Jonathan Crow of ThinkFree recently conducted what he calls The Great Social Experiment where he tested and practiced the art of online social networking as a strategy for helping his company join the conversation across popular online communities and in turn, evaluate the business implications for doing so. Crow assembled a roundtable of those active in the Social Media landscape to offer feedback, commentary, constructive criticism, and advice for the good of all marketing. Those joining the conversation are Chris…
The Art and Science of Social Media and Community Relations
This post is in memory of Marc Orchant, an amazing friend, father, and geek, whom I will miss dearly. Marc was supposed to participate in this discussion. His unexpected passing has us all devastated. Our prayers and support are with his family. Social networking, and social media specifically, have been painted as the new marketing landscape for businesses to engage with their communities of customers wherever they congregate. In my view, we’re starting to hit a ceiling of discussion versus…
The Blog Council, Intentions vs. Execution
Behind these closed doors, a virtual council of big business marketers will meet to discuss how to best engage with people through blogs and all forms of social media. The Blog Council exists as a forum for executives to meet one another in a private, vendor-free environment and share tactics, offer advice based on past experience, and develop standards-based best practices as a model for other corporate blogs. Founding members include the leading companies from a diverse range of business…
Mark Zuckerberg Listens and Responds to Beacon Crisis
In my last post, Facebook is a Beacon for Bad PR, I called for Mark Zuckerberg to respond using the very system which they own and operate. “Think about it Mark. You’re sitting on a multi-billion dollar infrastructure for connecting people. Use it! Mark, learn from Steve Jobs. Write a letter and apologize. Engage your community using the incredible social features that are designed to facilitate conversations in your network. Regain the trust of your community and watch as everyone…
Facebook is a Beacon for Bad PR
This is part of my crisis communications 2.0 program that discusses how companies should communicate with people during the good and especially the bad times using traditional and new media. I’ve been sitting on this post for a while, although I touched upon it at bub.blicio.us recently and also discussed it with Alan Levy on his BlogTalkRadio program last week. Robert Scoble’s plea for Facebook PR pushed me to finish it. It’s important to understand from the beginning that this…
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…
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…
Blog This! December 1, 2007
Now is Gone, Our Book, Gets a Group on Facebook Thanks to Peter Corbett who created the group. And also thanks to Jane Quigley for creating a “Product” page for the book on Facebook as well. Buy Now is Gone now! Great Moments in PR PR is just getting slammed by bloggers who are right in their complaints about lazy flacks, but wrong in their approach to change things for the better. Social Media Is Organic Ike Pigott is awesome…
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…
