Newcastle businesses, media & agencies dipping toes into the social media pond
12Jan09

Originally uploaded by kate e. did

Originally uploaded by kate e. did

Ever so slowly they are starting to emerge. Businesses, media and agencies in the Newcastle area are starting to toy with the idea of using social media in their marketing and communications.

When Gordon and I started exploring social media on behalf of Sticky 2 years ago it was barely heard of in Newcastle. Mid way though 2008 we struggled to find many people in the region on Twitter, and still very few blogs were emanating from the corporate world.

But now they are emerging. And I think 2009 might see rapid growth of the Newcastle corporate social media community.

Here are some Newcastle businesses using social media. Feel free to add your business to the list:

Sticky Advertising

3 blogs ranked in Top 50 Australian Marketing blogs, Stickyads, Media Hunter, The Marketer

Strong Twitter presence with @mediahunter, @themarketeraus, @miatch19, @amiliz

Plus numerous other SM sites

Companion Credit Union

We Are Listening blogsite for member and community feedback

Starting to use Twitter

Greater Building Society

tentatively started using Twitter with @the greater but only 1 update so far

SNOBS

Citizen journalist type blog site using multiple SM platforms and Twitter @SNOBed

NBN Television

supplying news feds via Twitter @nbnnews

Peach Advertising

a traditional Newcastle advertising agency who has included a blog site with their newest website

Rosie’s School of Rock

Music school using website, Facebook, Myspace and Twitter extensively

iPrime

This is a network wide initiative from Prime Media with local focuses. Mainly a straight site with some blogging.

Hunter Business Chamber

Using a Typepad blog site for announcements and feedback.

Newcastle City Council (Visitors Centre)

Using a Facebook account with nearly 8000 fans

Heritage Motors

Have a blog site for their Voice Over Guy character. Also occasionally on Twitter.

OurPatch Newcastle

A national site with regional community windows.  Also using Twitter

I have refrained from listing every web design business in Newcastle. There are many of these, and most decent ones have begun doing social media in some way as you would expect. I am more interested in the corporates and mainstream agencies.

Please send me links to more Newcastle and Hunter businesses who have dipped their toes into social media so we can build a more detailed list for everyone to see.

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6 Responses to “Newcastle businesses, media & agencies dipping toes into the social media pond”

I get a sense that there are two tipping poitns happening simultaneously.

The people who are behind the early adopters but ahead of the mainstream (I bet there’s a really good word for them) are just beginning to take to Twitter, in the same way that Facebook suddenly took off here in Australia about 15 months ago.

And people who dipped their toes in the water with blogs, then went away are coming back. It feels like there’s a second wave.

All that means that (cliche as it is to say it) I think 2009 is the year social media will become a mainstream marketing tool.

Cheers,

Tim

Comment by Tim Burrowes on January 12th, 2009

Tim
I think thats a pretty good observation. The other aspect that comes into play is the lag in take-up in regional areas. Just as Australia is behind the US in social media, regional centres such as Newcastle are behind capital cities in adopting SM.

But it seems to be starting.

Comment by Craig Wilson on January 12th, 2009

Have a look at http://www.ourpatch.com.au/newcastle it’s a local business with a lot of social media functionality. We aggregate Flickr and Twitter for Newcastle and will soon be aggregating other sites. There are also forums, groups.

Comment by SImon on January 13th, 2009

Interesting list, though I wonder if this isn’t a SMB / big business issue rather than a regional one?

I still think social media has the most potential for small businesses.

Comment by Gavin Heaton on January 13th, 2009

Gavin,

To be honest when I started compiling this list I thought I was going to find more businesses than this in the Newcastle area using SM. Its been interesting to see some of the bigger boys come out to play but then quickly disappear, while smaller businesses have stuck in there and are starting to see dividends.

Nevertheless, I would like to see this list grow substantially in 2009.

Comment by Craig Wilson on January 13th, 2009

Nice to see this. I had the pleasure of meeting @SNOBed and @kyliesmiley at a recent impromptu tweetup. Hopefully we may see more interaction online and offline, or as a friend calls it in “the meat world”. ;-)

Comment by Lindy Asimus on January 15th, 2009

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