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…
Learn, Discuss, Debate The Social Media Press Release Live on March 4, 2008
There is certainly no shortage of discussions related to the Social Media Release. It’s like that old saying. For every one person who speaks up, you can bet that it represents a greater collective of sentiment within the public. So, for every post or article on the Social Media Release, you can bet that there are countless PR veterans, emerging professionals, and students are who are intrigued, confused, supportive, or against the notion of a new platform for sharing, distributing,…
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…
Discussing the Social Media Release
I recently had the opportunity to discuss the Social Media Release with Shel Holtz for IABC‘s official podcast, Cafe2Go. As Shel asks, “Why are we talking about the Social Media Release on Cafe2Go?” The short answer is that the IABC is assuming a role in the development of SMR standards. An official announcement is slated for mid-week next week that will go into more detail. I also was invited by Valerie Combs and Sandra Ponce De Leon of BuzzLogic to…
Lifestreams and Activity Feeds Channel Your Online Brand
Friendfeed officially launched this week making it the latest entrant into the foray of applications dedicated to channeling lifestreams and activity feeds. It also happens to be the newest ambassador for the emerging microblog and micromedia categories. FriendFeed offers a unique way to discover and discuss information among friends,” said Bret Taylor, FriendFeed co-founder. It’s a great way to sift through the overwhelming amount of information available on the Web. FriendFeed has the information that you care about, because it’s…
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…
Twitxr is the Twitter for Pictures
by Brian Solis We have Twitter for text, Seesmic for video, Jott for voice, utterz for all forms of multimedia, and now we have Twitxr for your pictures. Yep, it’s the latest shiny new micromedia service – meaning that you’re can share and discovery content in “Byte-sized” portions. Twitxr, however, allows you to tell your story through text and pictures. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch calls it photoblogging. But, if Twitter and Tumblr are to blogging what twitxr is to photoblogging,…
