This online learning resource is where you can discuss the issues from your Academy and download the outputs of our workshops.
Your Academy Director and lead tutor is Danny Meadows-Klue: Danny@DigitalStrategyConsulting.com
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Welcome to your Digital Training Academy: a great way to boost your knowledge and skills, helping you and your team get the most from digital marketing, publishing and communications.
All of us here at Digital hope you'll enjoy your Digital Training Academy, but we also hope you'll instantly be able to achieve more in your firm.
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Blogging has moved from the fringes of the web to the mainstream. Over the last few years, collectively audiences have swelled, and this download of data from Digital's friends at NetRatings, you can see the latest traffic numbers for some of the key blogs and platforms.
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Here is the place you can discuss issues with your tutor and other Academy participants
When you have been completing your exercises, is there anything that you’d like to share or reflect upon? Is there something that wasn’t clear or you’d like someone else’s views on? Is there a new point you would like to make about this aspect of digital communication? Are there any new issues that you have discovered now you are applying your knowledge? Use this space to make your comments and to ask your questions. If there’s a particular Academy Lesson, then try to include the title in your comment. Otherwise, simply putting the concept at the start will help other participants find the topics they are interested in more easily.
The classroom is open after the Academy, and for the first two weeks, tutors regularly visit to answer your questions.
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Ben Saunders is a record-breaking polar explorer and by his own admission an "extreme blogger". From the North Pole he wrote to millions using his blog, a PDA, a matchstick and a satellite phone. While achieving the record for the fastest solo walk to the North Pole, Ben was able to keep up to date with the progress. In this edition of Digital Thought Leaders he tells how he did it.
Blogs are the most diverse of digital publishing platforms. They can be harnessed by anyone, anywhere for almost any publishing reason. Ben's blogs demonstrate their power both to amplify an offline event and to make intimate connections with millions.
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Blogging is one of the most intimate and persuasive communication tools, yet why do most blogs fail to get readers and most readers fail to engage with blogs? In a channel that’s free to use and can transform the perception of a brand, why is much of the content copied and pasted from press releases and given scant attention by marketing teams? Get it right and blogs can transform customer communication into deep and immersive dialogue that changes brand image, conveys complex information and builds a buzz that gets customers talking and taking your messages further. From business to business and high tech, to corporate social responsibility and crisis management, blogs can be at the heart of integrated marketing communications. In today’s rich digital landscape they can form the anchor of a social media strategy, and harness email, RSS and feeds to build regular customer contact. Digital marketing veteran Danny Meadows-Klue leads this intensive Digital Training Academy (advanced level) which includes a marketing planning workshop that will help you turn these ideas into a structured plan for your business.
Materials: Materials are restricted to participants.
Bookings: To apply for a place email our events team.
In this Intensive one day Academy, you’ll learn the answers to these key questions:
What are blogs and how do they work?
How do your own blogs fit into the marketing mix?
How do independent blogs fit into the marketing mix?
Why do some blogs gain traction quickly with audiences?
Why does writing for blogs demand a new approach?
What are the tricks in getting blog marketing right?
What are the risks brands need to avoid?
What are the success factors that need to be in place?
Which models can convert blog activity into leads or sales?
What’s the right model for your firm?
How can your next product launch or brand build be accelerated through blogging?
How can you build an engine for developing regular quality content?
Digital Training Academy learning outcomes
You’ll come away with a deeper understanding of the theory as well as scores of practical ideas, including:
A deeper knowledge of the processes behind marketing through blogs
A new way of reading the social landscape blogs live within
An understanding of the social media models and their relationship to blogging content
Who should attend?
This intensive one day Digital Training Academy is geared to the needs of:
Client side brand marketers and marketing directors
Corporate communications directors
Campaign planners and strategic planners in agencies
Media owners with blog content
Specialists in blog and social media marketing
Creatives developing communication for blogs
What’s an ‘Advanced’ level Digital Training Academy?
This level is intended for marketers who already have some experience of digital marketing and want to accelerate their use of blogs in marketing. To get the most from an Advanced programme at the Digital Training Academy we recommend participants have at least 18 months experience in digital marketing.
What did previous Academy Graduates say about this programme?
''I thought the tutor was fantastic, guiding us through the material very well indeed.''
“It wasn't a bleak, 'left-on-your-own' or -work with a partner process, which can really put people off trying, everyone was individually thinking through their own plans and ideas, encouraged by the rest of the class/tutors''
“'The best parts? The exercise on formulating a marketing plan and the constant hints and tips at every stage”
''What did I most enjoy? The whole thing really – it made me very determined to set up a blog for the business which I think is the vital message that came across''
Want to know more?
If you’re unsure about whether this is the right Academy (or the right level for you) then email our Academy Managers with your questions: AcademyManager@DigitalTrainingAcademy.com
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This is a mobile blogging site that set out to create the UK’s first ‘comprehensive map of public art’. The Big Art Mob is a web-based resource and community ahead of Channel 4’s Big Art Project television series. 'Mobile blogging' was brought in to enable the sending of photos, text and other media direct from a mobile phone to appear within seconds on their website.]]>
The Big Art Mob invites people to help make the first comprehensive map of public art across the UK by sending photos, text, video and audio to do with public art from their mobile phones. Using a combination of Google Maps, a geo-coding facility and 'tags' (i.e. labels/keywords) created by the senders and viewers alike, these photos and moblog 'posts' will collectively form an interactive map to celebrate and preserve the country's wealth of public art.
What makes the collective effort particularly engaging is that it has a strong interpretive dimension – users have to decide what 'public art' actually is: how far does it extend beyond the sculptures that first come to mind? does graffiti count? does it have to be inanimate? The Big Art Mob is intended to encourage enjoyable discussion about the nature and definition of public art – from figurative sculpture through the architectural and digital to street art.
Adam Gee, Channel 4 's commissioning editor, New Media, explained that: "There's no comprehensive map of the UK's public art, simply because there's so much of it. But now, with a combination of networked media and people power, for the first time it's an achievable public challenge. As well as documenting the richness and diversity of our public art, the Big Art Mob will highlight the fun of moblogging and provide the base for a lively, visually-oriented, UK-centred arts community."
The Big Art Moblog is part of the Channel's Big Art Project which will trace the evolution of six public artworks from the commissioning and funding process through to the installation. This highly ambitious, ground-breaking television series is planned for broadcast in 2008.
This is the first UK TV project to launch its interactive dimension and integrate community networks so long before TV broadcast – a full year in advance. It is also the first use of mobile blogging technology by a major UK broadcaster.
The mobile blogging technology behind Big Art Mob has been developed by moblogUK, the technology arm of popular mobile blogging site, moblogUK. Users upload images with the name of the artist and the artwork (if they know) as well as the location. Visitors to the site can also add and edit tags to help complete any missing information.
"moblogUK Technology are very pleased to be able to offer Channel 4 our mobile blogging platform for this excellent public project", says Alfie Dennen, Co Founder, moblogUK. "The broad scope of this project shows that mobile blogging is consumer ready. With the market conditions of lowered costs in sending unique content from handsets to the web, and consumers readiness to use the higher end functions on their handsets, this project is a great example of how brands, broadcasters and businesses can use mobile blogging in a meaningful way."
Exercise
Blogging moved from the margins to the mainstream of digital publishing around 2003, changing the way firms could relate to their customers, and offering the potential to transform the role of corporate communications. By developing their own blogs, or carefully raising discussion and comment on those run by others, brands can extend their footprint and reach wider audiences. It can be an exceptionally powerful, cost-effective and intimate way of developing a message, but comes with real risks and limitations. The digital networked society has given a voice to anyone, and this democratisation of access to discussion creates a new landscape for messaging. It’s a powerful reminder of the new era of communications we all work in, and getting it right demands strategic thinking and a sustainable plan, as well as authenticity and tenacity. This Digital Insight Report explores how and why this is the case, and gets you thinking about how you might be able to harness blogging for your brands.
From Digital’s Blogging Academy, here’s a simple lesson to familiarise yourself with the process of blogging in the context of one of the leading online newspapers. The Guardian (UK) was one of the first to really appreciate the role of blogging and the power it has to change the nature of communication. As a newspaper, they overcame the challenge of defining the barrier between editorial staff and readers, but creating a simple system of comment and participation. To get the most from your Digital Training Academy follow these steps to look at one of their first blog spaces.
]]> Exercise instructions:Open up the slideshow seminar and follow along to see screen by screen how blogging throughout the day builds a story and reader interest.
The Guardian’s Culture Vulture blog was one of the first, running up to October 2006 before their blogs expanded further. It holds important lessons for publishers and in these downloadable seminar notes, we recap how its fresh approach to publishing engaged viewers around its content, increasing readership and revenues at the same time. In this seminar we show you how its fresh approach to publishing engaged viewers around its content, increasing readership and revenues at the same time.
Download exercise: Get up to speed with the steps in blogging
1. Find a blog you are comfortable commenting on: as your tutor I’ve set one up that we use for training – you can comment on any of the posts, and I if you are nervous then I can edit out the comments later if you don’t feel comfortable. The test blog is at http://meadows-klue.blogs.com
2. Think about what you want to say: maybe it’s a comment of endorsement to the point, maybe it’s something you disagree with, maybe there’s an alternative perspective you have, or maybe there’s a link to something else on the web that you’ve seen.
3. How long? Comments can range from very short one-liners to extensive posts of several hundred words; maybe try just a couple of short comments first of all.
4. Use a word processor first if you like… Many blogging engines will not have spelling and grammar checkers built in, so if you’re uncomfortable about writing straight into the posting fields then copy and paste from a word processor.
5. Manners: just remember these are other people’s spaces you’re commenting in, so always be courteous, stay on-topic and treat other participants with respect.
Aim to make five blog comments before the face-to-face part of your Digital Training Academy, and remember that the http://meadows-klue.blogs.com is a safe environment where content can be removed afterwards. For example, there’s a post we’ve written here, about Snowbooks: http://meadows-klue.blogs.com/meadowsklue_on_media/2007/09/snowbookscom-sm.html and one here, about how blogging is changing newspapers: http://meadows-klue.blogs.com/meadowsklue_on_media/2007/05/is_this_the_fut.html and the role of blogging in micro firms: http://meadows-klue.blogs.com/meadowsklue_on_media/2007/03/should_sole_tra.html
http://meadows-klue.blogs.com/meadowsklue_on_media/2007/03/should_sole_tra.html
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As hundreds of thousands of small British firms start to harness the power of the web to get customers, maintain relationships and sell direct, this simple guide provides a checklist of practical steps many have found useful. Every firm can benefit from online marketing, and as the techniques have matured, they've become simple to use.
In this video we see how you can add a blog feed to a Facebook profile, enabling you to disperse your content further.]]>
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