Austin, Texas

Tony Hsieh is CEO of Zappos.com the world’s largest online shoe retailer.

Approx half the room has purchased from Zappos. 2-1 Female/male buyer ratio.

(I’m sitting near Darryl Orht from Plaid.)

Tony originally co-founded another dot com that was sold to Microsoft. Left when lost desire to turn up to work.

Zappos was a company he invested in (one of several) then decided to work in.

Zappos is about the brand and excellent customer service. Doesn’t see it staying as a shoe retailer only. Could be an airline in the future.

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Popularity: 1%

Next week I fly out to the US for a series of conferences, meetings and deal-making. The trip includes the South By South West Interactive (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas and the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco.

I’ll be using this blog to report back on the latest news, announcements and activities in the world of media and marketing and advertising observations in the USA. I will also be including a big dose of the latest relevant tech news.

I will try to update as frequently as possible with photos, interviews and coverage of the main events. Of course, I will be on Twitter with plenty of chatter, but the blog will have the broader stories and details.

There might be some cool surprises too as a few big names are lined up for a chat.

Some of the coverage will be online at Marketing Magazine as Kate and the team at Niche have asked me to send some reports back for them too.

The entire trip has been arranged online using a multitude of sites and technologies, so I will try to detail how technology and social media played a part in each aspect of the trip.

So please subscribe to the RSS feed in the top right hand corner to stay in touch. And send me a Tweet or comment if you’d like to know anything in particular or have a question for anyone I happen to talk to.

Popularity: 5%

British blogger Neil Perkin has done it again. He has created a presentation (with the help of many of the world’s best marketing thinkers) that goes to the core of the social media ethos. A Presentation About Community, by the Community is essential viewing for brands and marketers trying to make sense of the new digital world order. For more great thinking and presentations, please take the time to visit Neil’s blog Only Dead Fish.

Popularity: 1%

I receive on average 4 to 5 job applications per week, every week of the year.

• 90% come via email.

• About 70% are actually addressed to me (rather than Dear Sir/Madam).

• Over 90% seem to be carbon copies of the same resume format, with the same information / qualifications.

• 99.5% get placed in an email file for future reference.

Funny thing is, despite having a growing agency and hiring numerous staff over the last few years…only one of these people has even gotten an interview.

Why?

Two reasons I can think of….

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Popularity: 16%

Yesterday Australian social media strategist and blogger Laurel Papworth created a “flame war” online when she singled out the English speaking world’s number one marketing blogger Seth Godin for not publishing comments on his site.

Seth Godin, for the benefit of the rare few who haven’t heard of him, is a longtime blogger, web company founder and author of over a dozen books who has helped popularize Web 2.0 marketing styles via his innovative thinking and writing.

Laurel Papworth’s issue with Godin is primarily that he doesn’t allow or publish comments on his phenomenally popular blog. She claims “No Comments? Not a blog!” Then says:

Please remove Seth Godin from the Advertising Age Power 150 top spot? It’s not really a blog if there’s no comments and it’s also not playing fairly.

Not really a blog? Not playing fairly? Does that mean there are now rules we have to follow?

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Popularity: 1%

Its been a while since I have looked at the AdAge rankings. Since it launched around 18 months ago, the AdAge Power 150 has been one of the best lists of marketing and media bloggers in the world. It has introduced me to some great online talent and been the source of some sensational information. In short, you could do worse than spend a little time getting acquainted with some of the names on this list.

What has been noticeable to me is the number of Australian based blogs that have clawed their way up the Power 150 in the last year. Considering the size of Australia (22 million) and geographic distance from the rest of the world, Australian bloggers have managed to be noticed in numbers. I guess that’s the beauty of the internet and the way social media makes networking and communication so easy.

So I thought I would take the time to introduce you to the Aussies making blogging waves around the world as per their current AdAge 150 Rank. These rankings change weekly so the numbers might be different when you check, but the quality speaks for itself.

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Popularity: 1%

When I set out to determine the best Australian media and marketing blog post of the year, The Moggy, I didn’t realise what a difficult task it would be.

Firstly there were dozens of great nominations, some by the authors, most from readers, that I had to sift through in order to whittle down to a worthy Top 10. That itself was a challenge as I wished to display the wide variety of blogging styles and content. I am sure that some might disagree with the final ten, but I was satisfied that it was representative of the quality and variety in the Australian blogosphere.

I enlisted the help of three judges who were involved in the media and marketing blogging community and had journalistic background. Mark Chenery (ex-Adnews), Kate Kendall (Marketing Magazine) and Mark Jones (ex-IT editor for AFR) then scored each of the Top 10 finalists looking at the quality of the post and the contribution to media and marketing discussion online.

proudly supporting The Moggy Awards

I thought that would have produced a clear winner, but when I tallied the scores it became apparent that 2 posts were well in front of the rest but still locked together. A tie breaker was needed. Fortunately, I had formulated an additional criteria in case it came down to this. Rather than me deciding which of the final two I preferred (and they are both very good for very different reasons) my criteria would be to look at the reaction both posts created. After all, a well written piece that few people read or respond to isn’t one which is making a significant contribution to the conversation.

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Popularity: 39%

The Australia media and marketing blogosphere has been boosted this month by the beta-launch of mUmBRELLA. Former B&T Magazine editor Tim Burrowes is behind this excellent new source of information.

Popularity: 1%

After being inundated with dozens of entries for the inaugural Moggy Awards for the best media and marketing blog post of 2008, I have managed to whittle down the entries to a Top Ten. This was no easy task due to the high quality of most entries. Some bloggers were nominated several times as well, so I had to make a judgement call on which was the best post to consider.

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Popularity: 6%

Media Hunter has evolved substantially throughout 2008. Feedback and page view results help me determine the type of content that is well-received and which is a waste of time.

I have also switched from Typepad to WordPress mid-year with a much improved layout and design, which I hope has made Media Hunter and better reader experience.

Finally, I succumbed to the temptations of Twitter which has become a source of news, content and publicity for the site. As a result Media Hunter has grown and hopefully improved.

So as the year draws to a close I thought I’d look back on which have been the most popular or best received posts of 2008. Its not just about the number of hits though, because I could just include a picture of Paris Hilton or Britney Spears to get more hits…but that would be really beneficial to you or me.

1. A turning point in media & marketing history (The run away leader)

2. That noise you’re hearing, that’s the sound of a marketing revolution

3. NEWFM “dreaming” of ratings success (only really for Newcastle audience)

4. Social media success stories: Zappos (one of a series of interviews)

5. The rise & rise of micro media

6. A web 2.0 president? (resulted in an Adnews story by Mark Chenery)

Thanks to everyone for reading, RSS feeding, linking and commenting this year.

Popularity: 1%