Well this week I have come to the conclusion that I need more practice speaking.
As this blog progresses I have begun to feel quite confident in my ability to communicate thoughts and invoke interest from colleagues online.
At work I am confident that as a leader my direction and directions are understood and executed efficiently. What I would like to improve is my ability to improvise. To think and speak simultaneously.
To this end I’ve decided to take up Sunday podcasting. Short thoughts to start with, using Soundcloud on the go.
This first session, by the roaring waves at Shoreham Fort is probably pretty bad in terms of background noise and coherent chain of thought and expression. Hopefully I can improve incrementally as the weeks progress.
Having introduced what I’m doing. Here’s what sprung to mind down at the waters edge.
Cartels will emerge – playing to the strengths of their members
Remembering the phrase I’d heard earlier in the week, “A rising tide lifts all boats” I couldn’t help but feel we will see – in the coming years – industries and sectors banding together as cartels to rise together.
The cartel, being to some extent, less offensive to the masses than the monopoly that Facebook has on social or that Google has on search.
Competitors, could quite well become allies, as they strategically align their strengths and focus so as to leverage each others USP, rather than all trying to be reasonably good at everything.
In search terms this would mean aligning key phrases so there’s less overlap. For example: I’m optimised for Auckland B2B Agile Marketing, another colleague would be for Retail B2C and another for FMCG yet together we cover all facets of marketing in Auckland.
Where we are not an expert, we forward (and link) clients to our cartel members. Playing to their strengths.
Social sharing and blogging about the ability of others will also be the norm.
As industry cartels or networks form, online niche platforms and networks will grow to support cross selling and cross sharing of content.
One nod to this is the advent of blogger outreach platforms.
Chuck Kent interviewed Dino Dogan about Triberr (see video here) last week which I think is a first step in this direction. The platform connects bloggers with products to which they have a true natural affinity. Not just one they want swag from.
There is some way to come from this to cartels but I’ll be doing my best to push it forward.
Nick Allen - Marketing, Growth & Running 
I applaud the move into sound! Good to hear your voice at last… I look forward to more.
yes, it will be interesting to see where things like Triberr’s influence marketplace, of which Dino Dogan speaks, will take us… whether or not we can effectively aggregate our impact, and mutually benefit from it, or if only a few boats will actually rise on the tide.
Hi Nick,
Just stumbled across this, after you retweeted one of my tweets.
I will follow your podcasting journey, good luck & I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks Craig, slowly working my way into it. Will see if I can keep it going…