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…
Taking a Moment to Promote Now Is Gone
What a week! On 11/27, I joined Mike McGrath and Geoff Livingston on Digital Society, McGrath’s show on BlogTalkRadio, to discuss our book Now is Gone and the principles and strategies on how to use social media to engage your customers. Then it was off to the annual PRSA Media Predicts event at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. It was nice to catch up with old and new friends. I made sure to pass around Now Is Gone…
The Pitch is Dead – R.I.P.
Scroll below to read with a white background. We are gathered here to not mourn the death of “the pitch,” but to celebrate its life and how its misuse and oft irrelevance helped us improve the entire communications industry. R.I.P. Journalists and bloggers have had it and they’re fighting back. Quite honestly, it’s been a long time coming and we’re bound to see more blacklists and PR people called out for their mistakes. Hey, it happens to the best, and…
The New Rules of Breaking News, Beware of Embargoes
Part Four of a series discussing blogger relations, “Building a Bridge Between Your Story, Bloggers, and People.” Scroll to the bottom to read this article with a white background. The New Rules of Breaking News was written to open your mind and unlock creativity when introducing new products and services. It subscribes to the notion that there isn’t one “audience” to any given story or campaign. There are opportunities outside of the usual routine of drafting press releases and blasting…
Bloggers Versus PR – The Aftermath and What We Learned
Aaron Brazell of Technosailor hosted an incredible and informative roundtable to discuss the state of PR, reporters, and bloggers. The conversation was focused on five questions and included the answers of Doug Haslam, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Cathryn Hrudicka, Marc Orchant, and yours truly. Following is the complete Q&A; with my answers to help make it easier to read. The complete balance of everyone’s answers are available at Technosailor. (Also scroll down to the bottom to download this as a Word doc…
The Art of Letting Go: Now Is Gone Podcast Series #3
On the heels of the official book release, Geoff Livingston and I continue our podcast series discussing the seven principles of community engagement uncovered in Now is Gone. Message control is the antithesis of social media, which enables people to communicate The video “The Break-Up” serves as the ideal example of this culture clash (just replace the word “Advertising” on his shirt with “Public Relations” and play along Companies will lose their customer relationships if they don’t learn how to…
Blogworld Expo: Building Relationships with Bloggers
Building relationships with bloggers has been the hot topic of the last year, with an emphasis on the last couple of weeks – courtesy of Mr. Chris Anderson (btw, thank you Chris for sparking some of the most important and invigorating discussions to take place in PR in quite some time). I was invited to join Marc Harty of PR Traffic to speak about how and why to build relationships with bloggers at Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas. The room…
PR Roundtable Discussion: Advice on Media and Blogger Relations
Aaron Brazell, Director of Technology at b5media has lined up a handful of well-respected voices on both sides of the PR game to host a “roundtable” discussion on Social Media. It’s a five part series with the third post running today at Technosailor. The roundtable includes Doug Haslam, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Cathryn Hrudicka, Marc Orchant, and yours truly. Click here to read more about the participants. Question 5: What advice would you give to your own industry in engaging the other…
Blogworld Expo – PR Do’s and Don’t’s
I participated in the PR Do’s and Don’t’s session at Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas. I have to say that this was one of the smartest panels I’ve had the opportnity to join in a while. Everyone just got it! The number one takeaway from the session is that PR needs to remember that whether dealing with reporters or bloggers, it’s all about people, relationships, and adding value. And at the end of the day, Public Relations is the responsibility…
PR Roundtable Discussion: Outing Bad PR
Aaron Brazell, Director of Technology at b5media has lined up a handful of well-respected voices on both sides of the PR game to host a “roundtable” discussion on Social Media. It’s a five part series with the third post running today at Technosailor. The roundtable includes Doug Haslam, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Cathryn Hrudicka, Marc Orchant, and yours truly. Click here to read more about the participants. Question 4: Is “outing” a wayward PR agency or individual an effective way of dealing…
