10 Comms Pros Who Rocked My (Social Web) World in 2010

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This year’s been an important one for me. At the back end of 2009 I was in a job that was going nowhere and I was getting little opportunity to put my knowledge of the web, online marketing and social media into practice. So I decided to do something about it. I started blogging, reading, researching and putting time and effort into my personal Twitter profile. And it gave me the confidence to do something that some undoubtedly thought was crazy: in the first week of 2010, I quit.

Within two months I found a new job working for BOTTLE PR, a company that has a far more progressive attitude towards PR 2.0 and was recently named as the most recommended PR agency outside of London by its clients. In my current role, I’m encouraged to go out there and do things my way, to spend time reading blogs, building my personal network and researching new tools and techniques. And as a result I’ve come into contact with, met and learned from some fantastic people in the last 12 months or so. These are just some of the guys who I’d like to give New Year’s kudos to...

Adam Vincenzini 

Probably the person who’s influenced me most this year. The guy continuously amazes me with his thoughts, ideas and knowledge. And rather annoyingly, he’s a genuinely nice dude too. Must-read blog, must-follow Twitter profile. Cheers, fella!

Chris Hall 

Chris and I are, in a way, kindred spirits - we think the same way. I know that if I ever doubt my thinking or want an opinion on something, I can ask Chris. Great at sharing knowledge and, like Adam, a lovely bloke. Thanks, Chris.

Emily Leary 

One of the most supportive and knowledgeable people I’ve met over the last year, Emily is someone who adds value to my network almost without me realising it. But when I think back, her influence on my way of thinking and approach to the social web cannot be questioned. One day we’ll meet in the flesh, Em!

Beth Carroll, Katie Colbourne & Gemma Went 

All three know what ‘social’ marketing is all about, are prepared to debate issues, share opinions and bounce ideas around. Invaluable to have in my network. Thanks, ladies. 

Danny Brown, Deidre Breakenridge, Gini Dietrich & Lauren Fernandez

This quartet from across the pond demonstrate what the social web is all about. Their consistently awesome blogs are inspiring and their entire approach to the sharing of information for the benefit of all in a personable and ‘social’ manner is to be admired. Kudos, guys!

Honourary mentions 
For various reasons too many to list: Kate Spiers, Deana Goldasich, Laura McBeth, Jay Dolan, Antonia Harler, Barry Furby, Reda Haq, Sheli Rodney, Danny Whatmough, Steve Earl, Kerry Gaffney, Lucy Thorpe, Felix Hemsley, Joel Hughes, Mark Perkins, Paul Rayment, Katie Urbain, Louise Doherty, Sally Whittle & Susanna Scott

Have a great 2011 one and all!

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Five Reasons Santa Claus Would Make a Disastrous Social Media Consultant

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I’ve been thinking. Which, for a start, is never a good thing. What if Father Christmas worked in digital media? What if, across from me in BOTTLE PR Towers, sat an ageing dude with a fluffy white beard in a red suit who spent all day ho-ho-ho-ing at the latest cat viral on YouTube? I’m sure the office would be an even more jolly place to work, and the endless supply of mulled wine and mince pies would undoubtedly be a welcome distraction in more stressful moments.

But I reckon Saint Nick would be a rubbish employee. And then I’d end up having to fire him, for which the press would undoubtedly give me a hard time, my wife would end up leaving me out of shame, I’d never see my daughter again, I’d turn to drink and drugs and I’d end up homeless on the streets. You can see my point, can’t you – he’s not really worth the trouble, as big a coup as it would be to have Kris Kringle working for me as a social media consultant.

So why would Santa Claus ruin my life if I hired him? Here’s why... 

1.Santa comes but once per year. 
Leaving aside the obvious issues over working hours and redemption, social media is a 24/7 discipline. Santa’s rather slack attitude is not going to work when the web waits for no man, no matter how likeable and popular that man is. Social media necessitates building relationships over days, weeks and months, not barging in every so often and expecting to have an impact. Santa, sort it out or get out.

2. Santa puts in too much effort with no reward
Three words, Mr Claus: Return On Investment. As much as I admire the selfish nature of the ‘to give is better than to receive’ ethos, and as much as I agree that, in social media, this goes a long, long way, I have to question what Santa actually gets out of things. All the giving and all the effort in the world means nothing unless it impacts the bottom line. Santa, you need to learn to balance effort with reward.

3. Santa isn’t inherently social
What do you know about Santa Claus? I mean, really. You know what he does for a living, but how many times have you heard of anyone just shooting the breeze with the big guy? Social media is about ‘being social’, opening up, laying yourself a little bare. People want to know things about you, not just what you’re selling. With Santa it’s all about Christmas, isn’t it? Work, work, work. Well sorry, Santa, not on the social web.

4. Santa lacks focus
Sure, you can argue that the entire planet in one night is pretty darned focused! But talk about spreading yourself thin. How on earth is Santa going to create and maintain relationships with key influencers on the social web if he’s trying to be the friend of everyone? You can’t cover off the entire social web, you simply can’t. You need to pick your channels, find your influencers and concentrate on them. Focus Santa, focus!

5. Santa isn’t transparent
In social media you must be real. No hiding behind false profiles, no putting on a front. Just be yourself. But when it comes to Santa Claus, well there are so many different stories around of who he is and where he comes from that transparency is impossible. He’s got about half a dozen different names, for heaven’s sake! I’m sorry but he’d be a liability, you just wouldn’t trust the dude. Come clean or don’t come at all, Mr Claus.

In the words of Sir Alan Sugar: "Santa Claus, you're fired!"   

And on that bombshell, Merry Christmas to every single person who has read this blog, commented or shared a post with their networks over the last 12 months. Have a wonderful holiday with your family, and eat, drink and be merry. Sending the best of season’s greetings to you and yours, from me and mine.

Paul
x




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The Social Web: An Unseen Danger?

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Social media is seriously screwing with modern society. It’s making us lazy, depressed and, ironically, antisocial. And it’s even damaging the IQs of our children. Don’t believe me? Join the queue. But although (admittedly) I may be overstating the case a tad in that opening salvo, I do firmly believe that the social web is having a profound effect on society, and not always for the better.

A couple of weeks back I took part in #BigTweetOff, the Twitter debating platform, arguing the case that social media is having a negative impact on society. That particular encounter ended in a creditable draw after the votes were in and, if anything, it further convinced me that my thinking isn’t quite so radical and worthy of being carted off to the lunatic asylum by men in white coats for.

It’s no secret that social media is the big driver of the web nowadays. Americans now spend as much time online as they do in front of the TV, with a third of that time spent on social networks alone. In South Korea, the most connected nation on Earth, around one in ten people is addicted to the web, and psychologists have stated that there is a strong link between heavy use of the web (and therefore social media) and depression. In the same country, 62% of 3-5 year olds regularly use the internet (source: The Virtual Revolution, BBC). The current generation of digital natives will spend an astounding 10,000 hours online before they become adults.

With all in this in mind, ignoring or denying the impact that social technology is having on our behaviour both as individuals and as civilisations is nonsensical. And I am genuinely wary of the society that my baby daughter will grow up in. I’ve witnessed myself the likes of Twitter and Foursquare invading precious moments; dinner parties, birthdays, weddings, childbirth even! People heavily into social media who use it on their mobiles never seem to be ‘present’, as Gemma Went explained so lucidly on this blog a few weeks back. Social media is so transient that I fear that the next generation (or the generation beyond that) may be less able to form meaningful social bonds due to the abbreviated nature of status updates. There’s little depth to most (not all) relationships formed through social networks.

I also fear that language may suffer as we get more and more used to txt speak and fitting as much info as we can into as smaller number of characters as we can. This blog post is only around 500 words, but probably seems insanely long to you – if you haven’t ditched it already. If you’re still with me, you’re probably either speed reading or skimming, but it’s unlikely that you’re really taking in what I’m talking about or thinking it through. So are we losing the ability to ‘consider’? And more importantly, are we sacrificing individual IQ for ‘collective intelligence’? Don’t get me wrong, collective intelligence is extremely powerful. But where is the next Newton, Einstein or Hawking coming from? Does the social web kill genius?

What do you think? Should we be wary of the unseen impact that social media is having on society? Please leave you thoughts below...




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Why the PR v Blogger Debate is a Bunch of Crap

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I’ve read a couple of fantastic blog posts this week that cover the perpetual PRs v bloggers issue from different perspectives. Danny Brown wrote a post titled ‘When PR Has Its Head Up It’s Ass’ that, in typical Danny Brown fashion, slated a shameful post by a PR pro that arrogantly implied that bloggers really shouldn’t be taken seriously from a PR perspective. Just a day or so later, and Sally Whittle wrote a post reciting stories of PRs who had asked her to return things after product reviews which made bizarre and somewhat disturbing reading. Others including Gini Dietrich and Lucy Thorpe have blogged similar things this week too, and all sum up why so many bloggers really dislike the PR industry and the people who work in it.

But you know what? It’s all a load of shite.

Yes, some PRs are idiots and yes, all PRs make mistakes. (I count myself in the latter but not the former.) But equally, some bloggers are less than credible in their approach and attitude. Case in point: a few months back, we at BOTTLE PR set up a blogger (via Mumsnet) with a fully paid for weekend away with her family to a specific location in the UK. The understanding was that she would write a review of the places she visited in time for the school holidays (which was the point of the trip). Having enjoyed her weekend away, the blogger went AWOL for two entire months. After continuously hassling Mumsnet, a three line review eventually appeared. As you can imagine, the client was, let’s say, 'less than happy'.

Now nothing was ever written in stone about what the client would receive as a result of sending this blogger on an all-expenses weekend away with her family, and maybe we’re at fault for that. But the point of recalling this story is not the specifics of who was right or wrong or even the way that the blogger in question, Mumsnet or us as an agency behaved. It’s that there are two sides to this debate.

Bloggers and PRs think and work in different ways, and there are good and bad on both sides. PR as an industry has a hell of a lot to learn about communicating with bloggers and some of the stories I hear make me shudder (the tale of a PR demanding the return of a packet of seeds that had already been planted on Sally Whittle’s post is particularly cringe-worthy and something I addressed in the post’s comments). I’m making a concerted effort at BOTTLE to ensure that every one of our consultants understands blogging and how to communicate with bloggers and organised for Susanna Scott, founder of British Mummy Bloggers, to come and talk to us recently. But not every PR agency is as forward-thinking or even cares that much.

On the other side however, bloggers need to accept that PR is an evolving discipline, that not every PRO is up-to-speed and that we have bad experiences with bloggers as much as bloggers have bad experiences with us. There needs to be patience and trust on both sides. So how about we stop the feuding and accept that we’re all human and that working together is best for all involved? 

Is that SO difficult? All together now: "Ebony and ivory, live together in perfect harmony, side by side on my piano keyboard, so Lord, why can't we.....?"




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Social Media Isn't (Just) a Popularity Contest

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This is a guest post by Gini Dietrich

I met Paul on Twitter. He's a PR 'bloke' in the U.K. I'm a communication pro in the U.S. We never would have met if not for social media. So when he asked me, "Why social media?", I wanted to say: Duh! We wouldn't have met without it!

But I really began to think about it ... and to take his question seriously. Is it too much to admit I love social media because of its addictive water cooler effect? Or because I’ve been able to meet people around the world (like Paul) I’d never have had the chance to meet? Or because I am FINALLY POPULAR (which I was not in high school)?!

I’d be lying if I said it was none of those things. But it’s also because social media has been huge for the growth of Arment Dietrich, through awareness, referrals, and credibility. And because it has helped us define real measurement standards for the work we do with clients. When we began using social media for business reasons, I was immediately drawn to it because it is so much easier to measure than traditional communication, which is my background.

I like to tell the story of working on the Ocean Spray business. It was a great account to work on – we had a super fun client, I was young and loved traveling the States working with cranberry growers, and the media loved to write about their juices. The last year I worked on the business, we sat in the conference room and showed our results (clip books) to the client. They patiently sat through our dog and pony show and then the chief marketing officer said, “All of these stories are great, but our sales are down.”
You could have heard a pin drop. All that work for nothing?  Sure, you can talk about media impressions and advertising equivalencies and the value of brand equity and awareness, but their sales were down and not only were they cutting our budget, they were letting us go. I can still feel that knot in my stomach and the lump in my throat from that meeting…and it was more than ten years ago.

Enter social media. With Twitter unique URLs and Facebook specials and mobile text campaigns, PR and marketing no longer are an expense. They are revenue generators. Not that they weren’t before but now we can prove it! I had a conversation with a client the other day about unique visitors. You see, we have a program with some clients where we are paid based not only on how many unique visitors go to their websites, but how many of them buy. And, because of social media, we know exactly how many of those paying customers came from our efforts vs. direct sales vs. advertising vs. search vs. pay-per-click. And we are rewarded for it.

So now, instead of showing a client five six-inch binders full of stories and media impressions and advertising equivalencies and being shocked that sales are down, we know exactly how their sales are doing and how much of that revenue we are responsible for generating.
Sure social media is about popularity contests and global reach and water cooler talk, but it’s also about driving real business results. Every day.

Gini Dietrich is CEO of Arment Dietrich, Inc in the USA, a company that specialises in non-traditional marketing. She is author of the award-winning Spin Sucks blog and an experienced speaker on using online technologies for marketing and PR.

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Is Social Media Having a Negative Impact on Society?

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Social media is a fantastic enabling technology, allowing us to communicate and share like never before. But as we (the human race) become more and more used to communicating in 140 characters and skim-reading blogs, and as our children spend more and more time online, we may be in danger of creating a society that knows lots about little, but little about lots.

Well, that’s my opinion. And I’m taking on the challenge of The Big Tweet Off this week to at least try and make people think about the possibility that social media has negative impacts as well as positive. I can’t at present reveal very much in this post about WHY I feel this way, as that’ll give away my arguments to my opponent in advance of the fight. But I do fear that my 16 month old daughter could grow up in a world where interaction in the real world takes second place to interaction on Facebook. And much as I will encourage her to by tech-literate as early as she needs to be, that’s not a thought I relish. I will blog about this after the debate.

Please join me on Twitter at 7.30pm GMT on 2nd December and either watch or take part in the debate. Simply follow the #bigtweetoff hashtag or follow @thebigtweetoff. You can find more information about the debate, and my opponent’s view, on The Big Tweet Off’s Posterous.

And finally, time is running out for you to get your affairs in order Mr Arie Moyal. I hope your life assurance premiums are is up to date...

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