Date: November 2012 - Page 2

For years, I have been fascinated by design in every possible form; shape, configuration, pattern, ornamentation and visual appearance. Of particular interest is architectural design.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to walk the streets of Amsterdam with one of the Netherlands most famed interior architects, Flip Verbeek. He use to be co-owner of a company called Flow that has designed some of the most amazing interiors in buildings throughout the Netherlands. As we walked the streets, looking at building after building that had been designed by Flow and the talented architects in the team, I was inspired. The passion that this man has for design and visuals that are sustainable and complement the environment in which it inhabits, is contagioius.

So contagious in fact, that on my flight home from Amsterdam, I looked up www.realestate.com.au, found a property and days later, bought it.

The property will be the new home for Marketing Eye in Melbourne. It is located in my favourite street in the city, Greville Street and fits inside my inner-city bubble that I love to live in. While I won't be here so much to enjoy it, it gives me great pride to be able to find a building with the character and potential that the one I have just bought has.

This blog has been spurred by the many challenges in growing an international business leveraging  economies of scale and opportunities that are simply too good to pass by.

In the past week, I have been thinking alot about Linkedin. It has been the topic of many conversations and all for the right reasons. Daily I am asked about what social media mediums are best for b2b organizations and of course, there is no one answer because it depends entirely on a companies specific demographic, time constraints, strategy and of course, budget.

I wrote a blog on the value of Linkedin for small businesses and have spent quite a bit of time on this social media platform over past couple of days. It's interesting to see how people interact and reach out to each other. It is equally fascinating to see some people's comments that are purely self-serving or a bit over the top negative for no apparent reason.

It is "unbeatable". The race that stops a nation.

The 152 Melbourne Cup Carnival promises to be even bigger and better than ever before. More than 100,000 people will go down to Flemington, rain, hail or shine, to watch a race that lasts only minutes. 

Swiss took the first prize in the celebrated Birdcage stakes attracting international movie star Nicole Kidman to town for just 24 hours to make an appearance. Lavazza came in a close second, although I do think their birdcage is by far the most fun, with Roberto Cavalli. Love their very "in" fluro accent on the cage this year. Looks very in vogue and no doubt will be part of bringing out the best party in town yet again. They always have a cool DJ playing and a bit of a sing along at the end of the day which draws in the karoake loving celebrities around town.

For Lavazza I think they do an amazing job of standing out from the crowd. It first started with having Rod Stewart's ex as a guest, Rachel Hunter and each year it has gotten bigger and better. I have seen the Madden boys in their a few times, lots of local celebrities and sporting stars. John Valmorbida is the ultimate host and is always as charming as ever.

A very wise man once said to me, "friends are clients and clients are friends". From that moment it all made sense. If you treat your clients as friends and not another number or addition to your revenue hunt, your relationship will last longer and be more sustainable.

In the modern digital age, it's much simplier to be friends with your clients, particularly if you have hundreds of thousands of them at your fingertips.

They connect with you on social media; facebook, twitter, linkedin, pinterest, myspace - you name it, they are "friends" with you. Each day, I log onto my twitter account and I talk to people I know and some that I don't. The one's that I don't, are new friends. People I am getting to know via twitter. They have shared a common interest or have an opinion on something that I have written that interwines us together. Instantly, we feel like we "get" each other or perhaps that "we don't". Either way, we form a connection and depending on how we interact and communicate we will either become "friends" or fade away into the twittersphere.

Finding time to spend on social media networks is getting more difficult. There are so many to choose from, that at times, small businesses don't know where to start.

From time to time, re-evaluating which social media networks work best for your company and re-defining your strategy according to changes in features and functionality, can either leverage your business to new heights or create havoc with your sales cycle.

As a firm believer that "you cannot be everything to everyone", it makes perfect sense to spend time looking at the various analytics relating to social media, the demographics of each platform and how it applies to your target audience, brand authenticity and collaborations with clients and partners.

When it comes to b2b marketing, the decision on what social media networks to use and invest in becomes significantly easier.