Even if our local media doesn’t notice or just plainly ignores, Newcastle has a thriving urban micro-blogging scene happening on Twitter.

It may not be as large as Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane micro-blogging communities or have lots of well organised Twitter events, but we have enthusiasm and a growing influence.

This is why I have decided to recognise our local secene with the formation of the ‘Most Influential Newcastle Twitterer’s’ list.

I hope to publish it every month.

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For me, the past 12 months have been about growing my personal and business network online with the help of Twitter and less about attending local business networking events.

Social-Media-Campaign
Originally uploaded by Gary Hayes

On the face of it, micro-blogging sites like Twitter or Plurk are seen by some senior executives as an indulgence with no real benefit, but if they took a closer look they’ll find a whole new business world, where distance and corporate gatekeepers don’t really matter.

My poison of choice is Twitter. Arguably the biggest and best, but the main thing for me is I’m engaging people with similar interests and tastes – welcome to my new improved personal and business network.

A personal and business network stretching across borders, oceans, cultures and industries. A personal and business network without a glass ceiling or that discriminates due to social status, business title or where you live. A personal and business network designed to give you the freedom to connect with people you like and have a chat.

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  The Coffee Cup Club 
  Originally uploaded by Miki, Queen of Planet Goodaboom

This week, I certainly had my share of excitement, but the pinnacle
had to be the social media gathering in Sydney, on Tuesday night.

A gathering of Australia’s blogging glitterarti to meet Joseph Jaffe
and welcome Julian Cole and Marketing Mag’s online editor, Scott
Drummond to New South Wales.

Sorry Victoria, it looks like Sydney is the
social media capital of Australia or is it Newcastle?

However, less about me and more on some bloody good blogging reads:

• Media Hunter, Craig Wilson covers our social media soiree
• Servant of Chaos, Gavin Heaton this week has reminded me that my blogroll is not dead. Thanks, Gavin I’m onto it.
• Adspace Pioneers, Julian Cole’s crusading social media blog gives some constructive criticism on a new viral campaign
• A Blog About Digital Media, Ben Shepherd looks at a few Olympic video frustrations
• Mathew Packer’s great Newcastle ranting blog on everything and everyone

Now back to drinking my coffee:)

In this month’s issue of Marketing Magazine, regular marketing columnist Julian Cole has announced his Top 50 Australian Marketing Pioneers Blogs and Sticky Advertising’s very own bloggers Media Hunter and The Marketer claimed the number 18 and 22 spots, respectively.

According to Julian Cole: ”With Sticky Advertising having the minds of Media Hunter (Craig Wilson) and The Marketer (Gordon Whitehead) it would not be surprised if it was top dog in social media by 2010.”

Julian Cole and the team at Marketing Magazine saw a need for a filtering of the insightful marketing blogs from the total time wasters. While many marketers realize the power of blogs, they often don’t read them, simply because they don’t know where to find them.

“Blog’s excel at breaking news stories related to their industry, generating new marketing strategies or showcasing advice on marketing challenges. Believe it or not, blogs are now influencing the rest of your learning sources too.”  says Julian.

The Top 50 Australian Marketing Pioneers Blogs is a ranking of the top media and marketing blogs in Australia, as developed by digital strategist and blogger, Julian Cole. Released quarterly in Marketing Magazine, the rankings are constructed using six different comparative scores out of 10. 

1. Google Page Ranking (ranking from Google)
2. Technorati authority ( the number of unique blogs pointing to their blog)
3. Pioneer ranking (subjective score by Julian Cole, depending on how pioneering the content of the blog is)
4. Technorati blogs reactions (the number of times the blog is mentioned by others)
5. Alexa traffic rankings (ranking in terms of website), and
6. Bloglines (the number of subscriptions)