media in their daily clients' strategies. My pleasure to work with you all guys.