Saw a full-page newspaper ad in the Dominion Post in the general news section.

Saw another full-page newspaper ad in the Dominion Post business section.

Scrolled past a promoted video on the launch on Facebook.

Scrolled past a couple of tweets referencing the launch.

Got punched in the face by an eyeblaster ad on the NZ Herald…and then again on Stuff. Tweeted how annoying that was.

Noticed Spark NZ at the top of my iPhone.

Saw the banner ad on Stuff again later, noticed the URL was sparknz.co.nz and wondered why. Decided to check spark.co.nz and I see they’ve got that URL so checked why the URL in the banner ad differed. Turns out sparknz.co.nz is simply an introductory site. Unsure why it’s so different from the actual site and why Spark think online banner clickers should have such a different experience from others? There’s no URL in either of the print ads so I checked the URLs for Telecom and Gen-I and both redirect to new sites. The former to Spark.co.nz.

All up a very clear launch…just didn’t need to use eyeblasters online. That felt very Telecom.

Earlier this week Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers published her 2014 Internet Trends report.

She’s been doing these reports for over a decade now and they’re a fantastic resource for business planners, digital strategists, developers, entrepreneurs and designers…in fact, pretty much anyone in the tech scene.

The report contains 164 slides so I thought I’d summerise my notes made while reading it…

• Print ad media is overvalued. Digital and mobile media is where the eyeballs and advertising opportunities are.
• There is a massive opportunity for mobile friendly education resources.
• The ‘visual web’ is continuing to rise eg Pinterest, Snapchat, Tumblr, Instagram.
• Facebook is leading to people saying less to larger audiences while younger audiences are saying more to smaller groups through apps like Whatsapp and Viber.
• ‘Re-imagining’ is the concept of the now. That is, people capturing data and UX and rethinking how basic things like booking a hotel (AirBNB) or hailing a cab (Uber) can be made better through mobile/web devices and tools.
• Streaming is the future of TV…um…no surprise there.
• The “Internet Trifecta” is content, community and commerce. That is, crowd source content and enable the community to share it, rate it, review it and curate it. Then build a commerce option from this information. Sounds simple enough…ahem…
• Uploadable, sharable data and information is rising eg Pinterest, Github, Fitbit etc.
• TV shows that are doing well are those that create a “fanbase” who comment, curate and create after the show has ended. Don’t just look for the audience who switch channels straight after the show. Second screeners on twitter particularly are golden.
• And of course the “internet of things” is just growing.

I’m sure there are more nuggets of gold in Meeker’s report, but these were my takeaways.

I’ve just been reading about the form players from last weekend’s Super Rugby round. I got the link to the article from Reddit’s Rugby subreddit and found a new site I haven’t heard of before called getrealrugby.com. It turns out this site has buckets of information and useful international insights into one of my favourite spectator sports.

Without the link on Reddit I never would have found it.

In recent times Reddit has become one of the most assessable and simple ways to keep ahead or up to date with topics of interest online. It’s also the source for many listacles we see on the amazingly popular Buzzfeed and click bait filter sites like Twisted Sifter or Tastefully Offensive.

So why aren’t we seeing New Zealand news sites on Reddit? This is surely the key point of growth for young audiences and avid web users. All it would take is for one or two folks Stuff or the NZ Herald to start offering amusing comments about specific articles and posting them. If they’re good, the crowd will engage and like them.

Seems pretty straightforward to me.

Of all sports I follow cricket really is tailor made for twitter.

On holiday at Christmas I found @BLACKCAPS tweeting regular test updates of wickets and milestones during the NZ/West Indies ODIs.

Better still I discovered this at the end of the day when I didn’t know the result of the test, which meant as I gradually scrolled up my twitter feed on my iPhone, my anticipation and excitement of what happens next really inflated.

I basically got a play-by-play summary of the test that I could control in a matter of minutes. Fantastic.

Now I’m sure many people do this in a rugby or soccer game but cricket’s slow flow and incremental achievements really work in this medium.

What differentiated the cricket tweets from a regular live scoreboard on Cric-info.com was the additional test comments passed through each test’s hashtag and the regular retweets of people’s comments by the @BLACKCAPS official tweeters. These all added a new dimension to a day’s cricket watching.

So well played New Zealand Cricket. Please keep it up so I (and your 49k followers) can keep in touch with a team that’s playing better than I’ve ever seen.

In a week it will be a year since I last posted on this blog. A year. Wow. It’s moved fast. In that time we’ve completely rebuilt our house, seen my blog get hacked and saved, watched our youngest move into ‘the school years’ and continued to provide ongoing digital advice and support to our core clients and three new ones.

We’ve seen Facebook float and turn its community into a product. We’ve seen Instagram’s owners profit, stuff up and recover.

Google’s continued its march into behavioural marketing and is slowly using its various verticals to build Google+ into a colossal tool.

Apple, sans Steve Jobs, has continued to own the smartphone and tablet device space, although their app centric OS is starting to wear down its appeal as Windows (yes Windows!) launches a more useful mobile product and Samsung and Nokia find the right size and features for their hardware.

We’ve watched local player Trade me slow as people start buying goods directly overseas or simply dismiss the need for buying and selling books, DVDs or CDs.

Groupon and its various pretenders have seen the light and we watched them burn out as fast as they came.

We’ve watched the newspaper industry whittle down its profits as advertisers place their dollars where the eyeballs can be measured and better understood.

We’ve seen Pacific Fibre slide underwater and take with it a potential windfall of benefits for Kiwis.

We’ve seen NZ be a pawn in Hollywood’s attempts to remain in the past with their business models.

We’ve seen NZ journalists really start to understand twitter and its potential. If only they stopped exclusively talking with each other on it and started using it to connect with new audiences.

And we’ve seen the rise and rise of Pinterest. As of yesterday the company has a market valuation of $2.5 billion. Well played.

Heaps of other things happened too. But if I list them all, it’ll be another year before I actually post some opinion here. And who knows what will happen in a year…

The Peter Jackson produced District 9 film has been sitting on the side of the “trending topics” on Twitter for about a week now. As a movie marketing device that really must be about the best possible place to exist.

At the time of writing this post four trending topics are TV shows, two are movies, two are musicians, and the other two are random topics.  The Internet’s not killing existing film, music and television it’s providing a platform that rewards talent and brilliance in those mediums.

Last night I read The Listener’s annual power list illustrating various Kiwis who hold considerable influence in society. Unlike previous years when they’ve simply had a list of the 50 most powerful people in the land, they chose to run a set of categories of prominent individuals under groupings like Politics and Maoridom.

I love this sort of filtering so whizzed through the people looking for the Internet or Technology category. Unfortunately no such category exists. In fact, of all the 50 odd people they profile, none of them are directly involved in the Internet. Good grief.

So, in no particular order, here’s my list of the top 5 Kiwi web gurus who I think hold considerable influence on New Zealanders.

1.    Sam Morgan – Even from the back room Sam still holds the cards underlying a number of new web ventures that infiltrate many Kiwis’ daily lives. His legacy, Trade me, is still the biggest site in NZ and when he speaks his friends at Fairfax will always print his word as gospel.

2.    Russell Brown – A notable blogger, his legion at PublicAddress creates undue influence across a wide range of cultural interest groups and topics. Russell’s wider work in TV and as a commentator also adds to his sway of influence. I like the irony that he used to be on Powerlist’s judges’ panel too!

3.    David Farrar – Despite not really liking KiwiBlog’s political leanings, David’s blogline popularity has lead to it becoming a first point for political journalists and ordinary Kiwis. That David starts each day at 4am by reading all the papers and blogs available may be the reason. If you doubt his influence, try googling “Electoral Finances Act” or “Helen Clark” or “John Key” and you’ll see KiwiBlog right up there on Page 1. You can’t underestimate the power of that feature.

4.   Bernard Hickey – Earlier this year Bernard joined David Chaston at interest.co.nz and quickly set about offering NZ media and the average punter a daily media commentary on what their data meant in the real world. Throw in a global credit crisis and this journo-turned-new media professional has become the go to guy for economic trend quotes. Throw in Bernhard’s blog on Stuff and we’re talking about a chap who has remarkable influence on Kiwi thinking.

5.    Richard MacManus – As the creator and editor of ReadWriteWeb I find it hard to leave Richard out of the top 5. I’m not entirely convinced his influence is directly connected to New Zealanders but I do respect the success of his commentary and progress of Web 2.0 and its following across the globe.

So there are five. It’s a starter for ten…

At Webstock this year Twitter was a memorable feature. Its popularity had really stepped up a gear from the first Webstock. However while most people at the conference were aware of Twitter this year, few had spent much time tweeting. The semi voyeuristic element made most of us reluctant to really start investing time or attention to it.

But like all things web 2.0, Twitter’s gradual rollout is really starting to gain momentum in my little bubble of bloggers and colleagues and I’m really starting to enjoy it.

I’m now getting useful tips and witty comments from a wide range of people – some of whom I only know by reputation – but who appear happy enough to share their lives with me. Or are they?

For some people there seems to be mixed strands of comments which makes me wonder what they’re trying to achieve with their tweets. Some folks are straight up promoting links to their blogs or websites. Others are just waffling. Now I’m ok with either angle but when you mix these up and get professional tweets interlaced with personal comments it seems a bit odd.

In more established social media environments I like the way LinkedIn has a clear professional demarcation vs Facebook which is largely mates sharing whatever.

Twitter still has to carve that balance. But if you’re thinking about using Twitter, here are some points to consider.

What are you trying to achieve? Are you posting tweets to build exposure of your brand or drive visits to your website/blog or simply chatting with your friends? It’s vital to get this worked out up front as it will help you determine your tweet content and other elements that make up your Twitter brand.

What’s your image? A shot of you? A caricature or a silly photo? A tiny logo? What you choose will matter when your face appears alongside dozens of others and people are looking for new tweetlines to follow.

What’s your handle? Your real name or your company brand or a mix? It is possible to mix this up with alt tags providing your personal name while your handle/nickname remains something else.

Who do you follow and who follows you? Again, your brand by association is a small but influential element.

Of course you can wing it if you like, but having thought about these points in advance won’t hurt.