Last week, after Facebook finally rolled out Timeline for Pages, a bunch of us in the Pusher office, and across the interworldwideweb, were indignant: “What do you mean, no-call-to-action-on-the-cover-photo-only-pin-for-seven-days-can’t-make-a-like-gate-BALLS!?” we said*, “Now what do we tell our clients?”

Of course, we soon calmed down. Timeline means a deeper, richer story-telling opportunity for brands. More show, less tell: a more engaging on brand experience for the consumer.

Now, Facebook has announced Interest Lists, an obvious grab at part of Twitter’s appeal. So what does this mean, and what does it mean in conjunction with what we already know about Timeline?

To explain, I’m going to ask you to imagine you’re me. Your interests include (like all other 20-somethings): indie music and pretending to like things your nanna used to do (you know, knitting, pickling herrings … reading). You follow many Pages on Facebook related to these interests. Now, finally, you can group these Pages into categories (Interest Lists) so your news feed becomes less of a visual assault. The thing is, you will only look at these Interest Lists when you have a burning desire to, and even then you won’t have much time so you will only click on what you think is best/most relevant/most cool.

This, combined with Timeline, means two key things for brands:

 A greater imperative to post well-curated content – This is a no brainer. If your content is appearing in a feed with other similar content, it has to be the smartest, the most relevant, and the best looking. And having this sort of content is only going to have positive spillover for the way your Timeline looks and feels.

 An opportunity to be perceived as trusted experts in your field/industry – This is big. If you do achieve the above, and you’re not just posting specifically about your brand, you gradually become a reputable source of information relating to your industry, which in turn builds trust and loyalty for your brand. And of course this too has spillover for Timeline, because the story you’re telling becomes richer.

What are your thoughts on the Timeline + Interest Lists combo, and the potential impact on brands? Throw your comment below.

*surely someone actually said that.

It’s Sunday night here in Austin, Texas, but today (as the sun finally came out) the city came alive. SXSW really is the Easter Show of digital media! We’ve strategically parked the RV in a empty lot next to Google Village, a series of houses that have been converted into bars providing 24×7 free drinks and food.

So far we have attended about 8 talks with the highlight being Jeremy Sanchez and Robert Davis from Ogilvy US showing off some solid tips around achieving online video success. A couple of takeouts: use your written script in the description text if it fits, as it relates exactly to the content hence great for search. And almost NO ONE makes it to the end of a YouTube video, so don’t waste your time with a 5 second end frame call to action. People won’t see it.

The panel discussion around Fantasy Leagues Football also scored a touch-down, with Bloomberg showing how they adapted their stock market data analysis tools to visualise the data from Baseball statistics. Star Quarterback Greg Jennings from Green Bay Packers was also present to give the NFL players perspective on Fantasy. Amazingly, we heard that 48% of the traffic to NFL.com is Fantasy League related!

The real Frank Abagnale of hit flick ‘Catch Me If You Can’ fame also gave a Keynote presentation on the security of data and internet fraud. While he’s been free for over 17 years from his deal with the FBI, he feels guilty to this day and now works with the FBI. His biggest tip was to use Credit Cards, not Debit, placing the liability in the event of fraud back onto the banks.

Aussie’s are abundant; exciting to see how passionate we are as a nation about digital media. Last night was an Aussie catch up with about 15 of us including Ben Cooper, Julian Cole, Adam Good and a few others, hence why I’ve been nursing the hangover today.

A couple of quick tips:

1. Plan ahead & turn up early to everything

Without seeing final stats, my guess is there’s at least 20,000 interactive attendees, so the most popular talks fill up quick meaning you need to plan your day well and expect to be waiting in line. Registering on Friday we had around 1,000 people in the line alone.

2. Get an RV

So far we have had a blast cruising in the RV, and it’s actually larger than most hotels. Check out questrv.com to choose your ride. It’s America so take our word for it, ‘biggest IS best’.

3. Don’t buy any beer

We’ve never seen so much free beer! Say the word Google and a beer magically appears in your hand.

More to come tomorrow so stay peeled to our digital channels.

For those that don’t know, SXSW is hailed as the premier creative conference of the year. It comprises three individual festivals: one for music, film and interactive. For close to two weeks the city of Austin, Texas, is completely taken over by the conference, which has close to 20,000 attendees for the interactive festival alone. Every hour of every day in conference halls across the city attendees are given a choice of literally 50+ talks by industry leaders, entrepreneurs, inventors and experts. While at night, the city becomes one big party. Not a bad way to spend your working week.

This year Pusher is touring the event in a 33-foot custom motor-home, our very own Pusher HQ USA!  We’ll keep y’all updated daily with conference highlights through this blog, or check out B&T Magazine daily. Want more? Follow us at @pusher_sydney for real time updates, sharing, and banter.

Woolworths new virtual supermarket launched in Town Hall Station this morning giving shoppers the ability to use the Woolworths mobile app to scan barcodes on the wall to add them to their virtual trolley, then check-out and pay through the app before finally deciding where and when the items will be delivered. With a minimum $30 spend and the cost of delivery being about $5 to $10 per trolley load (and a max cost of $13 per delivery) shopping while waiting in line to buy your next train ticket has never been easier. Well done Woolies! After seeing this concept praised for innovation less then a year ago in Korea (when launched by Tesco) it’s great to see it being trialled in Sydneytown.

A few weeks ago the beer fridge (the big double door one) went on the blink.  Since then there’s been a few miserable Friday arvos as beer o’clock has ticked past with just a few cold 6-packs on offer. Good news is a new fridge went in today! And our good Doctor of operations packed it full of beer, cider and blanc. “Yay!” I hear Kiri say, and double “Yay!” from Elaine…plus a triple “Yay!” from Mike as it came with a new dishwasher for the agency too!