Media140 hit Perth last week to a packed house of social media enthusiasts. While everyone agreed the networking was fantastic, many people felt like no new ground had been covered. Read this post to discover why Sarah Mitchell from Global Copywriting was humming along to the Troggs and getting excited about social media all over again.

I attended the Media140, exploring the future of the Real-Time Social Web conference in Perth on Thursday, 25 February. Billed as “Brands, Marketing & Communications in the Real-Time Social Web”, I booked an early-bird ticket without really knowing what to expect. I know I wasn’t the only one. I was extremely interested to hear experiences of how other people were using social media. I was also looking forward to meeting the faces behind the avatars I’ve been communicating with for over a year, mostly on Twitter. Held at the Perth Town Hall, at the end of the long day nearly all the attendees were still in their seats. The content of the conference clearly outweighed the physical discomfort created by packing over 300 people and 20 speakers into the second floor of the old building on what turned out to be a sweltering day.

Read the full post at Global Copywriting, Media140 The Troggs, Westpac and Kanye West

Follow Sarah Mitchell on Twitter: @globalcopywrite

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As the year draws to a close, we’re bombarded with lists. Sticking to form, this Global Copywriting BRIEF suggests one thing you can do to help business keep coming through your door in the new year.

Have you noticed there are only 3 kinds of blog posts this week?

·         Top 10 lists for 2009

·         Top 10 Predictions for 2010 lists

·         3 Things to Do Before the New Year

Since this is a BRIEF post, I’m not making a list. Instead, here's one recommendation based on something I discovered in my own business this week.

1)    Review your company profiles – When I launched Global Copywriting last year, I had a clear idea where I fit in the market. With a broad IT background – 15 years in software development followed by 5 years of software sales – I knew I was a natural for writing projects requiring a technical background. I developed profiles for my website, LinkedIn and various company listings reflecting this speciality. Guess what? Most of my business this year has not been related to IT.

John Lennon famously said, “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.” I had planned to do one thing but the market has pushed my business in another direction. Instead of being tightly focused on a niche market, I’ve had work from many different industries. I’m delighted.

Guess what else? I nearly lost a WoM client because the profile for my company on LinkedIn described Global Copywriting as a company that does technical writing. My profile was out of date and no longer represented my business.

Take Away
Take a couple minutes this holiday season to review your profiles for accuracy, especially the ones stored on social media tools. If it’s been more than a year since you last updated them, you could be compromising your own business opportunities with outdated information. When was the last time your reviewed your own marketing collateral?

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from

Follow Sarah Mitchell on Twitter: @globalcopywrite

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Competitor pressures, plummeting sales revenue and outdated marketing strategy are some reasons behind a company’s need to reposition itself and remain financially viable.

Anaezi's Modu's company REBRAND is the global resource for visual examples and case studies on effective brand transformations: the repositioning, revitalizing and redesign of existing brand assets to meet strategic marketing objectives.

Smart marketers evolve their brands over time to keep them relevant. Some do it well, while others become the target of cynical bloggers. To gear your next rebrand for success, sidestep these all-too-common mistakes:

1. Clinging to history.
Rebranding well means staying relevant. Assumptions made when the brand was established may
no longer hold true. Analyze changes in target markets when exploring opportunities for brand
expansion, repositioning and revitalization.
2. Thinking the brand is the logo, stationery or corporate colors.
Brands encompass everything from customer perception and experience to quality, look and feel,
customer care, retail and web environments, the tone and voice of communications, and more.
3. ....

To read the entire article: The Top 20 Mistakes Marketers Make When Rebranding — And How to Avoid Them

More Resources on Rebranding are at: http://www.rebrand.com/news-and-resources

Read MarketingSherpa's How to Rebrand Effectively: Before and After Looks at 5 Award-Winning Rebranding Efforts

Anaezi Modu's WebSite: Rebrand
Anaezi Modu's Twitter: WomanCEO REBRANDing

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Ten years ago, the media buzz was all about Y2K. The predicted “time bomb” fizzled and left a lot of sheepish marketers in a piffft of smoke. The current hype surrounding social media is beginning to resemble the hysteria generated by Y2K over 10 years ago. This post discusses how taking a practical approach to social media will keep business on course.

Social media is a topic generating a huge amount of interest and an equal amount of confusion. The hype surrounding it reminds me, in a way, of the Y2K phenomena that swept the world in the late 1990s. I spent a lot of time speaking about Y2K. My writing career started with the same topic. As hysteria concerning the potential virus mounted, the message I promoted was one of calm and rational thinking. The main points delivered by the company where I was employed, Compuware, were 1) test your applications and 2) get your quality assurance processes in place. I was glad I was on that side of the Y2K debate when the looming “time bomb” turned out to be a fizzle.

Read Sarah Mitchell’s complete post containing highlights of a special report titled: From the Trenches: Practical Advice for Making Social Media Work for Your Business here.

Follow Sarah on Twitter: @globalcopywrite

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Now that white papers have become as common as websites, how are you going to create a unique differentiation for your organization? If you think creating some inexpensive 'all text' white paper is the answer then guess again. This article will provide you with some ideas on how you create a unique and compelling way to differentiate your white papers from those of your competition.

Here’s the link:  http://bit.ly/F7tYf

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Okay, so you’ve produced a great white paper. Now what? How are you going to get that white paper exposed?

While some companies turn to fee-based syndicators, there are a host of free avenues available to you via blogs, Social Media, Twitter, and free document distribution sites.

This post on the White Paper Pundit blog, provides you with five ideas on how you can increase the exposure for your white paper, all without costing you a single dime. To read this post please follow this link: http://bit.ly/13doL7.

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Mention the term “government white paper” and the words “creative”, “engaging”, “effective” and “colorful” aren’t typically used in the same sentence. In fact if you’ve ever had the misfortune of reading a U.S. Government white paper for a research project, you’ve probably realized that little has changed since the medium’s inception in 1922, almost 90 years ago!

This post on the White Paper Pundit blog will show you two examples of recently published government white papers, and how Brits are doing a better job educating their citizens with their white papers than we are in the U.S.

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