But what if you are a good boss? What if you've worked for dozens of years building up a reputation for honesty to clients and fairness to staff? What if, as happened to a business I know recently, a group of youngsters decided to have some fun at your expense and feature some less than ideal work practices on a Facebook site. Nothing particularly bad – planking, time wasting, misusing company equipment on company time. Some Gen Y exuberant foolishness, that's all, but the threat to this company's history of excellence was substantial. They were sacked summarily.

What happens if that "fun" goes one step further – like a group of Adelaide high school girls who were found on YouTube offering oral sex for sale? Or miscreants who might even add something dangerous or unpalatable to a food product? What if that happened in your business? On your time? And on the world wide web?

Whistleblowers don't need to go to the media anymore – they are the media and they can reach millions of your customers in minutes. Whistleblowers don't need to have an axe to grind – they can (with unbelievable naiveté) just be having what they believe to be little harmless "private" fun.

As employers we turn ourselves inside out to orientate our workers about Occupational Health and Safety, quality work standards, equal opportunity and discrimination issues.
But do you take your staff through your social media policy – what they can and can't say on Facebook, Twitter and You Tube about your company? Or worse, do you have a social media policy?

To the employers who read this, please take these words as professional advice not fear mongering and don't rush out and disconnect every PC in your building. Handled within set guidelines social media will become one of the most profound marketing tools your business possesses in the next decade bringing unimaginable connection and engagement with a rapidly growing audience of future customers. But the message is that without rules and a clear pathway of responsibility, your hard won reputation is at an increasingly silent, subtle and scary level of risk.

- Peter Fuller

By Heather Rowland, FULLER Account Director

If you've ever thought creativity was irrelevant to your industry, think again.

Whether you work at a legal firm, in manufacturing or at an internet start up, you're only as successful as your last great idea.

As ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky put it, "a good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be”.

What Wayne knew is that true success comes not when you're keeping up with the pack, but when you're ahead of play. Here are five reasons why the ideas and innovations that stem from being creative are essential to the success of your business.

1. You're not the only one
Whatever business you're in, you've got competition. Just like you, your rivals claim to offer the best/fastest/friendliest/"insert adjective here" service/product. This means that you need to come up with a reason why potential customers should choose you over everyone else, which sounds, looks and feels different to your competitors. How? Be creative.

2. If you're boring, people will ignore you.
There's a new joke on the Web every seven seconds. In our super connected world, you're not only competing for attention with your competitors, but with thousands of other stimulants every second. If you can't think creatively - about how you present your brand and the products or services you offer, you're going to be the least popular person at the party.

3. Good ideas lead to cold, hard cash.
We live in an innovation driven economy. Put simply, doing the same thing the same way rarely makes anyone any money. But come up with a great idea (or make someone else's idea even better) and reap the rewards. Did someone say iPhone?

4. A more creative workplace is a more effective workplace
Creativity can easily be seen as the antithesis of work. But practice has shown the opposite is true. In 1948, multi-billion dollar company 3M introduced the 15 per cent program, which allowed all employees to pursue their own ideas for 15 per cent of their workday. You can thank the 15 per cent program for the invention of the post-it note. The strategy was adopted by Google, whose 20 per cent policy gives staff freedom to do whatever they like for one fifth of their working hours. The outcome of this thinking time? A little something called Google News. In fact Google says that 20 per cent time has been the birthplace of most of their great ideas. Why? Removing the pressure of the bottom line and the immediate problems of the workplace opens the mind to future possibility.

5. Anyone can be creative
It's a myth that only 'creative types' can be creative. As acclaimed author and Contributing Editor at Wired magazine Jonah Lehrer puts it, "The human mind, after all, has the creative impulse built into its operating system, hard-wired into its most essential programming code. At any given moment, our brain is automatically forming new associations, as it continually connects an everyday x to an unexpected y". All it takes is to train your brain to make those connections and to recognise them when they happen.

- Heather Rowland

By Olivia Fuller, FULLER Account Director

Hosting a good networking event can be one of the most effective ways for a business to connect directly with its stakeholders, and it doesn’t have to blow the budget. Events can be kept small and simple, but it’s essential to get the basics right.

Assembling a group of people who find value in being connected to one another is one of the most powerful things you can do for your clients, but a good guest list needs to be backed up by excellent hospitality.

FULLER was recently invited to an event that while small and simple, demonstrated the power of doing the basics well. We left with an enormous sense of positivity about the organisation’s brand and reputation.

We were guests at an informal gathering of Hutt Street Centre’s Foundation members, Patrons and sponsors. Here are some of the things they did to create a memorable experience.

1. First impressions count
Make sure your venue is appropriate for the occasion and appoint a warm, friendly and professional representative as your front of house host - ideally someone who is confident in making networking introductions. This is especially important for people who arrive on their own and don’t know other guests. Macquarie Equity's smart boardroom was perfect and the fact that one of their senior execs Paul Kirchner and the Hutt Street Development Manager Danielle Bayard welcomed everyone personally started the evening on a warm note.

2. Spread the love
Arm a team of representatives with the responsibility to make every single guest feel special. These people should be engaging communicators who can be proactive in making introductions between guests. They are responsible for looking out for the “solos” and including them in conversations so no one is left out of the experience. This reduces the pressure for one key person such as the CEO to get around to everyone and improves the networking outcomes for attendees.

3. Don’t skimp on quality food and wine
In South Australia it is very easy to access good quality food and wine, and it doesn’t have to cost a lot. The key here is quality - the food doesn’t need to be overly fancy. Make an effort to get this right and it will do wonders for your brand. If your events person is inexperienced in food and wine, get advice from someone who has an interest in the food and wine scene. Hutt Street Centre used Encore catering and the food was outstanding, as were their service staff. Drinks included Peroni beer; Whippet Sav Blanc from Longview; Kirrihill Riesling from Clare Valley; and Dutschke GHR Shiraz from Barossa.

4. Short sharp and shiny
Keep speeches brief (10 minutes is ample), make them personal and informative. A thank you to key people in the room (sponsors, business partners, staff) by the CEO provides huge value to those guests who have made the effort to attend. If you are aiming to have people refer your services, or spread the word about your charity it is a good idea to provide a brief update of some of the unique points of difference about your organisation, your vision and values/beliefs. Try to do this through an anecdotal story about a staff or client success. Illustrate by a video, slide show or Prezi if you have interesting content to share.  Ensure any accompanying presentation is of high quality and has been prepared / reviewed by a professional graphic designer and copy writer. Once again the quality of these materials reflect on your brand.

5. Make it intimate
Keeping the guest list small (eg 30 guests for an intimate networking function or 10 guests for an intimate networking lunch) creates an air of exclusivity, which people love. It makes them feel good that they have made an effort and for being associated with your organisation. This is particularly important if you are aiming to win the support of your guests, raise money or say thank you.

6. Timing is everything
Holding the event at a time that makes it easy to attend will not only be appreciated by your busy guests but will ensure you get a good turn out. Hutt Street held its event from 5 to 6.30pm in the city - an easy proposition that means you can drop in after work knowing you’ll have time to attend to personal and family commitments afterwards. A politely announced thank you two minutes before the prescribed finish (which should also be on the invitation) provides Mums and Dads with kids to pick up a clear signal that it is OK to leave now.

Thank you Ian, Danielle and the team at Hutt Street for inspiring this post through your wonderful hospitality last week.

- Olivia Fuller

Everybody’s talking/blogging/tweeting about the impending launch of Facebook Timeline for brands which rolls out officially on March 30th.  The new changes will allow for creative brands to shine, tell their company story and engage with fans at a deeper level.

Right you say. Yeah, sure, it’s great hearing about all the warm fuzzy things big brands like Coke  and all the other cool kids can do, but what does this mean for a brand who relies on Facebook for measurable outcomes, such as database building, or even cold hard cash?

At first, some of these changes might seem earth-shattering for brands who use Fcommerce stores and promotional “competition style” apps as a way of tracking ROI.  With the default landing tab and fan-gated options gone, brand pages may find it increasingly difficult to drive traffic and make fans obey them in the way they want to.

Sorry to break the news to you, but you can’t make fans behave the way you want them to. However, there are a few ways that you can very gently squeeze their hands and lead them in the right direction…

Here’s our ten tips to make the most out of Timeline features for brands:

1. Say cheese

It’s all about the photos. Firstly… while you’re now given license to put giant pictures (ideal specs 851 x 315 pixel) this is not a new place for ads.  Facebook has some pretty strict guidelines  for this space – so it’s far better to showcase the lifestyle your brand offers, rather than selling your wares like a 2-4- 1 pizza human billboard.  While you’re getting creative, take into account that the new profile photo is 180 x 180 pixels which will re-size to a 32 x 32 thumbnail.

2. Order, order

In the new Timeline format, only three apps are allowed to sit at the top of the page (plus the Photos app, which is a permanent feature) so you need to think carefully about what’s important.  Up to 12 apps can be added to the page at one time, but it’s only these first three you’ll be able to see.  Don’t forget to update your app’s icon image to make their messaging more prominent. For example, instead of a logo, you might include the actual call to action in the icon image, such as “ Win” or “ Shop”  (Click on the drop down pencil button above each app to edit)

3. Highlight your content

You already know that blasting one-way status updates is a big no-no. Target your content towards your buyers – if you’re solving your consumers’ problems regularly, you’ll gain a reputation about being more helpful in general.  Now you can brag in a very humble way by displaying what you deem important for your fans through the new highlighted posts feature.  Clicking on the pencil dropdown allows you to spread the post to the full width of the page. This feature is perfect for photos.

4. Once upon a time

One of the main features of Timeline is the ability to go back and add important milestones for your business, complete with photos. The sorts of ‘events’ that you would add to your Timeline (dates and photos) are a brand’s equivalent to marriage and babies.
•    Launched your company
•    Expanded your portfolio
•    If you met the Queen
•    When your CEO won a Nobel Peace prize.

You know, that sort of thing.

5. Pin it!

It’s no secret that a brand will generally need to provide an incentive or special offer to their Facebook fans if they want them to pull out their credit card. You can still do this, except you won’t need to post about it over and over again to remind fans.  One of the best ways to promote your “special offer” is by using Pinned posts.  Pin a post by clicking on the pencil dropdown and this will keep your post at the top of the page for 7 days. (Now no need to think of seven different ways to say the word “SALE”)

6. Supersize your apps

The new Timeline’s iFrame size has now increased to a whopping 810-pixel wide, which allows customised promotional apps and fcommerce stores to spread out. Or maybe your existing app looks great with all of the extra white space around it? In any case, the new format is cleaner, less busy and no doubt will contribute to a relaxed experience for your fans.

7. Spy on your next-door neighbours

Rather alike to checking out your neighbour’s back yard over the fence, you can now have access to some basic sneaky info on your competitors.  Visit a rival company’s Facebook page, and click on their “Likes” button to see a limited version of their insights demographics. Have they managed to snag your ideal demographic? Take note of what they’re doing right, and do it better on your page.

8. Peer pressure

For once, peer pressure can be a good thing.  The amplified version of Friend Activity displays how a user’s friends have been interacting with a page.  This is a great feature for brand pages with Fcommerce and promotional apps, and will hopefully boost further interaction.

9. Only a message away

The New Fan messaging feature allows your fans to talk to you directly. Great for a fan who wants to ask you more information about a product without it being public, and also a real win for social media crisis management. This is a great way to take any issues offline without having to reveal a personal Facebook profile behind the brand page.

10. A bit of housekeeping: Track your changes

One of the least talked about changes in Timeline is the ability to track your work. Particularly useful when a brand’s page is managed by more than one person, this new Admin tool option tracks all changes and updates made to the page.

While it might not be for everybody, it’s hard to ignore the power of Facebook advertising.  Facebook’s rollout of the new advertising options couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. Here’s a good rundown of the new options.

Make yourself familiar with the new features, adjust your thinking slightly and embrace these changes to make Facebook Timeline work for your brand.

- Hayley Conolly.

Business is exactly the same. Take the current excitement about social and digital media. Rushing to one side of the boat are all of the early adopters, embracing Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn like their life depended on it, believing evangelically that these new horizons will solve their marketing problems forever.

Back on the other side, clinging to the guard rails,  looking back longingly towards the safety of land, are the troglodytes I spoke about last month who haven’t yet committed to a website, let alone a SmartPhone.

Somewhere in the middle of the deck, swaying sickeningly, are the cautiously optimistic businesses like you, watching and waiting, trying to determine if this risky new frontier is indeed something you wish to inhabit, or whether it is safer to rejoin the crowd on the other side.

It needs saying again and again that social media by itself is not a marketing panacea. It is no more or less worthy than any other element of an integrated marketing communication plan. It’s impossible to yet say (because the research is still under-developed) whether frequent tweeting beats a regular media release program; or that Facebook is more inclined to yield new clients than an e-newsletter; or LinkedIn is preferable to a boardroom lunch with half a dozen prospects; or that YouTube is more powerful than a beautiful book about your company which people can touch and hold.

What I’ve learnt over the years, is that marketing is not much different to an investment – a diversified portfolio provides you with the best long term outcome.
As far as I’m concerned without a carefully planned strategy, informed by incisive research and rigorous thinking, that embraces every tactical tool in the marketing communication armoury (and that certainly includes social media), you are just wasting money.

- Peter Fuller

Yet, over the summer holiday break when I had time to Google around looking for products and services, I was appalled at the virtual dead end streets and closed shopfronts I wandered past with my credit card. Given the cobwebs I saw and the lazy reliance on directories such as truelocal.com.au (great idea but no personality), I’m not surprised that the rapid growth in online purchasing went mainly to overseas retailers last year – at least they have 21st century websites.

It’s bad enough that monolithic, slow to react Aussie retailers like David Jones and Woolworths and Harvey Norman have been flat-footed about seizing on the web opportunity. But small to medium businesses have no excuse when ignoring the most powerful advertising and branding medium the world has seen, during the toughest business climate in 30 years.

I can’t believe, for example, that a chiropractor or physio wouldn’t want to differentiate themselves from the hundreds of others in the Yellow Pages; why a builder or plumber can’t see the point of projecting their personal service; why little book stores anxious about Amazon still don’t have an on-line ordering option; why bleeding manufacturing companies aren’t uploading their inventory on-line and explaining why they are better than their overseas opposition; why restaurants have dusty old menus and wine lists from 2004; and B&Bs persist with agonizingly amateur designs knocked up by a son or daughter studying Year 10 Art.

Let’s be clear – after nearly 30 years of the Internet there is no longer any excuse not to have a virtual presence at least as flash as your window signage, your brochure or your business card in 2012. And if you can spare $5000 to $10,000 on a one tonner or a corner office or even a flash Harry coffee machine, you can certainly afford a website.

Most of us believe enough in the reputation of our businesses to invest in quality - decent work clothes, up to date equipment, modern furnishings, pleasant, trained staff. So why would you skimp on the single marketing tool which will differentiate you from the rest of the world...even while you sleep?

- Peter Fuller

I was talking to an Australian winemaker this week who was wringing his hands about the latest treatment by Woollies. Having absorbed for several years a one case free in every 12 promotional deal, he was told last month (that’s right told)  that the new terms of trade were $15,000 upfront for every wine label he supplied (about $60,000 in cash in his case for the privilege to supply) and a double up of promo stock to one case free in every six cases sold. Take it or leave it! This highly respected company that I would rank in the Top 50 producers in the country, who has worked tirelessly for more than 20 years to build his brand and stretch his patient capital,  told the big supermarket to get nicked. But of course he now has more pallets of good wine to quit via cellar door or his online mail order system (which by the way delivers a 45% better margin).

And then there’s the story from a Coles manufactured food supplier who was told (again) last week that he will be levied 1% of his meagre margin to pay for the supermarket’s shopping website – a handy way to fund the giant retailer’s belated move to online retail!

Then there is the prediction by IBISWorld research that the current level of 23% home brands will rise to at least 30% (or even 40% like the UK) in the next five years further pushing out suppliers. In the wine industry this has been driven  by the increasing ownership of the whole value chain from vineyard to winery to bottling line and distribution, guaranteeing that you’ll see more unheard of labels with no guarantee of provenance or quality let alone soul. And in food, private brands are supplied by cheap exports from Thailand and South Africa and Greece (supported by our Government’s bravely naive belief in free trade) rather than our own struggling farmers.

Surely this isn’t just isolated hearsay any more but a national trend which will see farmers and food producers, along with their workers, go to the wall next year sadly helped along by their short sighted fellow Australians who continue to chase prices all the way to the bottom.

- Peter Fuller

An IBM study has found that marketing managers are worried – not just about post-GFC sales – but social media.

“Only 26 percent of chief marketing officers track blogs and just 40 percent track any online communications, while 82 percent still rely on traditional market research to shape marketing strategies”, according to the study. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/11/socialmedia-ibm-idUSL5E7LA3JO20111011

The interesting outcome is that while these marketing professionals understand the value of social media (82% say they will increase their use of social media in the next three to five years) most don’t know how to harness it NOW.

Sure they have all gamely started Twitter accounts and company Facebook pages and forced themselves to Blog and accept Linked In, but there is no strategy to any of this.

Getting behind the wheel of a Lamborghini is one thing but knowing how to use the wheel is another. The most savvy marketers we see want us to help them take the head off their existing marketing communication strategy and add a few new cylinders, valves and turbo chargers, then join them on the track for a few tips on cornering. Aligning social media with your current public relations, SEO, advertising and direct marketing strategy makes more sense than going out and buying a whole new model, despite the smell of the new leather.

However, as the report suggests, the emerging challenge for marketers is not how to insinuate product quality on Facebook or create a Twitter campaign to  build positive relationships. It is the ability to follow trends in what is an unstructured, random exchange of personal viewpoints at volumes which are impossible to monitor – for example there are up to a billion tweets a week around the world. Which is why leading information technology companies such  as Hewlett Packard and IBM are acquiring analytics companies capable of developing yet-to-be-born automated trend tracking software.

Clearly travelling at 280kmh along an eight lane highway into the future is pretty scary for we marketers.

Step one is to learn to drive.

– Peter Fuller

“You’re starting a comms company, you need Apple,” was the advice from nerdy colleagues so there I was, surrounded by bone-coloured display terminals, keyboards and “mice”. I settled conservatively on an LCII (so much more advanced than the LC1) with a 12 inch colour screen, a microphone for miraculously recording things (until then cassette recorders were used for this purpose), an inbuilt floppy disk drive and a black and white bubble jet printer. The software was Clarisworks... and I bought a couple of games for the kids. It all fitted into a box about the size of a tea chest and from memory cost about $899 – around about the same price as the new iPhone4.

On the very first morning of the rest of my life, I unpacked the LCII, put it together (matching those conveniently marked plugs and ports was a snap) booted it up and within a few hours I was free. I could scoot a cursor around a screen and drag and drop files; I could create text documents and change the font and type size with a double click; I could drop failures into the trash; I could change alerts and sounds; essentially what I saw (on the screen) was what I got (on the printer). I couldn’t break anything.

After years of MS DOS monochrome screens this was like a spaceship. If anyone had leaned over my shoulder and said that in about a decade and a half I would be able to mail people via the phone line and without a stamp or envelope; access the most powerful and up to date reference library in the world; throw away the white pages; arrange my (digital) photograph collection; download not just my favourite Neil Young songs but also movies and books; translate languages and find directions to anywhere in the world I wouldn’t have believed them for second.

If they had said that you could even do all of that on a gadget the size of a cigarette packet, I would have hurriedly ushered them out of my new office.

Since then I have graduated through the eras of the Performer, the iMac, Powerbook G4 and now to a Macbook Pro I can’t go anywhere without. I have been a Apple evangelist and as each subsequent staff member has joined me I have broken the news that this is a PC free zone. They got the hang of it..then they were converted.

Amongst our staff, children and extended family we probably own about 100 Macbooks, Macbook Airs, iPods, iPhones and iPads not to mention the odd case of AppleTV. I still have the original LCII on my home office desk and I love that it represents everything I have done in 18 years.

We are an Apple generation, no matter how old we are.

Steve Jobs, I’m sorry you only lived to my age.

It would have been good to meet you some time...and say thanks.

– Peter Fuller

But after another horror rollercoaster share market ride, it is only inevitable that there will be many emaciated shareholders asking why Telstra spent $3 million of their potential dividend on a re-brand last week.
We are all cognizant that a brand is not just a logo. But let’s start with that anyway. Mercifully DDB (the lucky agency which got the big gig) didn’t suggest a change to the wavy T which has become as familiar to Gen Ys as the old 1990s Telecom was to Baby Boomers. As we all know in the branding world, throwing babies out with bathwater can lead to deathly silences, polite coughing and sideways glances (remember the national days of mourning after the loved and trusted Commonwealth Bank decided to shove a black wedge into the side of a yellow square).

But for a $3 million cheque, agencies have to do something. So they invented a new colour scheme. I am amused that some think this is “just the freshening up it needed to appeal to the kids in a hugely competitive market.” Have a look at Andrew Tijs article here.

To me the orange, green, turquoise, blue, purple and magenta look just like the inside of a 70s wardrobe or the inside of a Sandman panel van. And I hope the rumours are not true that the “unique” magenta cost the largest part of the DDB fortune to licence – I could swear there is a 1973 Ford Escort just that colour still driving around Kensington.

Pyschedelic colours aside, rebrands are more importantly a chance to re-consider and reflect on your company story as much as your look. According to the September 19 corporate media release the big telco’s rebrand “reflects the changes that have been happening at Telstra over the past two years”. Now what exactly would they be? “A focus on customer service, sales and marketing while continuing its great legacy of engineering excellence,” the release says.“Our changes are more than skin deep and come after the introduction of new customer service initiatives such as 24 hour sales and support and on Twitter...free calls to Telstra help lines and the launch of simple pricing summaries so customers have the key information they need in plain English...and a new online community called CrowdSupport where customers help customers.”

Really, is a free Help line anything new? As far as I know I’ve never been charged to sit on a phone and listen to music for up to 20 minutes while waiting for a technician to finish their vanilla slice and cup of Tetley. At least I hope not! And what’s this CrowdSupport idea other than a way of getting customers to do the work?

Best Australian Brands valued the Telstra brand at $9.7 billion in 2009. Let’s hope the delivery of these promises, the real element of a brand, is as bright and new and youthful and punchy as the colour scheme.

– Peter Fuller