Archive for Web media
Why I want to see marine protected areas in the Bay of Islands
March 21st, 2011 • Comments Off Conservation online, Copywriting, Social media, Web media
Tags: bay of islands, conservation, green issues, marine reserve, Marketing
Water is not my “natural” element.
I’m quite scared of water, truth be told, and seem only to be able to deal with this fear by forcing myself into situations where I face it square on: sailing fast across deep water that I would never dare swim in; snorkelling in silence in those dark and frightening nooks and crannies; facing pounding surf that bruises my body and fills my nose with brine. Just last night I dreamt I was swimming on the shore line, totally encompassed by pink and orange fish and scratchy seaweed: I was terrified and enchanted at the same time.
Marine science is a mystery to me.
I couldn’t tell you the representative habitat types of our local marine environment (other than the kina barren, an unnatural habitat type that we see in abundance in the Bay of Islands) nor could I list the most commonly occurring fish in the Bay, other than snapper and, once upon a time, kahawai, hapuka, cray.
I don’t know how to fish, but wish I did. I’d put the big and little ones back and take only enough for my table.
So why, from this curious non-position, have I been so caught up in the Fish Forever campaign for marine sanctuaries in the Bay of Islands?
The answer to this is because I abhor the apathy of the status quo. I object to the idea that we can’t change things; that we’re too late, so the only option is to shrug our collective shoulders and move on in the same direction. Further, I cringe at the human-focused view of the world that puts man at the centre with his tentacles splayed out, mindlessly sucking the lifeblood out of every other natural occurring phenomena to ensure his longevity. The world is a resource to be used and discarded.
It’s the “I’m alright Jack” mentality.
Of course I’m speaking of those fortunate enough to have their basic needs for food, warmth, shelter met. Further, I’m speaking of those lucky enough to be educated, to have choice, to have leisure.
If you’re reading this far, I can pretty much guarantee you don’t consider yourself in the “I’m alright Jack” camp, you’d have turned your eyes heavenward by now hit the red cross in the top right hand corner. I will also hazard a guess that you are among the fortunate ones with an educated mind and well nourished body with the leisure to cruise the internet in between jobs.
In which case, you actually ARE the target of my rant (as am I, I’m not off the hook by any means). YOU are probably the one most at risk of apathy because conscientiousness alone isn’t enough. Awareness isn’t sufficient to make change.
Only the actions we take can we commit ourselves and our future to a different path than Mr and Mrs “I’m alright Jack”.
And that’s why I have been campaigning with an amazing team of volunteers for Fish Forever. Because I believe that individuals can change things. Because, while water is not my natural element, I find our ocean a source of spiritual greatness and I believe that humans have exploited that great vulnerable giant enough.
It may not be my fault, or your fault, or any individual fault. But as a species, we’re guilty. It is the fault of governments making sloppy short-term decisions with their splayed out tentacles that have far reaching effects. But these are governments that we elect, who should be accountable to the people. And therein lies my point – somebody has to start to take account. It has to be the people, and that is you and I.
Please visit www.fishforever.org.nz and get involved while you have a chance.
Please sign the people’s mandate to protect 10% of the geographical area of the Bay of Islands to be protected as no-take marine sanctuaries, with generational review.
And please, most important of all, if you know the Bay of Islands in the Far North of New Zealand, support the tireless work of the Fish Forever volunteers by contributing your views to the areas that should be optioned as marine sanctuaries.
We @Wantmorefish!
January 3rd, 2011 • Comments Off Conservation online, Copywriting, Marketing, Social media, Web media
Tags: campaign, conservation, marine reserve, Social media, website
For Langford Ink, these past six months have disappeared in a flurry of marine conservation work. In June 2010, a marine protection campaign was launched in the Bay of Islands. The aim: to establish a network of 100% no-take zones for a generation.
The campaign is called Fish Forever.
To be successful, Fish Forever needs to talk to the community: first, to promote awareness that there’s a problem and generate inspiration to engage with the issue, then to motivate the community to make a difference.
Langford Ink has managed the development of the brand identity for Fish Forever, project-managed the campaign website www.fishforever.org.nz along with the talented Dean Wright and set up and maintained an online persona to engage with our internet-based audience. This a review of where we’ve got to as we enter 2011.
Twitter first
Although New Zealand is a slow adopter of Twitter compared to other westernised nations, I decided that the very first place we needed to find friends was here.
@Wantmorefish came before Fish Forever, before the website and before the Facebook page. At first, I was concerned that having a different ‘handle’ to the main campaign name might be detrimental to the brand identity. Subsequently I decided it is a benefit – it provides a distinction between the group campaign (Fish Forever) and a real-life individual: @Wantmorefish can have opinions; Fish Forever plows a more politically-sensitive furrow.
Followers on Twitter are steadily increasing with time – no massive explosion of popularity but consistency in posting is rewarded. The audience is both homegrown NZ (@marinecentreNZ in Opua, @ranui_organics in Kawakawa) and, excitingly, global with follower-friends from places as far afield as Santa Monica (@thedailyocean) and Amsterdam (@NoFishLeft). The power of Twitter to communicate is mind blowing. However, it remains only a vehicle. It won’t magically get you donations, members, kudos: you have to do the groundwork and generate great content regularly.
There are some interesting avenues to pursue in the new year to achieve real measurable results from our Twitter campaigning that can help our community consultation and fund raising. The first of these is a #nzcommschat planned between @LangfordInk and other local communications tweeters (@AdageBusiness, @comment8tor) to explore how Twitter can be harnessed for the good of non-profit. Also, the Fish Forever web team is planning projects that can cross over from our website through the various social media platforms, into real life and back again.
In October 2010, Malcolm Gladwell got a few people worked up with his article on the ineffectiveness of social media with its ‘weak ties’ to drive people to real-time social activism: Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted. This article was brilliant for getting the bloggers, tweeters and Facebook fanatics to take a look at their objectives and debate about the concrete merits of their virtual world. @RWW gives a great summary here of the article and, needless to say, there are plenty of comments after to illustrate the popular viewpoints of the online community.
My view is that Twitter is far-reaching in scope but limited in depth; it has given the Fish Forever campaign an audience of like-minded groups across the globe and it has been an invaluable source of information about the ocean, marine science and conservation. It is heart-lifting to visualise (or ‘virtualise’?) the sheer volume of people who have a genuine commitment to protecting the world’s oceans. Last time I checked, @Wantmorefish was pretty excited about the prospects for marine conservation in 2011.
…then Facebook
Originally I didn’t want to be responsible for the Facebook page. The problem of washing my hands of this task was consistency: the Facebook page had to tie in with Twitter and the website. Given that I generate news items for the website by talking to our network of experts who support Fish Forever – items which I then tweet – I am also best-placed to manage the Facebook page to avoid double-handling. Eventually, I conceded that having jumped in at the deep end of online interaction, I now had to wear it. And it’s quite fun…
We have a growing number of ‘likers’ – 190 at last count I believe (good in-road, a long way to go). Facebook has far more penetration in New Zealand than Twitter so we can reach a good chunk of the local audience. We can put images up here, we can share other people’s news items from their Facebook pages, we can have a bit of fun with our comments and chat informally to supporters.
Facebook is intimate without being revealing. Hopefully, we engage on a more emotional level than we do on Twitter and through the more formal face of the campaign website.
What will 2011 bring for the Fish Forever online campaign?
We will continue to develop our campaign website quietly in the background and hopefully source funds to do the more major structural changes that will become necessary as the campaign evolves. We hope to connect with the extraordinary resource of www.marinenz.org.nz – the people who populate this site include some of New Zealand’s most knowledgeable and enthusiastic advocates for marine conservation. They have 1000s of unique visitors per day and could be the most influential connection we make in our online activities. This is something to plan carefully for and engage in fully.
From the web developments, our activities on Twitter and Facebook will become more diverse – key to a successful online persona is relevant and varied content. My two least favourite things about Twitter are: i) people repeating the same mantra over and over (@Wantmorefish tries hard to avoid this trap) and ii) people flooding my twitter stream with inanities, simply to have “presence”. [Notoriously @unmarketing tweeted once a minute as an experiment back in the early days, starting with 140 characters about his tuna sandwich. He fast became a leading exponent of social media, suggesting that saturation can be effective. However, he is #interesting and #hasabrain ... and if you're not familiar with the #funbutridiculous habit of the hashtaggers, you better join Twitter to find out more.]
On a serious parting note, Fish Forever has big ambitions for 2011, both online and – more importantly – offline in real time. The team has a big job to do: many important conversations to get teeth into, many complicated arguments and obstacles to overcome in the political arena, one big cash-rich player to negotiate with/battle and much funding to be sourced. You can help by a) joining up here b) signing our mandate here and c) by sponsoring us here.
Please join us in our fight for Fish Forever in 2011.
Boat builder of 25 years launches exclusive furniture range
November 18th, 2010 • Comments Off Marketing, Web media
Master craftsman Craig McInnes is well known in the Bay of Islands for his boat building skills and custom timberwork. After 25 years of exquisite craftsmanship within the nautical industry, Craig has adapted his specialist skills to produce a range of furniture that also can be seen as practical art pieces – comfortable, stylish, custom-built in native timbers and finished in Italian leather in a range of colours.
Craig launched the range of furniture, including a lounger, a chair and side table, at Auckland Home Show and received glowing feedback: “We have had interest from a number of high end retailers and galleries” says Craig of the launch; commentators observed that the furniture would look at home in the top-end urban homes of New York, London or Milan.
Alongside the adult furniture range, the Seedlings range is a practical timber furniture range and building-block set designed for children. No plastic, no gimmicks, strong shapes, durable timber – perfect for use at home, in schools and kindergartens.
To find out more contact info@cmcdesign.co.nz or visit the website www.cmcdesign.co.nz
Launching www.kitchensandcabinets.co.nz
June 16th, 2010 • Comments Off Graphic Design, Marketing, Web media
Join the conversation about fish
May 2nd, 2010 • Comments Off Conservation online, Social media, Web media
Talk to www.marinereserve.co.nz and get involved in the dialogue.
Where have all the fish gone?
Are you just an accommodation provider?
April 25th, 2010 • Comments Off Marketing, SEO, Web media
Or do you offer a more complete holiday experience?
Kerikeri Court Motel has introduced an interesting element to their website by including an Insider page – Our Town – which tells potential visitors about some of the gems within Kerikeri Township and the wider Bay of Islands. The inclusion of this page shows a level of care and attention; you’ve bothered to think about your favourite things to do in the area and share them with your guests. They list the local wineries, favourite cafes, a beautiful DoC walk as well as links to the cinema website and the Centre. This ‘extra mile’ might well from a crucial point of difference between you and your competition, helping you to convert a website hit to a guest booking.
It also provides links out of the site which can potentially be turned into incoming links (you scratch my back…). Furthermore it means that your website is packed full of keywords that are used meaningfully to describe your region, which does no harm to your search engine rating.
This simple exercise is about “leveraging” your website – making the most of the tools available to expand your audience.
End of the Line
March 16th, 2010 • Comments Off Conservation online, Social media
Last night I watched a movie about fish and was reminded that we won’t be finding Nemo for much longer if we keep doing what we’re doing to our oceans.
That’s not a criticism of the guys out fishing for their dinner or local fishermen bringing in the dinner for their communities. It’s those huge trawlers raping the oceans of whatever’s there for our insatiable appetite for neat, tidy supermarket fish, be it breaded and frozen, fresh from the deli counter or jarred and capsuled as omega 3 brain food. It’s the fact that we only protect 0.6% of our ocean, leaving over 99% open to huge scale commercial fishing and, within that 99%, the quota is many times what it should be to maintain a healthy virgin biomass.
The fish shop in the sea is a finite resource; we’re using it faster than it can replenish itself and it is going to run out. Won’t we look stupid then?
Yes, it’s old news. Everyone has already been sickened by the fact that bluefin tuna has been fished virtually to extinction. We know that whales are still killed ‘for research’. And we’re perfectly aware of the damage that bottom trawling does in terms of collateral damage (did you know that trails from the trawlers can be seen from space?).
But the problem is not being solved. Evidence says that we’re on a trajectory to nothing, that’s NOTHING, in our oceans by somewhere around 2048. No more fish. Just jellyfish and worms.
This award-winning film, End of the Line released in June 2009, is going to be shown in The Centre, Kerikeri soon. I will announce the date here once it’s confirmed. Until then, here’s a taster:
Waikokopu Cafe @ www.waikokopu.co.nz
March 12th, 2010 • Comments Off Copywriting, Graphic Design, Marketing, Web media
For a simple, low budget website visit Waikokopu Cafe at www.waikokopu.co.nz. This was designed in photoshop using a well-balanced but simple grid as a template. The style very much conforms to Waikokopu’s existing brand identity (see here for a sample of recent artwork), using fresh green colours, some classic location shots mixed up with foodie images. The psd file is then sliced and coded. It uses Typolight as the CMS so it’s straightforward to update. Once the site has had a good dose of search engine optimisation – both by the developer and by the client getting their URL out to all the relevant sites to generate some traffic – this site will become an effective marketing tool.
Creeping back from death’s door via the internet
March 10th, 2010 • Comments Off Social media, Uncategorized
I’ve had a bad cold this week. It’s been so bad that I’ve confined myself to the house for two days. I had intended to do all the admin jobs that I pretend don’t exist when I’m healthy and busy busy busy. However, feeling crap turned out to be an equally good excuse to pretend they don’t exist.
Instead, I’ve turned my sedentary week into a research week. Trawling the internet for all the business gurus, marketing experts and social media ‘executives’ who might help me to do what I do better, which in turn will help my clients do what they do better.
That’s the theory at least. So in the name of business research I’ve been caught in a whirlwind of social media antics, including twittering (see Tweet to whoo to find out how twittery I’ve been – on reflection that should read ‘woo’, I’m not as clever as I thought) and much blog reading of a great deal of ‘experts’ who’ve written books and such like that you don’t need to bother to read now because their soundbites and blogbytes are probably just as informative, more interesting and don’t take up so much time.
Do I sound cynical? I don’t mean to, much.
There really is a wealth of useful stuff available out there. Go look at my blog roll to follow some awesome, intelligent social creatures who seem to have great insight into the workings of the human brain as well as tremendous command of the internet. These guys have thousands of twitter followers [not as many as Stephen Fry though] and if you don’t know the importance of that you definitely need to read their blogs.
It’s just that I’m left feeling a little empty by this gig, probably because it’s just you and a computer and suddenly your partner’s hard day teaching children to engage with the world isn’t all that interesting…and that’s WRONG.
So what have I learned this week while lurking around death’s door? Let’s have a think:
- That understanding the presence of social media marketing is essential in today’s business world; if you don’t want to participate, that’s fine, but not knowing about it is very uncool. To know about it and give it the two fingers (if you can afford to) is, on the other hand, pretty damn cool.
- That you must select with great care the blogs and twitters you follow. Find some valuable ones and stick to them for a while. Don’t follow too many. Make sure they’re not all saying the same thing – it saps your energy and feels like watching every soap opera in the TV listings. Throw some totally unrelated ones in there to help broaden your perspective. If you find a healthy selection of intelligent blogs covering a few areas of your business interest, you’re in business…so to speak.
- That maintaining a blog is generally a Good Idea but only if you have something interesting to say (subjective) and if you can construct a reasonable sentence. It’s an opportunity to be a real person and to put personality into your business without doing that icky promotional thing in person (i.e. being a real person at the same time as not being a real person).
- That Facebook is insidious and addictive. It makes you vulnerable, is less useful than twitter (gasp) and you can’t quite put it down.
- That LinkedIn is still a mystery. Working on it (thanks Social Media Examiner, I’ll be checking out your tutorial shortly).
I conclude my simplistic summation of social media madness by sending you to read Amy Mengel’s musings on the subject.
Ok, I’m off to re-examine my blogroll…
Everyone’s talking about the little BIG things.
March 9th, 2010 • Comments Off Copywriting, Marketing, Social media
Chris Brogan suggests Tom Peter’s should trademark the exclamation point. He also sings the praises of Tom’s new book. Seth Godin also rates The Little BIG Things in his list of books for idea people and describes Tom Peter’s as a daily habit of his. If you want to shake up your assumptions about business and marketing, these three – Chris, Seth and Tom – are a pretty good place to begin. At least, that’s where I’m starting…I’ll keep you posted.