Digital Biographer™

Announcing the publication of: Age of Conversation 3. 

Buy Age of Conversation 3 today

• Buy the Hardcover at Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Age-Conversation-Its-Time-Busy/dp/098247394X/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0
• Buy the Paperback at Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Age-Conversation-Its-Time-Busy/dp/0982473974/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
• Buy the ebook for your Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Age-Conversation-Time-Busy-ebook/dp/B003KGBMWQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1272982016&sr=8-2

Almost three years ago, an online conversation between two marketing pros, an American and an Australian, evolved into a collaborative writing effort by more than 100 bloggers from nine countries, and was aptly titled The Age of Conversation.

Fast forward to today and the abstract experiment is now a concrete treatise on the state of social media and marketing best practices as a whole. With Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton still firmly at the helm, the third book in the Age of Conversation series has become a veritable “who’s who” of the world’s leading marketing bloggers.

Age of Conversation 3 (202 pages; hardcover; paperback; Kindle; ePub) was published by new digital publishing company Channel V Books (www.ChannelVBooks.com), and is now available through all major online retailers, as a Kindle e-book, and will soon be available as an ePub for other digital readers.

Age of Conversation 3 captures the distinct shift from social media as a hypothetical consumer loyalty tool, as it was considered only a little more than a year ago, to its current state as a staple in the modern marketing toolbox. Although the book covers more than just social media, the topic is ubiquitous among the book’s 10 sections: At the Coalface; Identities, Friends and Trusted Strangers; Conversational Branding; Measurement; Corporate Conversations; In the Boardroom; Innovation and Execution; Influence; Getting to Work; and Pitching Social Media.

“We have seen an incredible shift in the role of social media over the past three years. It has moved from an outlier in the marketing mix to one of the strategic pillars of any corporate marketing or branding exercise,” said Drew McLellan. “And it doesn’t end there,” adds Gavin Heaton. “As the many authors of this new book explain, the focus may be on conversation, but you can’t participate in a conversation from the sidelines. It’s all about participation. And this book provides you with 171 lessons in this new art”.

The genesis for the series itself has all the makings of a thrilling read: regular correspondence between people around the world; a proactive collaboration between 15 countries; and two marketing professionals who have never met each other face to face, scrambling to learn how to publish a book from the ground up.

It all started when McLellan blogged about a similar collaborative book effort and Heaton wrote to him to suggest they get a few fellow bloggers to produce a marketing book in the same vain. Three emails later, and they had named the book and set what they thought would be an impossible goal: 100 bloggers. Within seven days they had commitments from 103. Back then, the marketing industry was abuzz about how citizen marketers were changing the landscape, whereas the second two editions have revolved primarily around the growing field of social media and how its methodologies have affected marketing as a whole. What all three books have in common is that they each capture a uniquely global vantage point.

These are the 10 sections in the book: -

1. At the Coalface
2. Identities, Friends and Trusted Strangers
3. Conversational Branding
4. Measurement (You’ll find my contribution here)
5. Corporate Conversations
6. In the Boardroom
7. Innovation and Execution
8. Influence
9. Getting to Work
10. Pitching Social Media.

The first Age of Conversation raised nearly $15,000 for Variety, the international children’s charity, and the Age of Conversation 2 raised a further $10,000 for Variety. This year’s proceeds will be donated to an international children’s charity of the contributing authors’ choosing. Please help to make sure we raise something extra this time around…

• Buy the Hardcover at Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Age-Conversation-Its-Time-Busy/dp/098247394X/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0
• Buy the Paperback at Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Age-Conversation-Its-Time-Busy/dp/0982473974/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
• Buy the ebook for your Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Age-Conversation-Time-Busy-ebook/dp/B003KGBMWQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1272982016&sr=8-2

May the road rise before you.

A warm hello and felicitations of the day to all of my good friends from the island.

Digital Biographer Digital Red Nose

I had the idea to create Digital Nose Jobs for Red Nose Day (13th March), inspired by @jamie_oliver on Twitter.

I’ve done a few Nose Jobs this week to raise money for the UK & African projects that Red Nose Day supports. You can still order a red nose if you’d like (I have time for about another 15 4 nose jobs today!

Great minds obviously thinking alike, I’ve since discovered you can also have an official Red Nose Day Digital Nose Job – for just £1 (again, all money goes to Red Nose Day). Not as exclusive, but just as much fun – my one’s below.

Official Red Nose Day Images £1 from http://digitalrednose.com

• Red Nose Day is at http://rednoseday.com
• Digital Red Nose is at http://digitalrednose.com
• My Profile Makeover (Red Nose Job) is at http://bit.ly/rednose

UPDATE 16-Mar: I raised $220 for Red Nose Day – which itself raised over £59m ($74m). Thanks to all who helped to promote and especially to those who bought a ‘nose job’.

Tragedy and Triumph: A Conversation Veers Off Target by Amy Jussel – www.shapingyouth.org

“Conversations may start with you, but they’re not yours to keep. Your words can be hijacked, trivialized, or repositioned to attract flamethrowers and incivility like heat-seeking missiles, but if you try to rein in gonzo journalism you’ll get kicked in the face or sound like a nag.”

In a chapter entitled ‘Tragedy and Triumph: A Conversation Veers Off Target‘ Amy reminds us one voice DOES matter.

>> Read the full story from Amy Jussel and 236 other contributors: Buy Age of Conversation 2 today…

David Petherick is one of 237 authors who contributed to the book ‘Age of Conversation 2‘. For the first 237 days of 2009, he is highlighting a chapter from one of his co-authors, briefly discussing their contribution, and linking you to their blog or online presence.
All proceeds from sales of Age of Conversation 2 go to charity.

Marketing is in the Eye of the Beholder by Corentin Monot – organic-frog.com

“Another reason why people are skeptical and even reluctant about conversational marketing is the fear of the new. Few people actually possess a genuine entrepreneurial mind, (and) we all know that the successful brands and businesses are those that have a point of view and are ready to defend it. The rest, which is the vast majority, are copying and pasting empty words for their vision values and purpose documents.”

In a chapter entitled ‘Marketing is in the Eye of the Beholder‘ Corentin reminds those who understand conversational marketing have a role to educate beyond a group of like-minded peers. We need to include the C-level, the boardroom and the mail clerks in our conversations.

>> Read the full story from Corentin Monot and 236 other contributors: Buy Age of Conversation 2 today…

David Petherick is one of 237 authors who contributed to the book ‘Age of Conversation 2‘. For the first 237 days of 2009, he is highlighting a chapter from one of his co-authors, briefly discussing their contribution, and linking you to their blog or online presence.
All proceeds from sales of Age of Conversation 2 go to charity.

Rise of the Global Agency by G. Kofi Annan – www.annansi.com/blog

“As the global centers of influence change marketing and advertising will need to ramp up their collaboration with and training of international agencies and employees. The question at this point is not when to divert resources internationally, but how fast to do so.”

In a chapter entitled ‘Rise of the Global Agency‘ Kofi Alaz suggests that there is a new breed of ‘Agency 2.0′ in the Age of Conversation – an international and independent type of body that works – guess what – in a different way.

>> Read the full story from Ozgur Alaz and 236 other contributors: Buy Age of Conversation 2 today…

David Petherick is one of 237 authors who contributed to the book ‘Age of Conversation 2‘. For the first 237 days of 2009, he is highlighting a chapter from one of his co-authors, briefly discussing their contribution, and linking you to their blog or online presence.
All proceeds from sales of Age of Conversation 2 go to charity.

I rest my case. I’ve still not reactivated my facebook account, because I’m waiting to see what the new terms are before I take any action. Facebook have lost my trust, you see.

But at least they are now using Plain English.

Here’s what I wrote about this earlier.

You’re a Facilitator, Not a Creative… by David Petherick – digitalbiographer.com

“Today, nobody reads brochures. We get our news and buzz from friends and “influentials” on RSS, lifestreams, tweets, blogs feeds and podcasts. We all tune out banner ads, and spend less time with broadcast media. So how will you reach these people, and what skill sets will you need?”

In a chapter entitled ‘You’re a Facilitator, Not a Creative…‘ David outlines four basic skills you need for reaching people in the Age of Conversation: —

• Tell a story
• Listen a lot
• Start and join conversations
• Use new tools

>> Read the full story from David Petherick and 236 other contributors: Buy Age of Conversation 2 today…

David Petherick is one of 237 authors who contributed to the book ‘Age of Conversation 2‘. For the first 237 days of 2009, he is highlighting a chapter from one of his co-authors, briefly discussing their contribution, and linking you to their blog or online presence.
All proceeds from sales of Age of Conversation 2 go to charity.

An observation that took me all of 140 characters to pass on (using Twitter of course) was turned into a fairly substantial blog by another writer a few days ago. One of my Twitter followers noticed that blog, and immediately linked it to my earlier tweet. They asked me if I wasn’t annoyed that this guy had ‘stolen‘ my idea.

And you can quote me on that…

No. I was not annoyed. Actually, it’s nice to inspire other people, I replied. And thinking further about this, I was only highlighting something that was tucked away in a long interview, but which, to me, seemed the most important fact from the interview – for a particular geographical audience. So my thought was not original in any way – I just focused on something already stated, which was very far from the headline – and just made it a headline item.

Rather than feeling annoyed, I was happy that I’d helped to highlight something important that might otherwise have been ignored. Another writer, who followed my tweet nothings, chose to write about something I mentioned in more detail. Cool. I treat that as a compliment – he recognised that my insight was valuable – but I certainly did not expect any acknowledgment. Next time we talk, I’ll ask – and I would not be at all surprised to learn that he didn’t see my tweet in the first place.

Inspiration from other writers…

Just yesterday, writing my daily summary of a chapter from Age of Conversation 2, I browsed through to Ed Cottons Blog, as I’d chosen to write about his chapter – and came across a blog about the concept of originality, plagiarism, and theft, that cited a film-maker.

Rule #5: Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows.

Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it.

In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”
— Jim Jarmusch

Quote from an interview with Moviemaker Magazine in 2004, brought to my attention by fellow AOC2 author Ed Cotton.
Read more…

I was very excited to hear about the forthcoming @Twestival, taking place across the world and bringing together users of the Twitter microblogging service to raise money for charity:water on February 12th 2009. A great idea, a great cause, and no doubt some great social events where people will get to meet new friends…

UPDATE: Click here to book tickets for Edinburgh Twestival – and be quick, they are going fast.

There’s a @twestival event being organised in my local city of Edinburgh, but I may not be able to attend that, so I wanted to help them raise money, irrespective of my geography, by offering something. And what better than something related to Twitter?

I’ve been creating twitter backgrounds and enhancing online profiles for my customers for some time, and I normally charge a minimum of $120 for a Twitter Profile Makeover, with a custom background and avatar. I’ve decided to offer this service at half price – just $60, and I will donate half of that – $30 – to charity: water for each Twitter Makeover.

Read more…

Twitter is pretty boring until you start to follow people. And it’s also pretty boring if the people you follow don’t update more than one a week, don’t follow you back, or only tweet about themselves. So how do you find interesting people to follow on Twitter?

Enter Mr Tweet, a new service from @mingyeow and @ambivalence. Mr. Tweet looks through your extended network on Twitter to help you build relationships, and answers two very simple, and very important questions: —

* Who are the influential people I should be following?
* Which are the followers I should be following in return?

How it works is incredibly simple. You follow @mrtweet on Twitter. And that’s it. Mr Tweet will then send you a direct tweet pointing you to your personal report at the Mr Tweet web site. When I followed Mr Tweet, my report came through in about 6 hours – but due to rising popularity (Robert Scoble found it), you may have to wait up to 48 hours, especially if you have a lot of followers and / or follow a lot of people – but it’s well worth waiting for.

The report you receive (see my example report for @clarocada here) is produced online at Mr Tweet’s site, and allows you to either find influencers beyond your network or show which of your followers you should be following back.

The beauty of Mr Tweet’s reports is that you can assess whether to follow twitter users suggested to you on the basis of a great deal of information: -

• Examples of who, among those you follow, follows them.
• See how many of the people that you follow, follow them.
• How many followers they have.
• How many people they follow.
• A quick ‘following/followers’ ratio.
• A reciprocity statement – such as ‘frequently replies to non-follows’, ‘usually follows back’.
• How often they update – you may want to limit the number of ’57 tweets a day’ people you follow!
• Link to their web site or blog as noted on their twitter profile.
• Brief biography from their twitter profile.
• View their last 5 tweets (A really useful touch).

The Mr Tweet Blog has just had its first entry, and they encourage feedback at Get Satisfaction. All in all, Mr Tweet is an extremely useful, very well-designed and beautifully easy to access service.

Follow @mrtweet and see who you’re missing…

Originally posted at The Next Web

I’m one of 237 authors who have contributed to the publication ‘Age of Conversation 2 – Why don’t they get it?‘ and I’m very happy to announce that you can buy the book from 08:00 US EST tomorrow, 29th October 2008 here at http://www.lulu.com/ageofconversation. For those of you in the UK, that’s on sale from 12 Noon tomorrow, 13:00 in Netherlands, France and Spain. The publication is a series of themed short essays, involving 237 marketing professionals who blog from 29 states throughout the USA, and from 14 other nations from Australia to the Ukraine. All contributed one page — 400 words — on the topic of “conversation”.

My contribution to ‘AOC2′ was a chapter entitled “You’re a facilitator, not a creative…” in the section of the book called ‘A New Brand of Creative’.

“I can think at about 1250 words per minute, but can only speak at about 250wpm. So I am five times more clever when I keep my mouth shut…” – David Petherick, writing in Age of Conversation 2

There are two important things to note: 1) You can get Age of Conversation 2 in hardback, or in paperback or in e-book format and 2) All the proceeds go to Variety charity. Not one of the authors receives a complimentary copy – we have to buy ours. So if you’d like an autographed or personalised copy – then buy it, ship it to me, and I’ll send it on. It would be quite a feat to get all 237 authors to sign it – what do you think?

So please order your copy now, and benefit yourself, say hi to all of these wonderful authors, and do something to help children who could use a little help from you. You’ll find more information at the Age of Conversation Blog, but for now, go buy that book. You’ll love at least 236 parts of it…

Thanks. Alphabetically, thanks also to the authors.

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick (Hey that’s me), David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Blog08, Amsterdam, on the 24th October 2008, has added some great bloggers to its line-up, and tomorrow is your last chance to get an early bird discount to save €45 on the entry fee,

I’d recommend you get your name on the list today, as the early bird discount, means it’s only €150 to attend, rather than €195. With a mention in Parool.nl, and being all over the Dutch media today, and online in the likes of AD, Metro, and Trouw, the reduced price allocation may be gone very soon. You also have the chance to win a free seat at the Speaker’s Dinner on the night before the conference if you buy before Thursday.

Use this special discount promo code to save €45: digitalbio

This will be the rock’n'roll blogging event of the year in Europe, with a great host in Patrick de Laive, a great venue, and an amazing program that, of course, includes performances from a rock band… and an after-party at Odeon, Amsterdam.

And of course, it takes place on a Friday… leaving you free to enjoy an extra day or two in Amsterdam. Assuming you survive that after-party, of course.

Speakers list…

Haven’t you heard? LinkedIn is now in Spanish!

A subtle little detail caught my eye on the right hand side of my LinkedIn profile this evening – a little global map, and the world ‘language with a dropdown icon to its right…

It’s a beta version of LinkedIn in Spanish. All I need now is for them to add Russian, and I’ll have to use all three of my languages in my profile.

Just searching LinkedIn’s blog, I see that this was announced in late July but it’s been kept fairly low on the radar for some reason. Naturally, it makes the interface easier to work with for those with Spanish, rather than English, as their primary language, but it also signals growing focus on developing LinkedIn in the Latin American market, where LinkedIn say they expect to double their user base by the end of this year.

Spanish is the second most-spoken native language in the world (500 million people), after only Mandarin Chinese, and is the third most-used language on the internet (behind English and Chinese).