iAmDigital - Marketing. Innovation. Technology.

Having grown up in a house with 9 women at one point, all fiercely independent and powerful women at that, ensuring that "she'll be right" is something that's very important to me. Fostering an environment both socially as well as in the workplace that's inclusive enough, where women thrive and are given equal opportunity to develop as leaders, should be important to all of us. Stereotypical feminine qualities that are often seen as weaknesses in workplaces, communities and in politics nowadays, are the very same qualities that we should demand in all leaders. Nurturance, sensitivity, compassion, expressiveness, modesty, humility and of course empathy to name a few. Leaders wanted! We don't just need more females in leadership roles, we need more people in leadership roles to personify stereotypical female qualities. Maybe then, she'll be right... Post inspired by the UN Women Australia ad below

As announced in 2020, Google will be updating the way it ranks your website from May 2021. The update places user experience (UX) at the core of the influencer scale. So, building an amazing new site for a client or updating your existing one with the following UX principles, has never been more important. The 3 elements of page experience An awesome page experience ensures visitors are more efficient with the time spent on your website. Not only making it a better experience for the person but a more engaging one with your brand and/or business . The other side of the coin, a crappy experience, of course, equates to someone struggling to find what they’re looking for and wasting valuable time doing it. In essence there are 3 primary areas that Google will be focusing on in this update: Loading time – how speedy does your site appears. Interactivity – how speedy does your site respond to various inputs. Visual Stability – how much does your website layout move around while load...

Are QR codes really the answer?  Who would have thought when the National Cabinet (Australia's state and federal heads of) and their teams got together, to talk about a "state of the art" contact tracing system here in Oz, that was required to bridge the real world to the digital, that we’d land on QR codes... oh my. Today's genius  Think about where we're at with technology in 2021. All the genius we have access to from remote plant climate management like that offered by Roots Sustainable Agriculture. Tech for brain powered prosthetics. Or how about noses (yes, like the one on your face) with artificial intelligence (A.I) like that of Brainchip Holdings, which have the same sniff sensitivity to minute quantities of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) as a dog's nose developed in 2017. These A.I. noses can, through smell, identify diseases including Parkinson's, cancers, kidney failure, multiple sclerosis and infectious diseases, such as, you guessed it, ...

It's crazy that Amazon Alexa and Google Home still seem kinda new to many, the reality is though, voice technology dates back to the 1950s. However, it hasn’t been until the early part of the twenty-first century that we have really seen voice technology come into its own with huge leaps in computing power, vast amounts of data, advancements in AI and machine learning and investments from large enterprises. New innovative uses for voice-activated technology are seemingly ensuring a strong case for incorporating it in digital strategies. Being such a frictionless form of tech and improving all the time, it’s not hard to see why.  What do we mean by voice marketing? So, we know Alexa, Google Home, Siri, Cortana and their siblings have become everyday technology in the last few years, but voice marketing is about understanding how consumers use them. Currently, 50% of online searches are made via voice with almost 20% of browsing sessions being screenless! Businesses who want to remai...

“ Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light. ” Brene Brown - Daring Greatly Since Brene Brown gave her TED Talk “ The Power of Vulnerability ” almost a decade ago, her popularity raised as one of the most sincere voices about leadership, authenticity, and vulnerability. Defined as one of the top gurus for the emotions that nobody wants to talk about, Brown established the connection between how authenticity can affect your relationships with others. For her, authenticity is a daily practice and it's about the choice to show up and be real. In other words, it is about working on your daily personal brand that can allow you to beat the shame and the consequent dis...

It's no surprise that many companies are desperate to be seen as innovative, customer-centric or digital disruptor's within their industry. What is surprising (and disappointing) is that some think they can 'check the box' by simply creating an innovation team and updating their corporate presentation to include phrases like "innovative culture", "digital disruption", and "emerging markets", with very little actually changing. As you very well know, updating your CRM system, running a course on agile or replacing your marketing automation platform, doesn't put you ahead of the curb you're chasing. Most of the time, it's as deep seeded as a culture change and company ethos shift that that needs to take place. Most forms of innovation, are simply taking an existing problem that your customers or even staff have and solving it. Sometimes, that means solving problems they never knew they had to begin with. "Customers ...

While there is no shortage of claims of how there will be nothing a human will be able to do better than our AI counterparts in the future, the real question is, what is the actual overarching goal of technology today? I'm not addicted Whatever happened to technology enabling us to better live our lives, by keeping us better informed, connected and empowered? Instead, I feel we are heading down this path of acceptable addiction, where I download an app to help manage my apps. Where I use a SaaS (software as a service) that helps me use another piece of software as well as offer a service. Where I jump on Facebook to 'connect with loved ones' and find myself sucked into a number of rabbit warrens littered with cat videos, conspiracy theorists, memes, birds with arms and generally content design to keep me clicking, watching, consuming all while my details are pawned off to the next advertiser. Ok, I'm addicted Our addiction is so real but we can'...

Why are we so willing to surrender our time and personal data for free, online, to monopoly type companies like Facebook, Google, et al? To understand that, we need to understand why people spend so much time on sites like Facebook. 5 Drivers of Online Activity Anyone studying digital marketing, development of websites and/or apps, knows that there are five typical activities that drive online activity: Seeking information Interpersonal communication Self-expression Passing time Entertainment Is Privacy the New Cryptocurrency? These days, we tell ourselves that our privacy is sort of like currency that we trade with corporations in exchange for innovation and technology. Doesn’t help that those same corporations have a ravenous hunger for our data and to keep us in engaged, continue to collect more on us than we even understand. Nowadays, Facebook is one of the few sites that successfully delivers all five of the above, albeit it, information seeking...

" As long as consciousness and intelligence go hand in hand, which is more important, will always be a popular discussion point for philosophers. With the pace that technology at today, it's quickly becoming an urgent political and economic issue. " - Yuval Noah Harari, Author.  After watching a robust panel discussion about the future of work last week, it got me thinking... Is there enough of a debate, of the ethical impact of technology? We are not only developing intelligence but a form of intelligence that is no longer reliant on consciousness. Whether it's playing games or driving cars, a computer via machine learning can now evaluate patterns better than we can. This has the potential to make us and our usefulness, about as redundant as the horse and carriage. If intelligence is compulsory, is consciousness nonessential...? The fact is, companies all over the world are already valuing intelligence more highly than consciousness. Is it ...

So, I suddenly wake up and realise. I missed most of 2015. Not to mention all of 2016 and 17. My last post (here at least),  was mid-2015... In technological terms, that's about 3 decades. Like many things, life got in the way, yadda, yadda, yadda, now here we are about to sign off on 2017. Here are some of the events I missed, during that time: SpaceX  lands the Falcon 9 rocket - the first reusable rocket Scientists discover a previously unknown species of early human in South Africa known as  Homo naledi  Princess Charlotte of Cambridge is born while B.B. King, Jackie Collins and one my heroes Ron Clarke died Our smartphones started to sense pressure Driverless cars were being tested on our roads Apple Watch and Apple Pay is released Scientists culture brain matter in a lab 1 Bitcoin was worth about $500 and finally being accepted by some banks North Korea starts annoying the UN No ones thinks for a second, that Donald Trump ...

There is nothing like knowing a good computer shortcut that helps you do things a little faster. It turns out though, most of these aren’t common knowledge, so here they are, my top 10! 1. Charge your smart phone quicker and smarter [MOBILE DEVICE] Heading out in a few minutes and your phone's flat? Switch to 'Airplane Mode' and plug it in to charge. It'll do a high speed charge that will give you those extra few minutes you beg for sometimes. 2. Save time and space-bar to scroll! [DESKTOP] Please stop reaching for that mouse to scroll up or down when you're browsing the net, simply tap the space-bar to go down or Shift + space-bar to scroll up. Yes, this will also work on a MAC or any computer with a browser. So go on, try it. 3. Bigger/smaller text  [DESKTOP] Another one for when you're on the web and the text or image is too small. Hold down the Control button (Command   on Mac) and tap the plus (+) button to zoom in. To zoom out, just ...

Don't have a mobile/responsive site yet? Oops, you stuffed up. April 21, 2015 doesn't only mark 81 years that people have been looking for the famous Loch Ness monster , but more importantly for some business',  it marks the end of you site showing up on Google's mobile search. So if you haven't yet come to the 'mobile party' and optimised your website via either a mobile or responsive site, your website will be harder to find on Google than catching a glimpse of Nessy herself! Starting today, Google expanded their use of 'mobile-friendliness' as a ranking signal . This is an attempt to assist users to find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are essentially optimised for their device. They (Google) did give us fair warning on their blog at the start of the year so if you've been caught out, well, you're probably ranking where you should be. Remember this old post from 2012 about where I was pleading wi...

Here's a list of 3 startups, which are not only inspiring but why I think they will be mega-important in the coming years. 1. gThrive ( www.gthrive.com ) - Silicon Valley CA The What? gThrive have created wireless sensors that farmers can insert in the soil and it dynamically transmits details about the soil condition to the farmer. The farmer then uses this data to optimise the use of water & energy, in various locations of their crop(s). The Why? This is by far the most excising innovation for farmers in areas where water is scarce, such as much of Australia. With kits starting from only $3K, the investment makes perfect sense for farmers. The developers have evidence to show that the system pays for itself in only 12 months. Just think about the possibilities with all the soil data being collected. 2. Be-Bound® ( www.be-bound.com ) - Silicon Valley CA The What? This innovative cloud technology allows you to connect to the internet...