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Decision 2010 will be remembered when Labor dished up a gigantic platter of mix and matched policies while the Coalition enthusiastically rambled about “stopping the boats.” But what did Australians really care about?

Simply put, we wanted faster internet.



While the general media would have us believe that mining and immigration policies were the foremost issues, our monitoring on BuzzElections® tracked more than 10,240 conversations about the proposed National Broadband Network (NBN). All other topics were overshadowed; immigration generated a paltry 161 mentions in comparison.

Labor’s $43 billion NBN proposed to increase internet speeds up to 1Gps for 93% of Australians through fibre-optic cables. Meanwhile the Coalition’s cheaper $6 billion alternative merely sought to maximise the current (albeit outdated) telecommunications infrastructure. But in only offering 12Mps, the upgrade is akin to expanding a congested freeway with a cycleway.

The exponential growth of social media is here to stay and will continue to expand. Exploiting its rich multimedia and interactive content will allow firms and organisations to retain and attract current and future clientele. Australia will lose international competitiveness and relevance if we fail to lay the tarmac of tomorrow’s information superhighways – an extra bicycle lane simply cannot suffice.

Given the hung parliament over the last 17 days, Australia’s NBN future looked uncertain. However, a decision has finally been announced, with Labor managing to score a one seat majority in the parliament. Of particular note is independent MP for New England – Tony Windsor, who sided with Labor on the promise of National Broadband Network implementation.

Sounds like rural Australians want their Youtube videos too.

This morning I had the chance to see Lindy Kyzer from the US Army’s social media team. She talked about how they trained army personel on how to use social media, including getting generals to Tweet and how it is a vital tool for both internal and external communication.
Obviously there were questions raised about how you do this without compromising national security but in a simple case of life mirroring  the web (who would have thought it??!) the Army just adhere to their policies of how they govern any type of communication. i.e. you don’t talk about stuff which would compromise the army or the safety of your fellow service men.

I guess that rolling out social media across an organisation is nothing new but to do it on such a large scale in quite a staid organisation and get a whole load of generals (think CEO in the commercial world) actively participating is a pretty big achievement.

One of the really neat thisngs they have done is to share content created by their personel through their Facebook and Twitter pages. It allows the army to seem “real” without actually creating the content or putting it out on their main website. This one shows that there is a lighter side to life – even when you are posted in Iraq. Pretty good PR for the Army with over 5.5 million views.

And for those of you who love a good policy this is the document they created to give organisation wide rules of social media use.

“Retail investors are using online and social media in rising numbers and 11 per cent said what they found online influenced their investment decisions.

41% said of retail investors said electronic communications with listed entities had become more important in recent years.

7% of retail investors said they monitored social media for investment purposes and 11% said that information had influenced an investment decision.”

At BuzzNumbers we are seeing more and more ASX listed companies using our Social Media Monitoring and Reporting services to ensure messages about them are inline with corporate information.

The Smart 100 Awards are designed to encourage, promote and support innovation in Australia, it identifies and ranks new Australian innovations by applying a combination of crowdsourcing, collaboration and common-sense.

The awards were judged by over 100 “Maverns” against a set of 8 industry criteria.

BuzzNumbers Geographic Conversation Mapping technology came in at #25 on the Smart100 list in 2010, ahead of innovations from Atlassian and over 1000 Australian companies.

Previous years winners, including Engin, WotIF.com and Atlassian, have gone on to achieve significant Australian and International commercial success and demonstrate the viability of the AIIA in recognising high-growth Australian technology companies.

The gala event held at Crown Palladium was attended by over 500 senior executives from industry and government including Senator Conroy and executives from Microsoft, IBM, CSC, CSIRO, Fujitsu, BearingPoint and KPMG.

“Events like this one showcase the depth of talent emerging across the Australian industry,” said AIIA CEO Ian Birks. “We are very pleased to see the record entry numbers in this year’s awards. We have a competitive industry that is making an important contribution to productivity on a national scale, and one that will be critical to positioning Australia in the global economy. Tonight’s award winners are fantastic examples of what ICT can offer our community.”

AIIA (Australian Infomation Industry Association) is the leading national body representing the information and communications technology (ICT) industry in Australia.

“We are delighted to win these prestigious awards, and this offers BuzzNumbers significant industry validation for our innovative market leading products. We are pleased that this recognises BuzzNumbers as a leading company in Australia’s dynamic and vibrant technology industry.” – BuzzNumbers Executive Director, Nick Holmes a Court

Congrats Nick!

Maybe this could apply to your business too?

So what is twitter and social media saying about the election?

What are the issues people are talking about?

Who are the most influential voices in Social Media?

To answer all these questions and to demonstrate the capabilities of BuzzNumbers as Australias leading Social Media Monitoring and Intelligence company, we have launched BuzzElection.

If you are interested in further further analysis, real time data feeds or any further insights into the social media monitoring space, give us a buzz!

The presenters are:

• Andy Gent – Managing Director, BuzzNumbers, Monitoring and measuring B2B social media ROI.
• Andrew Bland – Partner, Blands Law, Building a social media policy and managing organisational risk.
• Elizabeth Marchant – Director, Recognition PR, Understanding the B2B social media landscape and the opportunities it presents.

When: 12pm-2pm, Wednesday 21 July 2010

Where: MGSM – Level 7, 51 Pitt Street, Sydney

Cost: $70.00 (ex.GST)

• To register your interest click here.

We wanted to ensure we had a simple, non-complex, and non-legal style policy that everyone could understand and engage with.

In the interests of our customers and readers, we figured it would be good to share this.

BuzzNumbers Corporate Social Media policy

* Make it clear that the views expressed in the posts are yours alone and do not necessarily represent the views of your employer.

* Respect the company’s confidentiality and proprietary information.

* Ask your manager if you have any questions about what is appropriate to include in your posts.

* Be respectful to the company, employees, customers, partners, and competitors.

* Understand when the company asks that topics not be discussed for confidentiality or legal compliance reasons.

* Ensure that your social media activity does not interfere with your work commitments.

Do you have a Corporate Social Media Policy?

Do you monitor what your employee’s say on Social Media?

We are working with a number of Australian companies to help them manage and track their companies social media information, if you would like to hear more feel free to give us a call 1300 886 192

Attribution: Altimeter Corporate Blogging Policy