Tag Archive for 'social media'

A Couple of Quick Ones

Published
by
David Parmet
on 1/7/2009
in From The Mailbag
. Comments

Some quick items from our Marketing Begins At Home mailbag:

The Blog Council is sponsoring BlogWell, a day of case studies from big companies using social media. From the website:

BlogWell is the only conference devoted to learning how big businesses successfully participate in social media. You’ll learn directly from the executives at the largest corporations in the world who are engaging in this right now.

This is one I’d love to attend if I could just jet off to Chicago - real case studies from well-known companies on how they are using social media.

and…

Chris Thilk of Spout has pointed me to a new partnership between Spout and MeDeploy to support independent filmmakers. Chris writes:

Spout can help you connect with an audience and make people aware of the movie you’ve made. MeDeploy helps your film be seen, which ultimately is the goal of any filmmaker.

Link

Social media is lowering the barrier to entry in a whole range of industries - from publishing to movies and music. In the case of this partnership, filmmakers now have easy tools to market and distribute their works. Great deal.

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Should PR Own Social Media?

Published
by
David Parmet
on 12/30/2008
in Profound Thoughts
. Comments

Increasingly the discussions around marketing and social media move towards which team should “own” the social media toolkit. On the one hand, advertising with its huge budgets and teams of designers and code-monkeys seem to be the right home for online communications. But increasingly there is a call for social media to fall under the relm of the public relations team.

Kristin Maverick has a good post laying out the rational for this point of view, and cautioning (correctly):

But, as social media has changed the way we think, the traditional PR agency will also need to adapt to the new ways of handling these social media requests. While PR may be the right man for the job right now, it’s also important for PR to include others to help get it done. From partnerships with other specialists to new technologies and advancements emerging everyday, the acceptance of all things changing will only help create successful outcomes and ensure social media success.

Link

I’m inclined to agree, both with the notion that social media is part of public relations, and that traditional PR agencies will have to grow and change their ways of doing business to get the job done. I suppose this is one of those challenges for 2009.

Aside from just “getting it,” whatever your definition of “it” might be, PR agencies are going to have to be a lot smarter on the nuts and bolts of how the Web and social media work. For one thing, to look at many agency web sites, one would be excused for believing the industry is trapped in the late 1990s. Too many agencies have flash intros or sites built entirely on Flash. Too many agencies tout their social media starts but don’t have blogs, or even RSS feeds for their client news. And too many agencies are treating social media now like they treated online communications in the 1990s - as something separate from the “real work” of media relations.

Most of all, PR agencies have to drop the habit of viewing each new social media tool as a means to shout their clients’ messages to as many people as they can grab.

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Thanks For Following!

Published
by
David Parmet
on 12/29/2008
in Clue-less
. Comments
Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

Chris Brogan points to one of my biggest social media pet peeves of 2008. It’s those annoying ‘thanks for following me’ auto-responders on Twitter.

You don’t need to use robots to thank me and click on your stupid website. If you’re too busy to be an actual human on a social network, don’t join another social network. It’s okay. We understand. Lots of people think Twitter is stupid.

Link

Agreed. I’m following you because I figured I’d return the courtesy. Not because I’m interested in finding success, losing weight, buying real estate, finding Jesus or sharing Fantasy Football picks. If that’s all you see in social media - a transaction - then please move on.

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Changing The Way We Work

Published
by
David Parmet
on 12/23/2008
in Client News
. Comments

One of the things I’ve learned in the three years I’ve been a freelancer is that the traditional model of 9 to 5 work is no longer relevant. We now work around the clock, on weekends and we gladly take client calls while on family vacations.

Tony Schwartz is someone who’s been thinking about this and about how it’s impacting our lives and our health. Tony is the author of The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. Tony’s point is that time is finite, we can’t make any more of it. What we can do is adopt healthier ways of getting through our work days - healthier than polishing off a bacon, egg and cheese with a pot of black coffee to start the day, for example.

I’m working with Tony to bring his message to the social media sphere. We’re starting with the launch of Tony’s blog, Changing the Way the World Works.

Please subscribe!

An aside: You’ll be able to tell right away that Tony’s background is as a writer and journalists - it’s actually a pleasure to work with someone who knows how to express his or herself with the written word.

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Joining The Club

Published
by
David Parmet
on 12/18/2008
in news
. Comments

adhocniumI’m pleased to announce that I’ve added my name to the Ad-Hocnium gang of brilliant social media gurus. Chris’s vision of an ad-hoc agency of social media experts fits neatly into my notion of where the agency world needs to go.

Ad-Hocnium is bringing together some of the smartest and most experienced people in the blogopshere and social media universe.  As Chris puts it in the announcement:

Together we are a sort of talent co-op, strengthening our reputations by association and learning from each other too.  We are making formal our informal and largely invisible trust network, differentiating ourselves from the wave of social media consultants who have become micro-celebrities and promise to help your brand do the same, but have no real business backgrounds or long term experience. By focusing on the end goal of innovation and transformation, we are not limited to social media solutions - we can think differently about business processes, branding, marketing campaigns, customer support, hiring, training, partnerships, sales and other aspects of operations even.

PRWeek also has the news.

Update: Fellow catalyst Neville Hobson adds:

What I find especially thrilling is when an alliance of such people, in different places around the world, starts to coalesce where everyone involved doesn’t yet know exactly how the thing will work out but is willing to throw some hats into the ring to find out.

Link

Of course this does not change my status as a freelancer - Ad-Hocnium is just that - ad-hoc. I’ll still be here doing my existing client work and blogging away as always.

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