Engaging with and empowering your customers as an extension of your marketing efforts isn’t new. However, in the era of Social Media, there are new tools and philosophies to more effectively listen and engage with customers and in turn, cultivate a more significant community, enhance your brand, build relationships, and hopefully create evangelists along the way. Participation is marketing. Intention is everything. Actions speak louder than words. Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t about spam or doing what marketing seems…
IABC, SNCR Take Lead in Standardization of Social Media Release
Today, along with Shel Holtz, Chris Heuer, Todd Defren, Shannon Whitley, and the Society of New Communications Research (SNCR), we are officially announcing that the IABC will take a leadership role in the Social Media Release Workgroup. Through cooperation with IABC and SNCR, the Workgroup receives an incredible boost in resources and visibility to help define real world standards and provide usable and helpful resources for PR professionals to understand the intentions and role of SMRs and how to create…
Gary Vaynerchuk Puts the Social in Social Media
Shot at SXSW08 If there’s one person who personifies the words, “Internet Rock Star” or “Internet Famous,” there’s no need to look any further than Gary Vaynerchuk, host of WineLibraryTV. Gary is the epitome of the old adage, “If I can do it, anyone can do it.” Vaynerchuck’s passion, dedication, and perseverance has given way to success that has yet to reveal it’s full potential. He’s moving on up… The Web is fertile ground for those who can transcend its…
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…
Should PR Agencies Blog?
Sam Lawrence lit a fire under those in Social Media and PR today by sharing a story about whether or not his PR agency of record should blog about working with Jive Software. Jeremiah Owyang, Chris Brogan, Strumpette, and many others discussed it on Twitter (my favorite place for listening to and joining amazing and insightful conversations.) Sam’s headline says it all, “I want our new PR Agency to blog about us but they don’t want to.” He’s certainly no…
Social Media is Not The Final Frontier of Marketing
Pierre Far has a thoughtful post asking whether or not Social Media is the final frontier of marketing. He concludes that if you could answer the question, then you might be the next Seth Godin. Well, not even Google can help me turn up the consensus on the subject. However, the Holy Grail of marketing is an active discussion. To be fair, Pierre’s path to staging the original question and exploring potential answers is interesting and insightful. The history of…
Get Rich Quick with Social Media Marketing
I guess Social Media has arrived and I should say that I’m not surprised by some of the things I see these days. It was bound to happen. Really good friend, and someone I admire, Erica O’Grady, pointed me to a very interesting conference coming up that has temporarily deflated my hopes for elevating and empowering marketing communications passionate marketers along with it. The conference is not in any way, attempting to mask its intentions… How To Use Blogs, Podcasts,…
Social Media Releases In Action
I recently ran “The Definitive Guide to Social Media Releases,” which has received some great feedback. Thank you everyone! Even though it’s a blog post, it doesn’t mean that its shelf life is merely limited to the brief period of time in between new posts. I’d like it to live on and evolve over time as we learn more about SMRs. And, you’re a big part of that evolution. I was planning on letting that post sit up there for…
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…
PR People: Do As I Say, and, As I Do
…bloggers, reporters, that goes for you too. Tom Foremski and me at a recent PRSA event, holding “Now is Gone” You’ve heard it a million times. Read the work of the person you’re trying to reach before you pitch them. Sometimes we do. Most of the time we don’t. And, we’ve all witnessed what happens when you don’t – thank you very much Mr. Chris Anderson. Tom Foremski is not only a brilliant journalist, videographer, and blogger, he is also…
