New media is forcing the rapid evolution of communications and is reinventing the science of public relations into the art of “personalized” relations. And, with micromedia further refining and improving how we communicate with each other, PR is going to learn the hard way, that the days of blasts and untargeted spam pitching will get us nowhere with today’s influencers. Stowe Boyd placed a stake in the ground during the Web 2.0 Expo with the introduction of #TwitPitch, a very…
Making Mistakes and Amends in Blogger and Media Relations
In the rapidly shifting era of blogger and media relations, we can expect one thing to occur as we forge ahead, mistakes. It happens to the best and the worst of us. This isn’t a generic post on how not to make mistakes, or if you do, how to apologize, per se. This is an example of true transparency and public soul searching that will hopefully help and inspire PR practitioners, journalists, and bloggers to learn from the mistakes of…
In Blogger and Media Relations, You Earn the Relationships You Deserve
Every now and again a reporter or blogger decides to shake up the PR industry by showcasing how we FAIL, flop, or simply when we do things wrong. Some do so out of anger, others are genuine in their desire to help, while some are simply tired and do so out of spite. This time around however, Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb has started a conversation that proactively helps PR and communications professionals learn how to more effectively work with influential…
Will The Real Social Media Expert Please Stand Up?
Social Media is everything you know and nothing about what you think or do in marketing. Sounds strange eh? It’s true though. Think about how you approach marketing campaigns today and the picture will become a bit clearer. – You evaluate target demographics. – Develop strategic messages. – Conduct an audit or focus group. – Revise messages and fine-tune the plan. – Determine the broadcast mechanisms to push your content. – Go live. – Monitor the response. – Evaluate the…
Making Mistakes in Social Media Marketing
We all make mistakes. It’s amazing how much saying sorry helps. But even saying sorry doesn’t fix those affected 100%. We’re all learning together, at least those of us who don’t pretend we’re already experts. Making mistakes in Social Media Marketing is a lot like sticking daggers into a wooden fence. Just because you apologize and pull them out, they still leave the visible scars for others to see, feel, or point to. Sometimes apologies help people feel better, but…
Now is Gone is “Now” an Award Winning Book
What a surprising and incredible way to end an unbelievably tumultuous week. Good friend and co-author Geoff Livingston and I were informed that our book, Now is Gone, was awarded Silver in Axiom’s 2008 Business Book Awards. We tied Linda VandeVrede’s book, Press Releases Are Not a PR Strategy, in the Advertising/Marketing/PR/Event Planning category. More than 400 books were judged for the awards, and a little more than a 100 won medals. The official awards ceremony is in New York…
Transforming Customers into Evangelists: The Art of Listening and Engagement
I recently hosted a workshop at the Satisfaction event, Customer Service is the New Marketing. The topic I’m focused on was, “How to Listen to the Market and How to Engage Customers Online.” Fellow workshop leaders include Christopher Carfi, Deb Schultz, Chris Heuer, Jeremiah Owyang, Becky Carroll, and Douglas Hanna. Empowering your customers to become an extension of your marketing and sales forces isn’t new, but it isn’t widely embraced either. In fact, the function of most customer service has…
Customer Service is the New, New Marketing
The topic of empowering your customers so that they become an extension of your marketing isn’t new. Transforming people into a surrogate sales force is the dream of any service organization. The difference today is that the landscape has shifted to the point where good customer service is no longer the minimum ante to play the game. Over the next decade, customer service will fuse with marketing to become a holistic inbound, outbound campaign of listening to and engaging with…
Now is Gone, Now Available
Wow. It’s real. Now is Gone is now officially available. The book that Geoff Livingston and I worked on together is finally out there and I am humbled. It’s currently available on Amazon and Bartleby Press (autographed edition). For those on the West Coast, we’ll be hosting a launch party in early December and for those on the East Coast, we’ll see you in either December or January. Thank you Geoff for this opportunity and thank you to everyone out…
Engage or Die! ROI vs. ROP in Social Media
This isn’t an attempt at sensationalism, this is a clear message for all businesses, in every market – Engage or die! If you don’t, you’re competition will. Those who engage with customers and markets will cultivate loyalty in ways never before possible. Traditional marketers will lose, unless they embrace new media. The key however, is finding ways to measure everything in ways that mean something at every level of corporate communications. In any given day, I will sell, evangelize, educate,…
