Adam Bowie said at July 11th, 2009 at 8:22pm

I agree – ABC’s use of Twitter seems to be sensible and excellent. I do note that individuals are using their own names rather than station-specific versions.

So Adam Spencer of ABC in Sydney is @adambspencer. Although ABC’s guidelines say that individuals’ feeds must “reflect output and work they do for the ABC”, if Spencer moves to a rival station, there’s not a great deal ABC can do about it (assuming Spencer actually controls his own account). So we’re back to @wossy, @simonmay and @geofflloyd – if they leave their respective stations, their followers are “going” with them…

James Cridland said at July 11th, 2009 at 10:45pm

“assuming Spencer actually controls his own account” – that’s an assumption, yes. If Spencer doesn’t control his own account, and cedes control to the ABC as part of his contract, then that’s clearly different.

Interesting to note how Singaporean radio broadcasters on MediaCorp are also advertised as “a MediaCorp artist” on promotions for cosmetics, for example: they recognise that control of talent is so important, they also act as agents, telling them what they can and can’t do (and probably negotiating those gigs in the first place). Much like my relationship with my own employer; or, indeed, my relationship as a freelance presenter with the radio station I broadcast on in the 1990s.

Control of your talent is all-important. Given that the BBC banned @wossy from broadcasting at all for three months, you could argue that @wossy simply disobeyed this edict and set himself up with a very public Twitter feed. Good for the Corporation? Not entirely convinced. (I don’t know any details here, to be clear.)

Kev said at July 13th, 2009 at 8:27pm

Smooth Radio seam to have taken it on board – mentioning that to interact via Twitter you go to smoothradio.com – and when you are there the twitter feed is shown in Smooth Radio branding with a purple twitter animal on it.

Chris Kimber said at July 14th, 2009 at 4:09pm

James, you say:

“they’re also the world’s leaders in Twitter integration into broadcast”

Is that based on their help pages which you link to, or on what you heard on ABC? Seems like a big statement just based on those help pages.

From a BBC point of view, i have to say that there’s a lot of really good twitter integration into broadcast (and some not so good), but i’m keen to hear how others are doing it better!

James Cridland said at July 14th, 2009 at 4:13pm

Well, I don’t know anyone who does it better… doubtless there’s lots of lovely Twitter stuff on the BBC – give us some examples, then!

(Richard Bacon’s particularly good at getting decent content from Facebook; he makes me smile)

Chris Scaddan said at July 15th, 2009 at 9:30pm

I can post some examples of the ABC’s twitter integration into broadcast. Triple J (the ABC’s youth network) just had an incredibly successful cross media event over the last weekend. It was a simple radio poll – we asked listeners to vote for their ‘Hottest songs of all time’, then we counted down the results. Not a very complex campaign, but the whole thing was carefully planned to harness the potential of twitter, facebook and discussions on our own website. The online response, especially in twitter, was overwhelming.

There is a good analysis of the whole thing here:
http://www.digital-media.net.au/article/Triple-J-s-Hottest-100-of-all-time-a-truly-social-multi-media-event/490451.aspx

Australia’s Triple J – doing it right online - blog - James Cridland said at July 16th, 2009 at 9:32pm

[...] I post a fawning and much too polite blog posting about the ABC completely understanding how Twitter works. [...]

Walter Adamson said at August 27th, 2009 at 9:17pm

Actually Mr Cridland lost all credibility with me the first half of this comment: “However, not only are Australia leading the way in DAB+, they’re also the world’s leaders in Twitter integration into broadcast.”

I’ll do more research on the latter part, but on the basis of the first part I’m skeptical of his analytical ability.

The only place Australia is leading itself with DAB+ is up a completely blind alley. This rollout will be a complete failure, for a number of reasons. In 5 years time Cridland’s visionaries will be falling all over their airwaves to assure us that noone could have foreseen the folly of their DAB+ decision, best technology at the time, things have changed, 20-20 hindsight etc etc. It’s almost beyond me how a group of clever individuals can make such a idiotic decision, technically but even moreso commercially. That’s group psychology I guess.

So my question, is Cridland just a PR hack repeating what he has been told, or has he actually done some business analysis of the ABC’s social media “strategy”. I hope that they have done a good job, we’re in need of good business-based examples. But I’m certainly not taking this report at face value – I’ll do my own anaylsis.

Walter Adamson @g2m

James Cridland said at August 28th, 2009 at 9:58am

Hello, Walter. Tell you what, I’ll call you “Adamson”, if you like, through my reply. Clearly calling someone by their surname isn’t considered rude in Australia, Adamson, though it is considered rather rude here.

Australia is the first major country to adopt DAB+ rather than the older DAB technology. Whatever you think of DAB+ as a solution to broadcast radio’s digitisation, it’s an incontrovertible fact that Australia is “leading the way”. Even if they are, as you might be saying, leading the way in making the wrong solution; if you are saying that, you’ve giving no analysis or reason to back that up, merely offering up some inconsequential bluster (and nothing at all on your own website).

As to your accusation that I’m a “PR hack repeating what I’ve been told”, you’re betraying your own lack of analysis. A quick check of my biography, my industry credentials, and even past blog entries here, would have stopped you betraying your ignorance and rudeness.

Still; I approved your acerbic comment for publication here, and with that, a link to your website. You’re welcome to do some analysis of your own on ABC’s social media strategy there. Off you go, then.

Of course – I should make allowances. If you were under the influence of a few stubbies of Cooper’s Vintage Ale, I might just forgive you, Adamson.

Walter Adamson said at August 28th, 2009 at 10:28am

Bit touchy old boy, if I go by Foyle’s War and Miss Marple it’s rather more common up in your neck of the woods to call someone by their surname than down here in Cooper’s land.

James, the whole sideshow of DAB+ is not going to be resolved between us whether by facts or bluster, although if you have facts as to why it is the best commercial decision I’d be interested to see them. Time alone will tell.

Re Twitter and the ABC, I did do some more digging and your view seems to be quite on the ball. They have a well thought out plan for how Twitter is used and is aligned with different objectives, and seem to manage it equally well to that plan.

As you’ve hyperlinked Cooper’s Ale I don’t need repeat, so I’ll toddle off and have another.

Spike Nesmith said at August 28th, 2009 at 12:37pm

Nice to see the point over Twitter conceded, but I don’t believe I saw an apology for your tone, or for calling Mr C a “hack”, Adamson. You were awfully rude.

Walter Adamson said at August 28th, 2009 at 11:32pm

If I treat others in these arenas as I would like to be treated myself, then the tone and manner were inappropriate, and I apologise.

Spike Nesmith said at August 28th, 2009 at 11:49pm

Hooray! Good on yer!

….my Mum would have still made you give James a hug. ;)

Walter Adamson said at August 30th, 2009 at 9:18am

Spike, you wish! I just have to ask James to warn me before before he publishes anything about digital radio in Australia so that I can take a pill before I read it! Cheers, Walter