Magazine for one
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B2B Social Media Takes Planning
I am providing a chart we created that provides an overview of B2B social media planning. The key is to integrate it with the bigger picture, all that is in place, the web, advertising, and event promotions. Any feedback?
B2B Social Media Strategy with Business Objectives
We’re interested in feedback on this.
Washington Post to Launch Trove
The Washington Post is reportedly taking a giant step forward into new media to launch Trove, a site that aggregates news and enables users to personalize their news streams, according to various blog sites and the online The Wall Street Journal this week. It is expected to be live in March.
It was reported that Trove will aggregate stories picked by editors, and users can select from “channels” they are interested in.
The service is expected to integrate social conversation with users connecting through their Facebook accounts.
Social Media Networks With Real Focus
I decided to look beyond my usual social networking communities and found two very interesting to me…eons for “boomers” and Care2Make a Difference! for causes such as healthy and green living. I am interested in learning more about how to create such communities, because there are segments of business professionals I know that are getting lost in the broader networks that need their own very focused community. I’d be interested in hearing from the experts in that field. The new communities need business names that are engaging because they might be productive places to visit. Even the name of the CRM Salesforce.com’s Chatter sounds like a distraction to me.
Our clients’ growing interest in social media
Our clients– even the doctors– are showing some interest now in using social media channels. How they do so, and how we support them, is under strategic discussion. I am very interested in learning how other professionals are supporting their clients to manage timely updates and routinely deliver relevant posts. We want to encourage genuine communication of value to their constituents just as we do in our traditional PR consulting. We understand the potential magnitude and impact of such communications tools. The logistics and processes are also important, as well as integration with campaigns and corporate branding.
Support Real Journalists
A journalist I admire, Bill McCloskey, former AP reporter in DC, who spoke at the recent Public Relations Society of America conference last week, urged us to join the Society of Professional Journalists, and I am going to do so. I am also planning to get behind any PRSA campaigns aimed at supporting professional journalism standards. We need to become a more media-savvy culture and support reporters who are independent, thoughtful and checking their sources and facts. Much online media content is generated by trained reporters who have simply moved from print to online, but there is much more that are simply opinions, or just plain junk. Everyone is just selecting what they want to hear or what is entertaining.
Bill said the journ schools are as popular as ever, but where will their jobs be? Are schools also producing thoughtful readers seeking a variety of references and perspectives?
Social Media for Business Branding
Some of our clients think Linkedin is for people looking for jobs. This is one social media forum I like and I am seeing it differently. It is helping me stay in touch lightly with people I know or have worked with in the past. The nicest thing that happened recently was when a client sent us an endorsement over Linkedin that we didn’t even ask for.
On the bigger picture, as a PR professional, I don’t like the term “social media,” but it does remind us that this forum is for light and social comments. For corporate reputations and brand maintenance, it is important for organizations to consider some use of it in the overall PR strategy. It should be incorporated into branding guidelines. Move detailed coversations to a private place.
Media Critiques–Letterman and DVD to Rent
David Letterman brings to the forefront an increasing concern that I have–that women in the workplace could lose so much gained in the last 30 years. I am old enough to know what it feels like to be approached by bosses inappropriately and to have felt the glass ceiling. It is one of the reasons I started my own company. So, when I see that people are laughing about Letterman’s behavior and I see the next generation of women at work in flip flops and clothing with cleavage featured, I say it’s time for a serious review of women’s history. And, it’s time for a fresh assessment of how we present as professionals. Learn more at my branding workshop next month at the UMW Leadership Colloquium for Professional Women.
State of Play, a gripping thriller (in DVD) set in Washington, DC features Russell Crowe as a seasoned print reporter and it has an interesting sub theme: It reveals how new online bloggers (without journalism training) might learn something from an experienced print reporter. It’s also entertaining though 2 hours long.
Professional PR Is More Valuable Today Than Ever
These are the common goals of our clients: reputation management, branding, search engine prominence. What we are doing as public relations communicators these days are monitoring blogs, online media and traditional media to determine where our clients are mentioned, where their competition is and how they can participate in online conversations and media opportunities. This is very much a PR function and it is not a new function, but there are new ways to gauge public opinion and develop ways to be part of the stories and to manage communication flow. Any good professional was already focused on establishing two-way communication. We were never about just issuing messages as was reported in a the book,
”Putting the Public Back in Public Relations.” We are not in an aging business if we are working according to professional principals as those who are accredited in PRSA.org are doing.
Messages are still important but they must be incorporated in stories or discussion and backed up with real substance and be relevant to the audience. There is nothing new about that either.
What is really different is the speed of communication and the length of times it remains available for pick up. It can be very instantaneous and can also be dug up years or even decades later. That’s way it still must be thoughtful; there must still be corporate policy, parameters and controls.
What is said at the water cooler in a physical office space versus what is said at the electronic cooler (such as Twitter) are different. One is heard only by a few, and the other has the potential to be heard by millions and around the world—word for word.
We’re monitoring blogs and online exposure to establish what people in our markets are interested in and what the media is covering. It enables us to determine issues, find rumors that need to be addressed, develop story angles and opportunities to participate in the discussions.
Why? The conversation can point back to our web sites and thus us….
• Because we want to be thought leaders…
• We want our web sites to be valued
• Our participation can lead to real opportunities—work that will pay us.
Based on what we learn we can make blog posts, adjust our pay per click ads, modify meta tags within our web site, and develop story angles for presenting or writing in the communication channels important to us and our constituents.
The challenge now is finding the swiftest ways to do this in the course of business. Anyone that was “doing” spin was not a true PR professional in the first place.
Social Media Issue for Women
Social media is all fine and well, but it shouldn’t remove the line between professional and social activity. Women should especially heed the fact that most female professionals only began to be taken seriously in the worlds of business, science, media and technology in the mid-to late-70s. Let’s not reverse the work of those who entered the workforce before us and fought hard for better positions by now being too casual in all of our online presentation. I personally don’t care what hobbies you have taken up, where you are shopping for clothes or how far you drive to an event, especially if you are entering my work space. I especially do not like it when vendors who are late on projects send me their casual tweets while I am waiting for their project deadline to be met.