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.

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.

Read my guest post on the Minnesota Public Relations Blog.

Read my guest post on the Minnesota Public Relations blog.

The cover provocatively asks if Kutcher could be “a new kind of media mogul.”

My answer?

Unequivocally.

As a strategist, I can recognize a solid and smart marketing process when I see one – and Kutcher’s is watertight:

1. Be hot, famous and prolific in some key social media channels.
2. Watch as step 1 generates a large following of gawkers and fans.
3. Watch as steps 1 and 2 attract large corporate brands who want to sell stuff to hordes of gawkers and fans.
4. Let those brands piggyback on, or co-opt the content within, the aforementioned channels.
5. Monetize participation, release co-opted content to the aforementioned hordes and make beaucoup money.

As the article states, Kutcher intends to become, “the first next-generation media mogul,” using his own brand as a springboard and syndication system.

And, I have no doubt he’ll be successful at it.

But his strategy (heck, his whole company) is uniquely suited to capitalize on Kutcher’s stature, connections and lifestyle.

So where does this leave the rest of us whose personal brands aren’t so much springboards as they are teeny planks?

Me? I was never on a TV show. I’m not married to a celebrity. I have no pre-existing corporate endorsements. I’ve never punk’d Justin Timberlake so bad that he nearly cried (btw…that was a great episode, AK).

And yet, I’m working this space just as aggressively as Kutcher and his posse. And, I’m looking to magazines like Fast Company for ideas and inspiration on how to be successful in my own right.

Is there anything a regular lady from the Midwest like me can learn from “team Ashton?”

While the consensus online seems to be that Fast Company took a gigantic jump over a very attractive shark in writing this article, I still think the answer is “yes.”

1. Find your hook

I’ve got two words for you: trucker hat. Kutcher knows the value of a gimmick, a prank or a well-positioned must-have accessory, and he works that sucker for all its worth.

Do you have a “trucker hat” idea for your business?

• Is your value prop that you “do good work?” (Congrats, that’s true for every other company in America too. What else you got?) Are you the “first,” the “best,” the “only,” or the “award-winning” anything?
• Is your hook easy to identify, ubiquitous and a key player in every facet of your overall marketing strategy?
• Will your hook translate well across multiple platforms and media spaces?

2. Mix the mediums

Social is not the end-all, be-all of marketing. Part of the key to the success of Kutcher’s company is that they are integrating content across multiple platforms, and seeding projects in television, movies and the Web.

Are you thinking outside of the social media box, too?

• Are you creating marketing content that is snackable, portable and customizable across a range of platforms?
• Are all your marketing channels designed to work together symbiotically?
• Are you keeping an eye on emerging technologies so you can be the first to identify the new places where your clients or customers might want to play?

3. Pretty it up

Yeah, Kutcher’s good looks are doing him some favors in his race to “mogul-ness.” But, “be hotter” isn’t a real practical strategy for the rest of us to pursue. Perhaps a more tangible lesson we can learn from this former model is that working your looks is just as important as having them.

Is your company ready for its close-up?

• Do you have a consistent and appealing visual identity across all your marketing platforms and spaces?
• How is that headshot of yours holding up? (Is it reinforcing your brand, or is it just a so-so pic you shot with your laptop cam?)
• Are you striking some awesome, “blue steel” marketing “poses” via your podcasts, video and writing?

4. Keep an eye on the Benjamins

Kutcher knows Hollywood, and he’s cannibalizing that world to build his new business model. One lesson we can learn from him (and that world), is that everything costs money. (In Hollywood, it takes a village to raise a celebrity…and all those villagers need to get paid.)

Are you ready to capitalize on your new media investments?

• Are you approaching your contacts and pitching unique marketing partnerships where you can share the work and the wealth?
• Do you have clear strategies in place for ensuring that the content you give away will come back to you as revenue down the road?
• Have you identified some companies who are doing this well? Are you tracking their every move and taking copious notes?

5. Enjoy yourself

For all we know, Ashton Kutcher could be reading Ayn Rand books in his spare time. But in public, the AK brand is all about having fun. And you know what? People loooove to have fun, and they are attracted to other people having fun. Marketing doesn’t get any more simple than that.

Are you having any fun?

• Do people enjoy reading/watching/listening to your marketing? (Um…do you?) Is it interesting? Provocative? Funny?
• Are you enthusiastic about what you do? Are you letting that enthusiasm bleed into and invigorate your brand?
• Are you remembering to break a few rules now and again?

Ultimately, Ashton is an anomaly…

So it doesn’t really matter if he’s the “first next-generation media mogul,” or not.

Really, the more interesting question is…

…who will be the second?

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.