That Was the Week That Was - August 27th: New Blogs & Olympics

Too much to write – not enough time.

I have such a full plate at the moment I can barely find time to do any of the writing for myself. That means fewer blog posts, fewer script writing sessions and fewer spec ideas get done. But hey, I shouldn’t complain. A year ago I wasn’t writing professionally at all.

Hopefully, the arrival of a new marketing manager next month will allow me to focus more on my own projects as I’ve been acting in that role on top of my own duties for a month now. Fewer management meetings and more key tapping. Can’t wait.

Blogging for Beginners?

I recently helped a client start off her own blog as a way to boost traffic and SERP rankings for her online store at Gentle Giants. We’ve decided to go with a blog focusing on her experiences building a viable business on a small country town in Australia, which provides a few opportunities for interesting posts.

The blog can be found at www.gentlegiants.com.au/blog. Now, I know many of the readers I have are also avid bloggers and/or webmasters and I’ve been telling Soraya how supportive and generous the blogosphere is. We all know how difficult it can be to get a blog up to speed and start seeing some traction. It can be really demotivating to the novice. So drop by her blog and say hi. Throw her a link to start her off or offer some advice to help her on her way. Spread the word.

Good blogging is all about nurturing connections and networks. The strength of any blog is reliant on the blogs around it and that’s why we love what we do. No blog can exist in a vacuum – it’s both a blessing and a curse – so let’s give a leg up to the new girl.

Gold Poisoning

Okay, the Olympics are done and dusted for another four years. Hopefully, by then the Australian media may have at last stopped running the same footage over and over or have become bored with finding new ways to get Stephanie Rice onto the front of magazines.

There is so little imagination in Olympic coverage that every interview blurs into the next. The same uninspiring questions about what it feels like to win. The same pat, rehearsed answers about nerves and celebrating and how wonderful it was to know family was watching. Surely, after the first two or three interviews with the same athlete it stops being newsworthy without bringing something new to the podium, but then we have the ’60 Minutes’ Olympic special and the Channel Seven ‘Heroes of Beijing’ love-fests.

Just once, I would have loved to see on athlete do something outside the box or an interviewer ask something a bit more radical. The problem is that athletes are great at being athletes but they are expected to also become equally engaging media superstars. So often it isn’t the case.

The one moment that horrified me more than any other – and illustrates my attitude to Olympic coverage – was the Channel Seven interviewer who caught up with Tamsyn Lewis after she had come last in the 800 metre semi-final. Clearly upset and choking back a flood of tears, the interviewer relentlessly went on, asking if she was disappointed. Talking to her about her future. It was obvious Tamsyn was in no fit state to talk, but Channel Seven doesn’t do empathy. Athletes always have to be interviewed out of breath and completely physically knackered the moment they step out of the pool or off the track. And here was Tamsyn having her failure rubbed in by an interviewer that didn’t seem to care that she wanted to disappear to deal with her own grief and disappointment. Not only was Tamsyn out of breath, she was in deep distress. It was a shameful display in media coverage over-ruling common sense or humanity.

There are four years before the Olympics hit London. I don’t expect things to improve. In fact, I expect the pressure to produce detailed coverage for multiple digital channels, internet, radio and more will only increase the amount of sub-standard journalism and generic, jingoistic interviews.

Kimota on the Web

A couple more of my pieces made their way onto the Nett Magazine website this week.

I appear as one of the panel of experts advising the business brains behind Himage on launching their new website for men’s skin care products. Kick Start – Working on your Himage.

I also explore how businesses can use email marketing and blogs to spread their message beyond their websites. Start Spreading the News.

<gratuitous plug>

If you live in Australia, the latest issue of Nett should arrive in newsagents in the next few days as well, featuring my article questioning the dominance of Google and the effect it has on online businesses. The issue also contains a brilliant interview with Tony Clark of Rising Sun Pictures on the evolution of digital effects, advice on the seven worst business mistakes in social media and a look at the risks of franchising. 

</end gratuitous plug>

And Finally…

Listening to… ‘The Assassination of Jesse James…” soundtrack’. From one of the best movies of last year comes one of the best soundtracks, by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. When writing, I find soundtracks the best background music. Lyrical music can become too distracting, I find. So I sit at my desk with the iPod shuffling through soundtracks to keep me blocked off from the chaos and noise around me without being a distraction itself.

Watching… ‘Edge of Darkness’. I’m currently revisiting the classic BBC mini-series from 1986 as Shelley had never seen it before. It still stands up as one of the best mini-series ever written – by the wonderful Troy Kennedy-Martin of ‘The Italian Job’ fame – and was one of the inspirations for me to study television production at University. If you’ve never seen it before, track down the DVD. If, like me, you haven’t seen it in a while, treat yourself. You’ll rarely see a production that gels so beautifully between script, direction and performances.

As you were. Class dismissed.