Royal Wedding

It would have been Bertie’s worse nightmare 70 odd years ago when all King George VI of Britain had to contend with were newsreels and the ‘wireless’. However everyone loves a wedding and regardless of whether you are an ardent Monarchist or Republican, who knew the Royal Wedding would be so bloody entertaining.

It was the ideal example of a high profile event effectively channelling digital mass media and in doing so adding an extra somewhat rebellious layer of connection and experience.

Simultaenously watching it unfold on my TV screen, retweeting commentary using the PC and texting family using my third screen, the mobile.

What I found intriguing were the generation divides of who used which media. Older family were purely glued to the telly and promising to send me special edition newspapers (a more sentimental souvenir perhaps in 30 years time then saying “Hey kids look Ma saved you a Quicktime movie of King Williams wedding”). My gen were mainly tweeting and watching it on the web.The even younger ones were busy building facebook pages dedicated to Pippa’s derriere.

The 5 funnest and funniest parts of Friday night for me on were:

5. Singing along loudly to Jerusalem while hastagging #proudtobebritish

Creative Commons image courtesy of Husond and Wikipedia

According to Wikipedia, ‘Kaizen’ in Japanese means  “change for the better” and is a business philosophy centred on the continual improvement of processes through alignment of the business in small steps. To improve my digital kaizen, I’m trialling the Problogger 31 day challenge to makeover my blog which is long overdue. A problem that needs more than rubber gloves and Pine-O-Cleen.

Can you say it in 30 seconds?

One of the very first exercises is looking at defining my tagline and to describe what I write about succinctly. But where to start?

• Who are my target audience?
• What am I trying to say? Whay do I write about?
• Is there a problem that my blog could help with?
• How would family & friends describe it?

Is anybody out there?

Originally when this blog was set up, it was just to aid my finding a job! So back then I was more interested in targeting potential employers as well as peers in digital media and marketing. What I would love to do however is be able to share my experience and knowledge with an audience (outside of my family and friends) who aren’t neccessarily in the industry already. There is still an air of bamboozle and snake oil that surrounds digital media and marketing for people outside of it, if I can cut through the waffle and provide useful and interesting content from my producers point of view perhaps it will help someone out there among the pixels.

From Art to Z-index

Subjects that interest me include  digital campaigns, interactive art, opinions on topics that range from social media to wireframing with a few random musings on people that inspire me.

My new blog tagline should reflect that and act as a signpost so that readers know what to expect.

Ideas Please

There are some excellent taglines out there, if you are looking for inspiration check out the list on this Daily Blog Tips article on some of the best ones online.

I don’t want a description that is too straightforward or boring, there’s a million or more great blogs that focus on digital marketing and digital media, what would make mine so different?

Family very kindly described my blog as “social commentary on digital stuff” which has been rolled into my welcome message as more of an elevator pitch. For my tagline,  I’m going to test out Where Life Meets Pixels. It’s probably still a tad abstract but Ms. Greer may approve.

What I need is structure and process to tame the myriad thoughts, ideas and opinions that keep popping into my head and then running off into the ‘great topic for a post’ drawer soon to be forgotten along with all the left footed socks.

After much analysis of the blogs I have decided to give my content monster a few ground rules, I noticed some common factors and rules of thumb which I am going to adopt:

1. Post regularly and succinctly

It’s an obvious one but a cardinal rule that I have been breaking for the last year! If you post consistently a couple of times a week, your readers know what to expect, it improves SEO and it forces you as the blogger to become disciplined ala Seth Godin or Guy Kawasaki both of whom post regularly on interesting topics in around 300 to 400 words.

2. Create your own Editorial Calendar

This should aid the first point enormously, having worked on content schedules before I’ve seen a hundred variations of a content calendar however  there’s some excellent tips in this post by Lisa Barone at Outspoken media on how to create one specifically for your personal blog.

3. Focus on it

The Calendar should enable me to do this. I don’t harbor any great expectations of this blog making me a millionaire, what it does do is provide me with an outlet for the frustrated writer within. Being a natural ‘scanner’ I am am always curious about the world, I always wonder whether what I should really be blogging about is  fashion or living in Sydney or beagles. Having a niche blog works, however after two years I still don’t think I have a specific subject area  but what I do know is that I’m not giving up on the blog and I’m not going to start another one no mater how tempting it is to start afresh. My new blogging idol, Penelope Trunk has a great article about why it’s better to stick with what you have started.

4. Learn from Others

I love finding blogs that not only interest me but that I can learn from whether it’s content, design or structure. Some blogs I have been referred to, others I have discovered having gone off on a tangent researching an entirely different topic however all of them have taught me something along the way.

5. Just Do It!

Sites like Problogger are a great starting point and you can find a raft of online articles and posts on how to set up a blog and how to improve what you blog about. However much like learning how to ride a bike, you can watch others and it can be really intimidating but at some point you just have to get on and start peddling

Recent research posted by Chris Voss poses some uncomfortable social and ethical dilemmas for parents and parents to be when documenting their children.

Let me just throw a disclaimer in here to say that I don’t even upload photos of my pets on Facebook let alone a small related human.

Facebook brings out the best in people but often the worse too.  As the veritable ‘mirror on the wall’, it highlights our shallow musings, desires and inconsequential babble. It is what we want it to be.

Over the years, I have seen, watched and read the status updates, posts and photos of a number of distant relatives and friends as they embark on the adventures of parenthood. It started with perhaps a post of one or two first day at school photos. Increasingly, it has started even earlier with an update  at the confirmation of a pregnancy test before the first scan has been complete. Of course, I have the option of hiding updates, deleting connections and ignoring these unfolding young lives.

What option do babies and children have? Should we really be using Facebook as a virtual baby book? Should our children not be allowed the choice or the right to decide at some stage if they even want to have a digital footprint from conception and throughout their lives?

Sydney Harbour being built (timelapsed)

Play School Episode (circa 1990s?)

Now the new job led me to have my fortune told for the very first time at a work Christmas party. This was a useful diversion away from stuffing my face with canapes. The first words out of Madame Antoine’s mouth were “So, when are you planning to return to Paris?”. The hook worked and I sat enthralled for half an hour. My home my be Sydney but my heart belongs in France. 

Vive La France!

It was an amusing end to 2010 and a great beginning to 2011 as this month I take my cue from everything French and Chic: 

Fashion—–> She’s not French but she is chic… Vogue Japan Editor At Large  and avid fashion blogger Anna Dello Russo  is my fantasy fashion muse. If only I had the funds and the legs to wear her wardrobe. Conceptual outfits worn as daywear,  fruit inspired milinary, I imagine that having a watermelon on your head takes confidence (Sarah Jessica Parker should take note). As does being a non-conformist in the fashion industry. Dello Russo, I salute you, your blog and and your great legs! 

Literature—–> Last year, a dear friend insisted that I read ‘The Elegance of the Hedgehog’ by Muriel Barbery. Having read the synopsis, it sounded  thoroughly depressing. The novel focuses on the interwoven daily lives of a 12 year old girl who has decided to commit suicide and an older, grumpy concierge who happens to be an autodidact. They both reside at no 7 rue de Grenelle, a hotel particulier in Paris with intriguing residents. While rummaging through a book barn I came upon it again, read the first three pages and had to buy it. I am enjoying it so much so that I am purposely reading the last couple of chapters very slowly to prolong having to end it and I keep rereading chapters because it is without a doubt beautifully written. A classic example of not judging the book by it’s cover!  

Food—–> Larousse Gastronomique weighs about 3 kilos, the version I have was lovingly transported from the UK as part of my grandad’s luggage. It was a journey with a purpose. There is an excellent recipe for a Tarte Tatin which is my second favourite dessert (after poached peaches) that I made for New Years eve and went down a treat with Vanilla icecream and champagne. It also has a potted biography of Toulouse Lautrec on page 1,091. 

 C’est Magnifique!