Tom Reynolds

Prior to the start of the 2010 motor racing season, ThomasrDotOrg is offering a media training workshop for interested riders, drivers, team members and principals.

This event presents all attendees with training in the following areas:

• Television presenting. How to professionally present your team, sport, sponsors and self. What to avoid (did someone say “wearing sunglasses?”)
• Radio interviews. Whether in studio or in person, you’ll learn how to hit your key points and make it appear you think on your feet like a seasoned pro.
• Press conferences. Pre or post race, it doesn’t matter. You’ll learn how to get your message across, how to prepare and how to react in this pressure filled environment. If you can get a reaction (preferably a laugh) out of a room of tired, jaded journos, you’ll soon be a star.
• Social media. Website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and beyond. How a professional racer can make the most of this exciting, but occasionally problematic environment. Watch out for the YouTube Video Of Embarassment For Life.

All attendees will also have the opportunity to have professional portrait photos taken of them in their team uniforms included in the price.

Team/vehicle photos by prior arrangement at additional cost.

Our media trainers are being announced as we get closer to the event (see bottom). All are currently working at the highest level in their chosen media stream, or at least in a field that they’ve found themselves stuck in.

Total cost $135 includes digital copies of your portrait shoot plus a short HD video interview with **you**.

Bookings essential and numbers will be limited email: training@thomasr.org to secure your spot!

Presenters (more to be announced in due course):

Tom Reynolds is the principal of ThomasrDotOrg Media Services and will lead the media workshop training day. Tom has worked in marketing, PR, advertising, web technology and the media for over ten years. He has worked for (or continues to ply his trade with): Australian Superbike Championship, Australian Rally Championship, Radio 3AW , Radio SEN, Holden Race Team, Grand Prix Corporation as well as hosting many events and media calls.

Jay Mueller. Radio MMM Melbourne Breakfast Senior Producer.
Long time producer of top rating breakfast show on 3AW, last year Jay made the jump to MMM to take the senior producer role on Eddie McGuire’s new brekky show “The Hot Breakfast“.
Jay will be going through what he finds works on radio. He will explain how to prepare for your interview with people who know nothing about you or your sport.
He will also address how to get yourself on radio and what producers (the gate keepers!) are looking for when they decide to put someone to air.

Today I’m announcing that I am joining the renowned and revitalised Australian Rally Championship (ARC) as their PR/media manager.

I’ll be responsible for the key areas of ARC media relations and PR. I will be writing press releases across many aspects of ARC activity- from pre thru post event as well as stories on the teams, characters and places the ARC visits.

As well as the written word, I will also be hosting press conferences across all event weekends and interviewing drivers for web and TV. Some of these will be available live on the ARC website. Between rounds I will be writing press releases for teams and drivers and augmenting the written word with HD video interviews, podcasts and photos.

I’m genuinely excited to be involved with the peak rally series in Australia. I’ve already had some involvement in the past with Neal Bates, Coral Taylor, Simon & Sue Evans as well as Scott Pedder. So far all have been very welcoming and it’s clear this is a tight knit and professional paddock. It’s my job to ensure the public get to see and feel just how exciting rallying is.

My first event with the ARC will be round one in Tasmania from the 26th – 28th February.

Many thanks to Paul Mullan from Black Magic and ARC Director Scott Pedder for helping make this possible.

You’ll hear from me soon! In the meantime check out http://www.rally.com.au/

—ENDS–

For more information, contact: Tom Reynolds. ph 0409 964 549 email: thomasr@thomasr.org twitter: thomasrdotorg

I won’t apologise for being a bad blogger- I’ve been there, said that, too many times. I will apologise for a distinct lack of posts- but naturally I have an excuse for that too.

I’ve been damn busy!

Australian Superbikes

I accepted a job offer from Yarrive Konsky of IEG, the new oranisers and promoters of the Australian Superbike series. My job description is pretty loose, though it could be summed up thusly: “Get editorial press coverage, do special events and get the punters along”.

My first and major project has been a two seater ride program- not too dissimilar to Ducati (exclusively) does in MotoGP. Our club is slightly less exclusive- currently we have bikes from Woodstock Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki.

Overall I was very pleased with the pillion rides at Eastern Creek. We received some great coverage after getting the Abberton brothers on board. Friday is my main focus- this gives us a chance to hit the Saturday papers and Friday websites.

At Eastern Creek one of the support classes for Australian Superbikes was the Aussie Racing Cars. I personally invited Steve Pizzati from Top Gear Australia along to race and he repaid the favour by going on Steve Price’s 2UE show twice. But where we owed him the most was his wonderful kindness in rolling the car 2 1/2 times and hitting most of the major daily papers in the process. Taking one fo the team- literally. Thanks man.

To step up our coverage, I have not only planned website and press release changes, but I have a few other ideas that I think will position our motorsport back in its rightful place as second only to V8 Supercars.

Details: www.asbk.com.au

Twitter: @asbk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/AustralianSuperbikes

HSV/HRT
I’ve been helping Holden Special Vehicles and Holden Racing Team (more specifically Walkinshaw Racing) establish and grow a social media presence. Sarah W from HSV has been a great student of social media and with the genuine backing of senior HSV management, we’ve really set HSV/HRT apart from the “others”. I set up many Twitter and Facebook Fan accounts (some Twitter accounts simply to prevent squatting) and have advised them at every step about ways to grow the fan base and how and what to Tweet. We have rewarded fans (sent out signed prizes when we hit 1000 Facebook fans) and kept up the conversationand replies- especially on race weekends.

Speaking of race weekends, at the recent Sandown event I joined in the Tweet festival from inside the Walkinshaw pit- a fantastic insiders view.

A more ambitious social media program is envisaged in the future.

Twitter: @holden_racing, @HSV_news, @BundyRedRacing

Facebook: HRT HSV Bundaberg Red Racing

Draggin Jeans
Having briefed in SharpSushi, their new site will be launching shortly. Fiona and Kris from Draggin and Adam and Kere from SharpSushi have collaborated really well. I did my part early on, offering a few ideas, but they have all  really taken up the running. The new site will offer a brilliant online experience, grow their very loyal fan base even more and have a conversion rate that I think will suprise even those inolved.

With new products, new designs, a new website, a new marketing manager and a more aggressive marketing approach, Draggin look good to go in the next year and beyond.

My involvement of late has take the form of some marketing strategy ideas with specific refence to Twitter and the “What is change?” concept. I also set up the fan page.

Beyond web, I am also going to do some “other” work for Draggin’, but for now this must remain a secret!

Web(new one launching soon): www.dragginjeans.net

Twitter: @dragginjeans

Facebook: DragginJeansAustralia

Josh Brookes

Superbike star and current British Superbike series racer Josh Brookes has recently come on board as a web/marketing client. He’s a great talent, though frankly having a very mixed year. I have written an all encompassing web strategy document that I am going to execute on (in collaboration with 50 Kaliber and SharpSushi), along with maintaining his social media presence and offering advice as we go.

Twitter: @joshbrookes

Facebook: JoshBrookes

SharpSushi

As one of the two web agencies I like to deal with, Adam and Kere- directors of SharpSushi- are two of the nicest and more importantly most switched on web people I have had the pleasure in dealing with. I have provided general web strategy and ideas for one specific client (whatcanyoudo.com.au) as well as general web strategy and social media ideas here and there. Eventually they will be building my own new site.

Eventually.

Web: www.sharpsushi.com

Igloo- Digital Strategy Agency

As the best mid sized (though growing so fast they may have gone past that stage) web agency in the country, Igloo can rightfully claim to have grown from a leading design agency into a leading strategy/all round agency.

Some months ago I assisted them as part of their pitch for the Mazda account, providing strategy ideas and on the ground assistance for their pitch. I also wrote a post for their blog site outlining my thoughts on social media with specific reference to the automotive market.

They subsequently won the Mazda account.

Since then I have been busy with my many other gigs, though I am really keen to get back to the Pelaco building and work on some fun stuff with Andy, Tony and the team.

Web: www.igloo.com.au

CarAdvice

Until a few months ago I was hosting a podcast for CarAdvice, Australia’s number one independent editorial site. While it was fun while it lasted, they have gone through a number of changes- from new offices, staff and a new CEO. It was agreed that the podcasts will go on hold for the rest of the year. While I was disappointed at the time, I’m hopeful we can work something out in the future.

Radio 3AW.

It’s hardly a suprise when I tell you I was cut from the Neil Mitchell show weekday lineup for 2009. Once the other 11am-12pm guests were cut, I suspected I was in strife- either they would move me to a new timeslot, or I would fall over utterly. At the time I received a very nice call from Program Director Clark Forbes telling me that I was still a required player for their F1 and MotoGP coverage as well as my summer sessions with Tom Elliott- a segment I really enjoy. Tom’s a terriffic bloke and a really good broadcaster. Summer will be fun!

The C-Word Vodcast

The irrepressible and likeable Dieter Kahsnitz has re invigorated his community TV award winning program as a 5 minute vodcast. At present the episodes are older ones recut for vodcast purposes. Shortly, we collectively head into a new era of the C-Word, with new concepts, segments and some really fun stuff. Stay tuned for that.

Web: www.cword.tv

Grand Prix Corporation

For the last few years I have been hosting the riders parade with Dieter at Federation Square. We’re shaping up to do it all again this year- though with a few extras thanks to my connections within Australian Superbikes.

As well as the Fed Square gig, We’ve also been asked to host a meet ‘n greet/panel show at the Island on the Friday night in the camp ground. This promises to be an cracking good night, so we’re rightly pumped about it. The whole weekend is going to absolutely rock, so book your tickets, do what you gotta do to be at Phillip Island this year.

So that’s me in a nut shell at the moment- busy, but still looking for more to fill my days with…

Yesterday I posted the news that I have a new site in the process of being designed built and to ensure it not only launches smoothly, but works hard for me, I have been reviewing how all of my social media strategy hangs together.
Frankly, it’s less than ideal. Here’s my bad photoshopped image of what currently happens.

How it all works.

• The whole shebang hangs off RSS. Without the RSS feeds from the content services, then it would all be manual- a total nightmare.
• TwitterFeed is a brilliant service (I have donated) and is the hub I use for content processing into Twitter.
• Thomasr.org posts are checked every three hours and then posted into Twitter as “Blog Post”. The RSS feed automatically shoots into Facebook as a “Facebook Note”. Facebook only allows one RSS feed. It’s tempting to process all the feeds into Feedburner and then feed the whole lot into Facebook- but that’s untenable and Facebook Spam (FBS).
• Flickr pics also go into TwitterFeed, but are processed slightly differently. As I have varying degrees of Flickr use- occasional pics from BrightKite as well as whole car/bike sets that can number 50+ pics per car, I use the TwitterFeed feature to limit the RSS checking to once a day and 2 posts at any one time. FBS reduction right there.
• I use BrightKite mostly on my iPhone as it can post pics to Flickr (and importantly geo tag them) and send onto Twitter as well. If I’m not using BK for pics, then it works well as a Twitter client and I use it when I want to tell everyone where I am (especially for public event hosting and similar).
• My YouTube channel videos update once a day and one video to TwitterFeed. No need for updates more often than that as I have never posted more than one video a day and I doubt I ever will!
• My 3AW blog posts are rare, but also update via RSS. This is a once a day thing and one post gets sent to Twitter.
• My CarAdvice and BikeAdvice posts do not have an unique RSS feed. I think if I got to the bottom of Yahoo Pipes, I think I could feed the raw RSS into Yahoo pipes and filter it so only the podcasts and my articles make it to TwitterFeed. In the meantime, I write up a blog post pointing to the article and that starts off the Thomasr.org chain of events and that suits me for now as it gives my all-important paid work a double dose on Facebook and a single run on Twitter.
• Two services for links I use are my Del.icio.us and Google Reader shared items and these feed into Twitter almost on the spot, though I do limit them to a maximum of 3 at a time.
• All that done, the tweets start to automatically appear on Twitter itself.
• My Twitter feed goes straight into FriendFeed, which also aggregates my YouTube and Blog posts independently but is smart enough (something Scoble says a lot about FF) not to double up.
• FriendFeed then sends all aggregated (And not doubled up) content to Facebook via a Facebook app.

That last point is no longer true, but it’s important to note that it was once the case. The problem now at Facebook is not one of double ups, but rather over saturation. Every single Tweet goes to Facebook. Per my previous post, I took my own advice and I’m not letting Tweets set as FB status, but it is appearing in all my friends timelines. Not all are happy:

Quite. I had a feeling this was the case, but as you can’t really see when you are creating “noise” on a friend’s Facebook page, I just kept going. (Not to be rude, but the more friends you have on FB, the less spammy my FB timeline appears as I am woven into the general fabric of Facebook)

Ok So what’s this all mean?
The Web 2.oh services are evolving and so too are the users. In fact it’s user expectation and user demands that are driving me- I think not so much about what can be done, but what’s best for my readers/followers/friends. So I turned off the feed into Facebook. But I do need some sort of feed into Facebook as it is a content cul de sac (Content goes in, doesn’t come out) and is very important as my friend base on Facebook increases.

So I’m going to set up a Feedburner account and aggregate most content apart from Twitter posts into Facebook as notes. It’s not a huge amount and certain services like Flickr will now be handled by a Facebook App instead of FriendFeed.

Where’s the conversation?
This is super critical. Corvida’s post on ReadWriteWeb was very clear and I believe it.

While there’s no formula for success, there are three keys to a killer web service: search, aggregation, and conversation.

So search is taken care of and I nearly have the aggregation situation about right. But it’s conversation, the third and possibly most compelling element- where will that happen?

Thoughts on conversation:

• Not on my blog as it stands. I generate a fair few followers and readers, but few comments. I’m not that sort of blogger.
• On places of content origin. That’s a mixed bag. YouTube- you have to be kidding. Flickr- very occasional. BrightKite- rare. on 3AW, CarAdvice and BikeAdvice a lot of good commenting takes place and should stay there as these sites are focussed on conversation.
• On Twitter. That tends to be short: “Good post” “nice pic” etc. Not really conversation, though it can be. Twitter conversations can be intense and real time, but also tend to disappear into the Twitter ether due to the non semantic nature of Twitter.
• FriendFeed. I don’t think so right now. Scoble may be right and FF might go mainstream, but that’s going to take a while and meantime FF is silent.
• Conversations on my content. Absolutely. So much so, that I have resolved to do two things: employ Facebook Connect on my new blog comments area and open up my friends list to Scoble-esque proportions.

So there’s a bit to do and of course it’s ongoing.

And it obsesses me.

One notable problem in large organisations is the lack of accountability and proactivity.

The Age’s website is a case in point. If it was centralised and built on a better, more unifying platform with a single development team then maybe they would be able to fix the terrible, confusing template issues that plague the whole site.

Honestly, how long would it take a junior developer to fix the CSS for the letters page for example? How long does it take to add a <br> tag? (see image)

To the developers on The Age’s website: where are the mavericks who get shit done? Why do you accept this state of play? When’s the last time you worked back late to get something fixed- not built, but just fixed? Where are your bug reports? I hope you don’t get tipped out during this global recession, because no one will think your skills and more imporantly your passion is up to scratch.

Oh and while you’re at it, fix the bug that causes the site to crash iphones.