i had the pleasure of being asked to host a workshop for the students of the multi platform writing course held in cardiff by cyfle last week. the writers participating on the scheme were some of the best BAFTA award winning television writers in wales, who have credits for doctor who, torchwood and casualty. i felt very insignificant in comparison

the writers came together to launch an online drama series - each have vast experience of writing for different platforms but wanted to learn more about harnessing social media to build a community around the project and to try new tools and techniques to “spread the word” and “gain some love”.

the project that they’re working on is really interesting and turns the traditional drama/film model on it’s head. the concept of the project is that each of the writers comes up with a character, the thread that all pulls them together? a self-help group run by the guru. each of the characters has real world facebook, twitter, myspace accounts and blogs etc. the characters are gaining real world friends and holding conversations - taking the story into real life.

it was really interesting for me to get involved with a project that is challenging the boundaries and merging the lines between online and real world experiences. i drew upon head trauma as a case study for the course which integrates real world gaming, interactive and film. the lead up to the film involved secret screenings, participants had to await tips on twitter, facebook, myspace etc.

the project can be seen at www.breakfree2009.co.uk where each of the new episodes will be posted a couple of times per week. i know that i’ll be eagerly watching to see what happens with the development of the project. thanks to rhys and the guys for making the workshop so enjoyable!

i’ll be posting my slides below, but i’m afraid they’re mainly images, so might not teach you that much… it’s just how i roll

for those of you who haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, the lovely paul boag of boagworld invited me to talk to him about social media and marketing on last week’s podcast.

if you’ve got 20 minutes to spare and fancy hearing my voice for a change, you can check it out here.

thanks to paul for inviting me, i was honoured to be the first interview on marketing… had a blast

everyone’s had it happen to them at some point, whether it’s that homework that the school bully copied or the css being stolen from your site, we’ve all experienced having our hard graft stolen and other people taking the credit for it. infuriating doesn’t even begin to explain the emotions involved when you experience this for the first time, infact come to think of it, at any time.

however what happens when your ideas are stolen when you’re pitching for work? how much should you give away? before now, the focus has been on code that some cheeky blighters have copied and pasted but what about when you’re consulting for strategies and marketing?

you obviously want to go in there prepared, to show that you’ve given THAT specific company thought and attention and that your recommendations are tailored to their needs. but, what happens when you give away lots of your ideas (i.e. specifics that you’d implement and ideas for viral activity) and then they choose not to hire you but implement your ideas themselves?

go in to the pitch with high level ideas and no specifics and you risk looking “fluffy” and without giving any indication of what they’d actually be getting for their money, so where’s the happy balance?

the answer is that i’m still trying to establish this - i want to give good value for money, to show that i know my stuff and to prove that they’ll be getting the personal attention with me that they wouldn’t with a big agency. i guess you just have to accept that you might run in to some rotten apples along the way but it’s all a learning experience and they aren’t the type of people you’d want to be working with anyway.

in my eyes, the most effective projects are those where the company and the consultant are singing from the same hymn sheet… i know for sure that i wouldn’t just put my name to just anything, i work with ethics and i want to work with companies that have ethics too… it’s just such a shame when you give it your heart and soul.

i’d love to get your thoughts…

i’m never happier than when i’m blogging. it’s where i get my fire, it’s what inspires me and it’s what connects me to you fine folk.

it’s been known to happen on more than one occassion that i’ve been on holiday or waiting for a friend in a bar (i try to ensure that doesn’t happen too often) and you’ll find me scrabbling around in my bag to jot down an idea that i’ve had for a blog post or video.

you can understand therefore my sadness when yesterday on the train to london, i settled down with the latest copy of wired ready to geek out only to be faced with the news that blogging is dead. i was sad primarily because not only do i not agree but the article was encouraging people to quit blogging.

if you read the article it refers to jason calacanis stopping his blog earlier this year as he had said that the blogosphere had become too big and impersonal. this can be demonstrated by taking a look at some of the most popular blogs out there at the moment - techcrunch, engadget, treehugger etc. this can mean that the personal blogs that previously had been high google rankers are now being relegated by these sites that can afford to pay professionals to blog mutliple times a day - something the average blogger with a full time job can’t afford the luxury of doing.

however, there’s the thing (and this is just my opinion), those bloggers that are out there maintaining their personal blogs are doing it for their love of writing, for the need to share, to connect with those with similar interests - not for the top google ranking on a topic or internet fame.

the personal blogs that have become popular will more often have not got there because of their passion in the topic and therefore their continued commitment to research and article writing. someone starting a blog in the hope of getting noticed (and for that reason only) will be in for a surprise because it takes a while to get a following and if you’re not really passionate about what you’re writing about, your readers will be able to tell.

the article argues that if you’re looking to express yourself, you can do so using less effort and time with tools such as flickr, twitter and facebook. this assumes however that you’re blogging for recognition or creative output. i would argue that it’s a completely different medium and serves a totally different purpose. whilst they say a picture can speak a thousand words, nothing can replace a well crafted piece of writing (and from a personal point of view - pressing publish when you’ve spent time writing).

on a different note, it’s worth considering company/development blogs too. still to this day when developing community strategies, blogs form a critical part of that strategy. the reason? it’s one of the simplest ways of communicating with your users, of getting feedback, giving a voice to your brand and creating an ongoing conversation (often meaning that you can address current issues immediately rather than the length of time it can often take to update the website etc).

so, mr paul boutin, you wired cynic, this gal may never be a famous blogger, she may never rank number one on google when you search “community“, but she’ll continue to write from the heart, she’ll always be passionate and will always have a genuine connection with her readers that a flickr picture of facebook status could never provide. so there.