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Brian Solis Interviews Katie Couric, Shows Her Social Side
Anyone that follows our blog and Facebook Fan Page knows that we at StoryTeller are big fans of Brian Solis. Brian is one of the most passionate and insightful social media thought leaders of our time. He has blazed through these unchartered waters better than just about anyone.
What I loved about his recent interview with Katie Couric on “Brian Solis TV” is how Katie shares her insights on she is trying to find her “digital voice”. She further shares how she uses the “Tsunami” of information available today on the web to uncover stories, gain viewer feedback, and to be helpful in ways that traditional media does not afford her. She is the first to recognize that the days of gathering around the television watching the CBS nightly news as your primary news source.
We all know that the revolution of information gathering and sharing is unfolding before our eyes. I am glad to know that even the most highly profiled journalists of our time doesn’t have it all figured out when it comes to getting her arms around social media. However, Katie Couric will be the first to tell you that if you don’t embrace it, you will be left in the dust.
A High Schoolers Perspective of Social Media
As a small business owner in a space somewhat appealing to the high school senior, we are frequently asked to be part of a job shadow experience. This is a great opportunity for the up and coming business- minded high school senior, to get a peek in the box of how PR and Social Media impact a brands overall marketing strategy. Upon conclusion of our shadowing time together I like to get a perspective from the soon-to-be graduate, their take on what social media means to them. Here is Alex Altman’s point of you… the blessings and the curse. Good luck Alex, and thanks for your point of view! › Continue reading
Social Media for Catalogers
I recently had the opportunity to step back in time to my “old life” for a brief moment while connecting with a group of Direct Marketers. The group was interested in our perspective of social media and how it can benefit the traditional cataloger.
What seems apparent after our meeting, is this is an industry that I would categorize as somewhat “late adopters” in the social media frontier. Understandably, they have spent years refining the art of direct mail and have it down to a pretty concise science but they are having a difficult time connecting the dots to know how social media can really impact their business.
Why Social Media?
As a technologically capable high school senior, I have been in contact with social media for years, and I lived through the social media revolution firsthand. I created my first Facebook account and watched my first YouTube video almost five years ago, and since then, both of these have been integral parts of my life. Because of this experience and my naivety, I thought that during my week with StoryTeller I would have little to learn. What was I thinking?!
For many of the younger generation, businesses are intruding into their domain by joining these networks, but with membership on Facebook exceeding 400 million and YouTube being home to a greater viewership than that of network television, it is no surprise that more and more businesses are striving to join and increase their presence in social media.
In my daily use of these networks I have come across business-related pages, but I, like many of my contemporaries, overlooked the effect that social media plays in marketing. Before starting my work with StoryTeller, I saw social media as simply another means of communication, where people who are already plugged-in at every hour of the day can share tidbits of information about what comes to mind or what is on their personal agenda for the day. With this opinion, I was surprised to hear my dad tell me that social media is one of the industries experiencing the most rapid growth in the world!
After the initial discussions of StoryTeller’s role in marketing, I must admit I was skeptical about the actual effect their strategies could have on a business. After all, I incorrectly saw it as simply a means of personal expression. Within minutes of seeing their ideas and strategies applied to real clients and the active participation they receive from followers my opinion changed and every ounce of doubt was cast aside.
The business application is much more formally constructed than that of the daily user. I was fascinated by the time it took to plan the strategies for each client, because in my experience every post was simply created off of a passing fancy. The large question that permeates every aspect of the business applications, and that I failed to realize before, is, “How can we create discussion with our followers, and eventually sell products without force-feeding our customers contrived ad campaigns?” By incorporating this question behind every post, StoryTeller has successfully developed followings for each of their clients.
Social media is all about what you want to get out of it. The average social media user can connect to friends, but so many of its applications are ignored. Although it is still a blossoming industry, it has already attracted the attention of many large companies who are spending millions of dollars with ad campaigns. While many people seek to update their friends on their daily activities, companies are trying to lead discussions, inspire thought, and most importantly sell their product. With time, strategy, and creativity, the social media resources that exist and those that are in production will only increase social media’s grip on the entire population, and its effects will undoubtedly be studied for years to come.
Social Media Promotes Good Business Practices
There is an inherit danger with social media.
From "Social Schmoozing" with Derek Showerman
Platforms and tools like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all bring with it one thing that PR pros of old didn’t have to leverage; automatic and immediate transparency. Yep, we can officially (and I think quite happily) throw that old phrase “spin doctor” out with yesterday’s trash, because in today’s world, spin often gets unspun pretty quickly in the self-policing world of social media where everybody, everywhere is a journalist.
So what does that mean for us PR pros? It means working with clients who bring integrity to the table on a daily basis. For example, at StoryTeller we have MindWare Toys. MindWare is “the nation’s best resource for toys that engage and entertain.” With a focus on creating and selling children’s toys that don’t just entertain but teach, MindWare’s mission is more than just making money …they’re also focused on making the world a better place.
Another client, Helping Paws, is a non-profit that trains service dogs to help those with physical disabilities. Yet another, the Minnesota Section PGA has a goal of growing the game of golf and will soon be offering tips and tricks to anyone who’s interested via their YouTube channel in the near future (stay tuned).
All are great organizations that simply don’t have a need for old PR tricks of deceit and slight of hand.
So beware all you organizations out there that have a lot to hide, social media is ready to make life very difficult for you. Thankfully, I get to work with a lot of clients who don’t have that concern.
Social Media Backlash? Or are we just Getting Smarter?
Remember when you first started tweeting? And how much fun it was talking with other like-minded social media users about the “power of social media?” There was this sense that a new communication technique was here to change the world for the better and that we were all so smart to be a part of it. You know, those of us who “got it” with regards to using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, etc?
Now we’re starting to hear a different story. It’s a story of a social media backlash where users are beginning to drop off the radar. (For more on this perceived backlash, check out this post from AgencyBabylon) So that begs the question, is this the beginning of social media’s end?
That’s hard to imagine, considering that in many ways, social media has already changed the world. From the elections in Iran to Ashton Kutcher battling CNN for followers to the first thing you do in the office every morning, the world is probably a different place thanks to the new world of communication ideology (that being a world where you talk with the people who matter to you, not at them). But let’s face it, the social media love fest is over. Everyone knows about social media, nearly everyone has a profile on at least one of the platforms, plenty of people have made mistakes, others have had success …so the novelty is over. We don’t need to spend our time evangelizing about the benefits of social media anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I still love using Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, YouTube and others …I’m just a little tired of talking about how much I love it (which I think is the backlash Mr. AgencyBabylon is referring to in his post).
So now comes social media 2.0; using the new interactive communication ideology affectively to achieve whatever it is you’re trying to achieve. Which means integrating that ideology into all your communication plans. In the past, it was enough to simply be on Twitter or to post something to YouTube …just make sure you’re out there, because “it’s better than not being out there” was the driving force behind a lot of social and interactive media plans.
We’re past that now. Now is the time to start putting specific plans in place with clear objectives and desired results. Then executing those plans to increase sales, raise awareness, build networks or what ever else it is you’ve been trying to achieve since you started trying to achieve things (long before social media came around). That, in my opinion, is far more exciting than sitting around and tweeting about how much we all love social media.
So is there a social media backlash? I don’t think so. We’re all just getting a little wiser about how to make the most out of something we love so much.
Video is a Must in Social Media Strategy
I had the opportunity recently to sit down with a privately held Global company to help them become more familiar with YouTube and online video. Currently, they have put their big toe into the social media waters to find out rather quickly that they have 10′s of thousands of supporters that are looking for engagement, but they do not have anything that resembles a video strategy.
Now, I am uncertain that after our allotted hour-long discussion that they actually “got it”, but I know that I walked away more convinced than ever that video is a must have in your social strategy. Why? There is no better way to align yourself today with some of the core principles of social media that will engage, educate and entertain better than video.
Who’s Your Conversation Manager?
Quick, name your organization’s conversation manager.
So, who is it? How long did it take you to name that person? Do you have such a person employed with your group? Do you know what a “conversation manager” is?
If you’re a communications professional with a knack for interactive (social) media then …rejoice! My guess is there will soon be plenty of conversation manager job openings available to you in the near future, because every organization needs someone who spends a good deal of time managing the social media conversations taking place about their organization.
On Twitter, Facebook, via blogs, in videos on YouTube, message boards (and the list goes on) …there are a lot of places available for members of the public to praise and criticize your organization. The good news is, all of that information is out there, free of charge for you to peruse and respond to, which you should almost always do. The only problem is this takes time. Either you have a number of people with not enough to do or you need help. And that help is out there in the form of what some are starting to call conversationalists, individuals who:
A) Have a passion for multiple platforms of social media
Pretty simple. They use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, have a blog, etc.
B) Have a high degree of real-world communication sophistication
We’re looking for emotionally intelligent people here. If their Facebook page is plastered with derogatory language and pictures of the user shotgunning beers, you might want to look to the next applicant.
C) Understand the personality of the organization
If you’re working with a conversation manager who’s not a full-time employee of your organization (a PR firm, for example), you want to make sure that person has taken the time to understand how your organization thinks, a.k.a. what your organization’s personality is. This goes beyond what you sell or provide your members or customers …it’s more about what someone from your organization would be expected to talk about should they run into someone at a coffee shop. In other words, what matters to you personally, beyond your business goals.
So, I’ll ask again, who is your conversation manager?
Facebook as an Online News Center
I have to admit, that when my then 19 year old niece said to me a couple of years ago “you are too old for Facebook” I tended to agree with her. After all, my Ivy League niece with a near perfect SAT score is really quite smarter than I. What she didn’t know, nor did I, was over the next 2 years, Facebook users would double and she and I along with our 350 million counterparts would all be enjoying the same social networking site despite our age differences. Here are a few of the latest Facebook tidbits:
- Average user has 130 friends on the site
- Average user sends 8 friend requests per month
- Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
- Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month
- Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
- Average user becomes a fan of 2 Pages each month
- Average user is invited to 3 events per month
- Average user is a member of 12 groups
Social Media is a Dialogue, Not a Monologue
I was reading a book the other day (PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences – check it out) that suggested that PR is moving back to it’s original purpose – as a two-way street that allows communications pros to help companies both listen to and communicate with their important audiences. Succinctly put, PR has shifted from a monologue – as it has been in recent years – to a dialogue, allowing companies to engage with their customers rather than just speaking at them.
Similarly, in a recent conversation about social media, a colleague lamented, “Everyone is just blurting information out; if it was a conversation, that would be more interesting.” A conversation – an exchange of ideas - is exactly what it should be, and if you or your brand are using social media channels simply to disseminate information, then you’re not harnessing its full potential. › Continue reading