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Twin Cities Social Media Pros: Can We Engage Your Help?

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

One of the most common questions I hear about our Evening With Brian Solis event on July 27 is, “Why are you producing a social media education event that could end up educating your competition?”

The answer is simple … if your job is in social media, this event isn’t for you.

It’s for your clients.

Brian’s BOOK is for you. (And, if you are indeed an enterprising, social media superstar, you’ll probably read Engage whether I tell you about it or not.)

So, why educate your clients?

That answer is simple, too …. educated clients benefit us all.

Lead the camels to water.

Although many of us work in a world where we can watch watercooler debates via social feeds all day and hang with other people who whip out their phones and tweet the funny jokes they just heard, the reality is … um …. that’s not reality.

While social media is a business tool (and a powerful one at that), many businesses are still just circling it like hungry sharks nudging a surfboard to determine if it’s a seal.Engage by BrianSolis

This is still largely uncharted terrain. And the parts we have charted continue to shift overnight, as if someone passed a magnet over our collective strategic compass.

Each day there are new concepts to understand, new tools to explore and new resources to review.

Companies are intrigued, but they’re also seriously freaked out.

And, if you’re working in this field like we are, you’re likely seeing that, too — in the form of RFPs that get abandoned, social strategies that don’t get implemented and community managers who are jettisoned for failing to tweet their way to increased profits.

Help them take a drink.

If we’re going to be grown-up professionals and make social media a grown-up industry, it’s going to take more than 140 character oaths and Foursquare mayorships.

We’re going to need to work together to pave the way for insight and acceptance in companies of all shapes and sizes.

The more that companies “get it,” the more they’re going to realize that it takes special skills and special people to capitalize on that “it.”

I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be one of those people.

Be the ambassador.

If you’re sitting on the front lines of this industry, you’ll find much “food for thought” in Brian’s book – much of it far too deep or technical to cover in one evening talk.

Instead, our July 27 event is your chance to have someone who essentially just wrote the “how to” manual for social success make the case to your clients (and potential clients). You get to be the lucky ambassador sitting next to them who can capitalize on that excitement.

(Register using our special “bring your client” rate and you’ll be a fiscally-responsible ambassador, too.)

So, is that, “helping my competition?”

Perhaps.

Being a “social ambassador” at Brian’s presentation could mean that someday you’ll win a gig that my company is also vying for.

But, if we don’t first work together to educate companies, in the end, we all wind up losing.

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Posted in Kane Co Events, New Media Marketing, New Media PR, Thoughts on the Industry | 3 Comments »

My 36 Days of Brian: An “Engage” Challenge.

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

Brian Solis is coming to Minnesota on Tuesday, July 27 to talk about his new book Engage (and I’m sure a host of other smart things – if you’ve read the book, you’ll know what I’m talking about).

I’ve got 36 business days between now and then to assemble a tribe of people to come see him.

How am I going to do that?

In order to spread the word about this event, I’ve created a challenge for myself based on a key concept in the book (and one of my personal soapbox issues): engaging through effective social media content.

(And yeah, the title of the challenge is a nod to the movie, “500 Days of Summer,” too. Um … cause it’s summer and this dance number makes me happy).

So, why a content challenge?

As social media has grown in popularity, it has contributed to a rise in the art of “short form communications.” We’ve got a lot to say, but now we have less space to say it in and readers who will devote less time to reading it.

Applications like Twitter are forcing us to find new ways to make an impression and engage with our audiences. As James Poniewozik said in this week’s TIME, “Twitter is pure voice, an exercise in implying character through detail and tone.”

It’s a style of writing that we’re still learning to master.

If I were to tweet: “@BrianSolis is coming to Minneapolis on July 27. Register Now: http://bit.ly/aigVPP” every day for the next 36 days, the repercussions would be troublesome. And yet, this is how many people approach their social media content:

  • Facts included? Check.
  • Link attached? Check.
  • Optimized keywords seeded? Check.
  • Shorten for “retweet-ability” Check.
This is Brian Solis. We are quite fond of him.

This is Brian Solis. We are quite fond of him.

But those qualities are just scratching at the surface of what makes good content for social media engagement, (It’s akin to thinking that you’re going to get lucky at a party tonight simply because you know for sure that your breath doesn’t smell.)

You devalue and dehumanize your social audiences when you limit yourself to a checklist of content logistics.

Think of the doors that you could open, and the relationships that you could deepen, if you were to ask yourself bigger questions, like:

  • Is this content interesting?
  • Will anyone want to read this?
  • Does this content offer a solution to anyone’s problems?
  • Is this content about/relevant to “them” and not just “me?”

Professionally, I’m often tasked with teaching clients how to artfully marry the answers to the questions above with the practical logistics of short-form communications. And I’ll admit, it’s not always an easy process.

The reality is that it takes practice to write 140 characters of content that is both optimized and eloquent.

The “36 Days of Brian” Challenge

To that end, I’ve developed a “36 Days of Brian” challenge for myself, as both an exercise and an illustration of the power/practice of writing for the social web.

Each day, for the next 36 business days, I’m going to share one post, tweet or update about Brian Solis through one of our Kane Consulting social media channels. (Most likely, many of these will be tweets, primarily because I like Twitter best.)

My goal is to produce content that people will actually take a moment to read (and, ideally, share), to take advantage of all the hallmarks of short-form writing and (of course) to entice you to come hear him speak next month.

I’m human and hardly a master of the form, so I’m sure I will write some clunkers during the next 35 days (this blog post is fulfilling my requirements for day one), so I hope you will hang in there with me. But, I hope you will learn with me, too.

As Poniewozik also said in his article, “give people 140 characters and they’ll take a mile.”

I’m going to try to run mine in 36 days.

I look forward to your feedback, participation and questions along the way and hope you can join me for Brian’s talk on Tuesday, July 27.

For more information on An Evening With Brian Solis, visit our website or check out the press release.

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Posted in Education Opportunities, Kane Co Events, New Media Marketing, New Media PR | Comments Off

Marketing Personas: The “Non Grata” Guest on the Social Web

Friday, May 7th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

I just returned home from Boston, where I attended my third conference produced by Marketing Profs.

I came away recharged by the event’s two outstanding keynotes, David Weinberger and Mitch Joel, and, as always, enjoyed networking with some fabulously smart people from around the country.

As a marketer who works most heavily in the social space, it was through that lens which I viewed the breakout sessions I attended at the conference.

What I saw often surprised me.

The Marketing Profs conferences attract some pretty traditional marketing types (lots of suits at this event).

While there seemed to be much more acceptance of social media among these attendees than in the past (last year, participants seemed far more wary), there wasn’t much indication that marketers were making fundamental changes in their business practices when it came to working in that space.

Social seemed to be just other marketing channel – the assumption being that you take the tried and true schema of push marketing, move it to this new environment and, “presto!” – “viral” magic will abound.

In this scenario, the marketer is still comfortably driving the bus – setting editorial calendars, directing traffic and counting clicks.

The marketing power of reality.

The most striking illustration of this “same practice; new channel” thinking was the continual reference in sessions to “marketing personas.”

Marketing personas are an integral part of the marketing process at most companies, born from in-depth client and customer research, but also including some insights from “the land of make believe.”

Understandably, marketing personas are enormously comforting to businesses:

  • They give your customers/clients a face you can relate to.
  • They help you get a fix on a moving demographic target.
  • They don’t argue with your ideas when they’re still in their embryonic form.

But, the problem is that personas don’t exist in social media … people do.

Each one of these people offers the world a very public profile of who they are and what they want and need.

Hi! I'm Carol, a generically attractive stock photo selected to serve as the focus of your marketing daydreams.

Hi! I'm Carol, a generically attractive stock photo selected to serve as the focus of your marketing daydreams.

With all that information at our fingertips, why put so much faith in fantasy debates about whether “Carol” likes television or is “fashion-forward?”

If you’ve strategically built and cultivated social networks for your company, you have access to a think tank of thousands of “Carols,” whom you can poll any time and use to crowdsource a host of new ideas.

What’s more, those interactions can give the real “Carols” an opportunity to develop a relationship with your company. As a result, not only will they be acting as sources of customer intelligence, they’re likely to double back and be your actual customers, too.

Real people are mean and scary.

One session at the conference provided a fascinating example of the enduring power (and pitfalls) of marketing personas.

The presenter was describing her B2B company and put up a slide with a picture of a young man in a snarky T-shirt (which incidentally, is the official dress code of SXSWi). Next to this photo was an equally snarky quote from this man’s blog.

The quote (and the blog) was written by a man named Todd.

Todd, the presenter explained, was their target client and one of their key marketing personas. His snarkiness and sarcasm represented all of the potential hurdles this company might have to overcome in their marketing efforts. “This guy HATED us,” the presenter confided.

So at the end of the session, I asked the $100,000 social media question … “Did you ever talk to Todd?”

The answer was … “no.”

Sadly, no one in the room seemed shocked by this answer. But, I certainly was.

Todd is not an archetype or a fictional persona. He is real person, accessible through social channels.

So what would be the harm in following Todd on Twitter? Posting a comment on his blog, thanking him for sharing his insights? Wooing him in some small social way?

Well, of course, the harm is that Todd is scary. He’s real and complex and could be a handful to control. Todd also may not welcome this company’s overtures with open arms. (Actually, he most definitely won’t if they start the conversation by sending some “push marketing” his way).

On the other hand, Todd could also be the linchpin brand advocate that could take this company’s marketing to the next level. Not only is he vocal, he’s a publisher, who, if won over, could share his testimonial with THOUSANDS of potential clients.

At the very least, he might ultimately decide that he’s still not wild about the presenter’s company, but will refrain from bad-mouthing them (a show of respect, in return for the respect the company had shown in reaching out to him).

Ultimately, this is a hypothetical scenario. (I don’t know Todd and I don’t know this company.)

But, I do know that this case study is not an anomaly.

Take the new road.

I am not suggesting that the practice of establishing marketing personas be abolished. They serve a purpose, and in most marketing practices, they make a lot of sense.

But social media (although it is a marketing channel like any other) has its own unique needs.

Marketing personas are not one of them.

Assigning imaginary qualities to real people to better understand them makes about as much sense as anthropomorphizing a grizzly bear and determining that he’s lonely and needs a hug.

(You may be right … but more often than not, you’re going to get eaten alive.)

To be successful in the social space, marketers need to evolve and modify their approach:

  • Listen first; market second.
  • Crowdsource editorial ideas and THEN publish.
  • Direct traffic intuitively, without manufacturing social corrals.
  • Measure clicks, but also the value of your human connections.

As Robert Frost so eloquently put it:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

If you want to market using social media, you need to take that new road.

This less traveled one may be bumpier, but the journey will be no less productive. And, if you can loosen up on your reins, indeed, it will make all the difference.

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Posted in New Media Marketing, New Media PR, Thoughts on the Industry | 4 Comments »

Marketing and PR: Can Social Media Bring them Together?

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

In a recent blog post, Beth Harte commented that social media gives us “a window into what our customers are really thinking, where they interact, how to engage with them, etc.”

The question I’ve been absorbed with this week is … who owns that window?

Social media is a tool we can use for marketing, public relations, customer service, sales, networking, conversation and a host of other functions.

For some companies, finding a common ground on strategy, tone and approach between all of these areas is simply a matter of compromise and consolidation.

In most cases though, this isn’t the case.

Survey Says …

My colleague, Kary Delaria, and I are currently working with Vocus on a white paper reviewing the results of a recent survey they administered to nearly 1,000 marketing and PR professionals on the topic of integrated communications. (We’ll be presenting the results in a free webinar next week.)

Social media was a common theme running through the survey data.

It was often cited as the impetus for companies to revisit integration strategies. But, just as equally, it was also cited as the source of some of the biggest turf battles that are preventing integration from being fully possible.

While I imagine these battles are playing out among many departments, this particular study focused on one that may be perhaps the most gnarly: the struggle for ownership between marketing and PR.

Not surprisingly, one of the key findings in this study is that social media is blurring the lines between marketing and PR.

Personally, I think this is a great thing. I love that social media can serve as a “common denominator” for both marketing and PR objectives.

But, apparently not everyone is such a fan of this idea.

Now play nice, you two.

While the big picture data in the Vocus survey was pretty straightforward, it was in the responses to the open-ended questions in the survey where some of those turf battle claws started coming out.

The big surprise to me? How much sharper they were on the PR side than the marketing side.

When it came to their views on marketing, there was an underlying tone of exasperation, frustration and even condescension in many of the PR responses. For instance,

  • “Marketing thinks everything a company does is ‘newsworthy’ when it’s not.”
  • “Whereas I believe PR people understand how marketing works, for the most part, I have found the opposite to be true.”
  • “PR is often used when marketing is unable or unwilling to support either due to resources or timelines.”
  • “Integration shouldn’t be allowed to reshape how PR functions based on others limited understanding of what it is/can do; but should allow it to enhance marketing efforts in its own way.”
  • I believe they should ultimately role up to the same executive, however you need a senior PR person to help refine messages. Otherwise you end up sending messages to the press that are too ’salesy’ or marketing.”
  • “PR and Marketing should work together, but PR should report to the top person of the organization so it is not encumbered with other corporate agendas, which might make it counterproductive.”
  • “PR does more than marketing – it should be integrated as needed with one reporting line for specific programs/projects dependent on the objective.”
  • “Companies that place their Public Relations functions under the Marketing department are missing the boat in terms of building a relationship with customers and potential customers.”

Whoa.

I mean, seriously … whoa.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of the respondents were in support of better integrating marketing and PR functions. Also, there were undeniably a few snarky marketers in the mix that had their own, “over my dead body,” spin on the topic.

However, the number and flavor of these PR responses is of note … and I think, of concern.

Social media is quickly becoming the lifeblood that runs through the veins of both of marketing and PR, whether we want it to or not.

As one respondent said, marketing and PR “Are two peas in a pod … both are an important part of any communications program.”

While two peas they may be, apparently we’ve still got some work to do before everyone is willing to jump into the same pod.

For more on this topic, register for the Vocus webinar on April 29 and receive the complete research report and analysis.


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Posted in New Media Marketing, New Media PR, Thoughts on the Industry | 1 Comment »

Client Disclosure on Twitter – When do you do it? How do you do it?

Thursday, April 8th, 2010 by Kary Delaria

“I’ve developed an acute awareness of (and questions around) how PR professionals talk about their clients on Twitter … There’s no steadfast rule to when or how PR professionals disclose client connections in social media. It’s a choice, up to you, as to how you will proceed in this very gray area.”

Read my guest post on the Minnesota Public Relations Blog.

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Developing Social Media Content: New Game. New Rules.

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

When I ask companies or clients what their content strategy is for their social media engagement, I usually hear one of three responses …

  1. What’s that?
  2. No, I don’t have one.
  3. Yes, I have one (and then they go on to describe the content strategy for their website or brand as a whole).

Each of these answers is perfectly reasonable …

  • If you use social media primarily to “talk to people,” you may not consider the words that you and others type during your conversations to be “content.” (But it is.)

  • If you believe that social exchanges are comprised of “content,” you may not think that this content could or should have some sort of strategic purpose, since that’s kind of antithetical to the very nature of the medium. (But it can.)

  • If you’re using the same content for your social media that you use for your website (which makes sense, since one may likely have been born from the other), then you may think it’s logical to treat them, strategically, the same. (But it’s not.)

Social media content is its own unique beast for one key reason: when you talk in social media, people talk back … and you can never predict what exactly it is that they’ll say.

I think this is fundamentally a “game changer,” that makes social media content worthy of a new set of rules.

It doesn’t walk like a duck. So let’s stop calling it one.

From content to analytics to optimization, as social media matures and grows, we’re learning that it often requires its own unique approaches and processes.

In the case of content, social media is comprised heavily of words, but also just as heavily of communications … the ways in which we exchange that content with other humans in real time.

The intersection of the two is uncharted terrain that is both an art to navigate as well as a science to strategize for.

In this new area, traditional Web rules don’t necessarily apply.

Pile-Magnet-PoetryIf you take your existing content strategy and apply it to the social web, it may be successful (particularly if you are using social media as a broadcast platform), but it won’t create the kind of rabid brand evangelists that are the holy grail of most marketing plans.

Broadcasting a schedule of brand messages in an engaging or entertaining way can convince someone to “fan” or “follow” your brand, but …

  • To get people to fall in love with your brand;
  • To get people do your marketing for you;
  • To get people to virally shepherd your content on your behalf;

… you need to establish a connection or build a relationship.

And that means using social media SOCIALLY.

Do you have a content strategy for that?

A new approach to “content.”

Much of what we could call “social media content strategy” is just revisiting the basics of human psychology and communications that are the seeds of most of the marketing and PR practices we employ today.

What makes us successful in our virtual engagements is the same thing that makes us successful in our face-to-face ones – having the ability to explore and improvise within the gray area that occurs between creating words and exchanging them.

Social media has just made that space a little more gray and a lot more lively.

In social media, your “content” won’t always take the shape of a collection of “on brand” phrases, but rather, will consist of the words you develop and use to:

  • Engage people in an open and interesting way.
  • Actively listen, in addition to sharing.
  • Ask compelling questions based on intelligence you’re gathering in real time (i.e. “Tell me more about the trade show you’re producing.”) rather than topics identified in advance (i.e. “Did you know that my company does X?”).
  • Present your brand as a solution for a client or customer’s identified problem, rather than a kick off for a marketing or sales qualification process.
  • Draw effective conclusions from your interaction that can lead to the next engagement, (i.e. “Are you going to X Conference? I’d love to take you out to lunch and continue this conversation there.)

As a society, we were once great at this navigating this gray area. But after decades of building layers of communication bureaucracy between marketer and consumer, we’ve become pretty rusty at just plain ole talking to each other.

It’s as if we’ve all been using the “communicating with people” script so long that all of our inherent improvisation skills have atrophied.

Get your words back into fighting shape.

I invite you to come explore this topic with me at our Kane Camp event on Thursday, April 15. We’re going to break it down and talk about how to develop a strategy for choosing the words and communication style to use for your social media engagement.

While this is still an evolving concept (I’ve never seen it covered at a conference, webinar, etc.), even if I can’t provide all the answers, I can promise that you’ll leave asking the right questions.

Hope to see you there.

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Posted in New Media Marketing, New Media PR, Thoughts on the Industry | 8 Comments »

Do you integrate PR with your marketing strategy?

Thursday, February 18th, 2010 by Kary Delaria

“A decent PR campaign, rooted in traditional media relations, can be executed on its own. A great PR campaign will work in harmony with each of these other disciplines and guide their success.”

Read my guest post on the Minnesota Public Relations blog.

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What the World Needs Now is…You.

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

I love to dance. But I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a dancer.

(I always figured you needed training, recitals and a monogrammed bag with ballet slipper patches on it to officially be called a “dancer.”)

Yep. That's me in the sailor suit in the middle. Don't ask. Long story.

Yep. That's me in the sailor suit in the middle. Long story.

But, I can dance. And, I can make up moves and build whole dance routines in my head. So, earlier in my life, I often found myself in the role of a choreographer, too.

I choreographed routines for cheer teams, marching bands, musical casts, and once, a huge crowd of people who fell down like Dominos at the end of the song, spelling out the word “W-E-L-C-O-M-E” with their bodies.

And you know what?

I loved every stinkin’ minute of it.

But then I got old, injured, and intimidated by the girls who were dancing “in the big leagues.” So I decided that I wasn’t a dancer or a choreographer anymore.

End of story.

But recently, I read a blog post that made me rethink that decision…

THE BIRTH OF “THE CHOREOGRAPHER”
In the post, the writer lists the top 5 “people, places and things that will be on top of the mountain a year from now,” one of which is a role he dubs “the choreographer”…

“…quick moving, creative, optimistic businesses are going to need someone who can harness all this dynamic energy. This is where the choreographer comes in. Someone who can align the researchers with the account teams; coordinate the digital team with the ad buys and make sure that it all looks and feels right. No mean feat, but crucial to insuring that an integrated marketing plan delivers the goods.”

When I read that description I thought, “hey, that’s me!”

Every day I wake up, look at my Twitter feed and think, “Crispy crackers, I missed a lot while I was sleeping! Time to take the pulse of the industry, make a game plan and start making things happen.”

Then, my team and I do just that.

We read up on the latest technologies, navigate uncharted terrain, translate and train, pull it all together into uber marketing or PR strategies, and then direct everyone’s efforts to implement them so they achieve measureable results.

The reality is that I never stopped being a choreographer…I just started choreographing different things.

SO WHAT’S YOUR NEW ROLE THIS YEAR?
The nature of doing business is changing daily, giving birth to a host of new job titles, responsibilities and roles like “the choreographer.”

So, let go of your preconceived notions of what your industry really needs this year (Another book? Another blog? Another “Twitterlebrity?”) You don’t have to be an author, start a blog or be the next Gary Vaynerchuck to make an impact.

I’d wager that what your industry needs most are solutions.

And, it’s entirely possible that you alone have the innate skills to provide those solutions – skills that may take the shape of a role no one has even dreamed of naming yet.

Think back to those moments in your life when your passion reared its glorious head and revealed your natural talents for all the world to see.

Those are the skills your industry needs.

Those are the skills that will put you and your business on the map this year.

For me, the lesson is that, at heart, I will always be a choreographer. And perhaps the world needs my ability to “stage the big production number” now, more than ever.

So instead of mapping out a physical journey through a song, now I’m aggregating the information in tweets, posts and feeds and using it to create a different kind of path for people to follow.

In the end, it’s no less beautiful for me to watch unfold – a series of calculated moves that, once implemented, leaves a wake, stretched out end to end, that spells one word…

S-U-C-C-E-S-S.

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Posted in New Media Marketing, New Media PR, Thoughts on the Industry | 6 Comments »

Social Media Monitoring and Measurement – A Customized Recipe.

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 by Kary Delaria

A few weeks ago, Jennifer and I had the opportunity to participate in a master class with one of the PR industry’s most widely respected thought leaders, Brian Solis.

Among the plethora of smart ideas he presented, one topic was near and dear to my heart…social media monitoring.

Since I joined Kane Consulting, I’ve researched and experimented with the slew of tools that have been created to automatically monitor and measure conversations taking place across social media, and quite frankly, was coming up short.

I began creating my own systems – using one tool here, another there, going straight to the source here – hunting, pecking, uncovering, and analyzing gobs of data until it started to paint an accurate picture. And, generally after days of research for a particular client or project I’d be asking myself – is this worth it? Am I supposed to be putting this much time into all of this? Am I missing a better solution?

Well, my methods were validated as I sat in my seat listening to Brian Solis deliver his presentation.

Social media measurement is not standardized. It is customized.

Here’s where we come back to strategy. The how and what you monitor and measure must be in line with your strategic goals. And, one client’s goal or definition of success is not the same as another client’s.

We can run numbers and data on just about anything, but if it’s not in line with what you’re trying to achieve, so what and who cares?

The answer to “so what” and “who cares” is where the customization comes into play. It’s where the work begins. Where meaningful benchmarks are set; goals are established, and the distance between is measured and evaluated for progress and improvement.

Think about the end product, combine the right ingredients, taste, tweak, repeat.

This is the piece that no tool, no matter how sophisticated, can do for us.

Want it done right? Go to the source and do it yourself.

The online world is full of various social media search engines. As with any technology, some work better than others. They are quick, convenient, and can give us gobs of data.

Guess what, folks… these engines are no Google (and even Google is still working to perfect their own social search solution). The exact science behind social search is still being defined. Take a closer look, and you’ll see that each engine has its own algorithms, and will return results differently. If you want to use social search tools or software to click and create a report, be prepared to go through the results with a careful eye before passing it along (unless of course, you don’t anticipate anyone else reading it or using it to take any action, in which case, you better re-think your strategy).

Another tip I gathered from the PR master class with Brian Solis is that the most accurate data is found directly at the source. (This is no secret, right? If you want to know what time your friend’s party starts, do you ask the friend, or a search engine?)

Sure, it takes a little more time. And yes, you’ll need to dump the data into your own spreadsheet, weed out things that don’t apply and then run reports by hand. But, as far as I’m concerned, it’s worth the extra effort to have the most accurate data from which to measure progress and make strategic decisions.

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Posted in New Media PR | 7 Comments »

TALKING 'BOUT AN EVOLUTION (of PR, that is)

Thursday, September 17th, 2009 by Kary Delaria

PR is in a state of flux. It’s teetering on the edge of what it was, and what it can be.

It’s opportunistic. As professionals, this is a time for us to break all of the stereotypes and “bad PR” that our industry has garnered (flaks, manipulators, schmoozers) and shape the future of our trade.

This morning, Sarah Evans posed a call to action to PR pros, “Jot down (or type) your perception on the current state of PR.” Well, thank you, Sarah, for finally giving me the motivation to pull this post out of my head and put pen to paper (err…key to screen…?)

Social media is allowing us to get back to the very essence of our craft – managing the communication between an organization and its publics by building rapport with key stakeholders – in a more meaningful and authentic way than ever before.

In her post on June 30, Beth Harte backs up the claim that “PR has never been truly authentic.” Think about it. We write articles for our clients and slap another person’s name on it so they can get the byline. We draft press releases and quotes that can be published for the public to read it as another person’s word. We craft key messages and train our clients on speaking points and ways to always incorporate these messages into interviews and conversation as though it’s natural.

To me, the very act of pitching any of this to a journalist has always felt terribly inauthentic.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS ALLOWING US TO EVOLVE

Sometimes in order to embrace innovation we need to blend it with existing methodologies and processes (what we know and how we do it) to eventually propel change, technology and comprehension across the bell curve of adoption. – Brian SolisDictionary Series - Religion: evolution

Everything evolves with time. Why are some PR pros so defensive of this natural progression? Technological advances are evolving (and revolutionizing) the medical field, the music industry, e-commerce – why should marketing/communications/public relations be any different?

And, let me state for the record that this evolution doesn’t necessarily make our job easier. In fact, if done correctly, it’s requiring us to take a more strategic approach. Clearly define our audiences. Tailor messages to individuals. And, (gasp) engage in ongoing, open, dialogue.

Using social media platforms, we can and are:

Evolving the press release.

Earlier this summer, Kane Consulting invited Jason Kinztler, founder of Pitch Engine to Minneapolis to deliver the keynote address of our PR 2.0 conference (an homage to the wonderful works of Brian Solis). During his keynote address, Jason asked, “Is the press release dead?” His response, “No, but it is evolving.”

Social media releases allow us to deliver a message in an optimized package (including images, podcasts, and additional resources) to add momentum to the conversation. Instead of blasting journalists on the wire, we can share the message unobtrusively (and, ideally with a well-targeted pitch) to bloggers, journalists, web writers, and even the public. And, with optimization and social sharing features, the message keeps on moving.

Evolving the pitch.

As a young(-ish) independent PR pro not working for a notable agency, I started to get very frustrated with placements always going to the big dogs. (Again, let’s think about Beth’s argument for how authentic we’ve been.) Enter social media. It has leveled the playing field. It gives us an ambient awareness of what journalists are interested in or working on. It enables the opportunity to engage with journalists, bloggers and influencers on everything from industry issues to taking the dog to the groomer. And guess what? When I have a relevant pitch, I’ve already established a rapport with this person.

(Easier or faster than blasting a release across the wire? Hell no. More effective in the long run? Hell yes.)

Evolving Measurement.

I’ve already argued that press reports, and the old-school way of measuring PR efforts, don’t translate to social media. How can it? If we’re evolving the press release and the pitch, and creating momentum through Social Media Optimization, the standards by which we monitor, report and calculate ROI must evolve. KD Paine has long been a thought leader and advocate for evolving measurement standards and looking at things like increased market share rather than trying to calculate the number of impressions and the ad equivalency of a blog or a Tweet. Additionally, PRSA is working to issue agreed upon standards (to which Katie also is contributing).

So, what is my perception on the current state of PR?

It’s evolving, and evolving at an incredibly fast and exciting pace. Incredible thought leaders have emerged, and we have the privilege and opportunity to contribute to the evolution – perhaps the revolution – of the very definition and techniques of the trade.

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Posted in New Media PR, Thoughts on the Industry | 5 Comments »

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