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Soulati-'TUDE!

Soulati Media On The Street With Millennial Entrepreneur

10/24/2013 By Jayme Soulati

christopher-craft.jpg

Chris Craft

A young up-and-comer is impressing the heck out of the social media marketing sector, and you need to know him.

My distinct pleasure this morning is to introduce you to Christopher Craft, @ChrisQueso, with whom I spent oodles of hours at ConvergeSouth where we both spoke and had the same flight back.

What makes my head spin is everything he’s doing and so much more. He’s an entrepreneur managing his youthful firm, he blogs here and also doing a full-time gig for another employer. As a daddy to two (listen for what I caught him saying in the wee hours pre-conference!), he’s way on the run with three smartphones he totes for each job and the wife.

Did I say he is also a published author of O.P.E.N. Routine, a personal branding book?

Please meet Chris and follow him in all those places. Thanks, Friend!

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Filed Under: On The Street Tagged With: Business, Entrepreneur, Internet Marketing, LinkedIn, marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Public Relations, Social Media

The Future Of PR Is A Marketing Smoothie

10/21/2013 By Jayme Soulati

smoothie.jpgBack in the day, public relations, advertising and marketing were firmly divided in their respective silos and disciplines. We in public relations were often referred to for real in jest as the “bastard step children” of marketing.

Often we’d sit in an integrated meeting of the disciplines and keep our traps shut until we tossed out a bit of value-added strategy into the mix while our peers across the aisle glared nicely.

Today, the blended nature of marketing has public relations professionals up in arms. Some are balking at the integration of PR so cohesively into marketing. In short, these people are having an identity crisis.

They don’t want to be a marketing smoothie. I get it; nor do I, BUT,the nature of marketing today is quite different than the isolated and unintegrated way we worked in the past (as recently as six years ago).

Marketing in its broadest and most inclusive sense now requires every single communications disciple to integrate and blend while learning others’ expertise. For people in public relations, that’s called hybrid PR. For people in marketing, that’s called integrated marketing – the blended whole.

If you don’t do either or both, you die. Purely and simply, you become antiquated.

Change is now; change is always the future. Change makes some people uncomfortable and others squiggle with glee (that’s me). The changes you make as a professional can be methodical or they can be all-in. Regardless of how you change ensure you’re changing to innovate and not merely to keep up with the Joneses.

What’s a Marketing Smoothie?

I know you’ve made a smoothie in your day with all the good, healthy and nutritious ingredients stacked up looking all colorful. Then, what happened? You clicked the “on” button and voila! A blended smoothie chock full of nutritious wholesomeness.

Marketing has become that – a blended beverage with the smarts and nutrition of a plethora of disciplines feeding into and around the other for the benefit of the user, customer, prospect, etc.

Public relations is a powerhouse in that smoothie; it’s the energizer and protein that packs punch. It brings integrated value few other disciplines can brag on. We in public relations do this for every marketing smoothie you’ll ever drink:

• Put the core business goals front and center into strategy
• Build communications strategy against the business with results-driven comprehensive and inclusive programs
• Message map the core outbound and external messages for the C-suite and spokespeople and train them to be on top of such messages
• Build and create content against the business goals (content marketing)
• Optimize that content for on-page performance (search marketing) and toss in a bunch of optimized online news releases every campaign benefits from
• Write the landing pages and title the calls to action to drive traffic to sites and generate leads (digital marketing)
• Write and optimize the online newsletter that ties into the digital strategy using the core messages from the message map (email marketing)
• Create and execute blogger relations, influencer campaigns, thought leadership, industry analyst relations, investor relations, and internal communications, to name several

And, yet, all that goodness listed above is not done alone. Some may believe it is and tell you so, but don’t be fooled. An expert public relations practitioner needs her sisters to fully develop and deliver a solidly trackable and measurable campaign with every single ingredient to create the best-tasting smoothie marketing has to offer.

(This post originally appeared on Steamfeed.)

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Filed Under: Public Relations Tagged With: Content Marketing, Digital strategy, future of PR, hybrid PR, Integrated marketing communications, marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Public Relations

Title Du Jour: Freelancer or Consultant?

06/03/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Networking Freelancers

Networking Freelancers (Photo credit: solobasssteve)

Heard on the street at the New South Digital Marketing Conference in Myrtle Beach, a few colleagues were engaged in conversation that made me realize being in business is a challenge for many.

 A woman shared she changed her title from consultant and owner of an army of one to “freelancer.” 

 She did that so businesses would think she cost less, that her hourly rate was more reasonable, and that they were getting something cheaper for less. 

 What she did was alter her professional identity to continue to earn a living by being someone she really wasn’t — just a freelancer.

 But, let’s define freelancer next to consultant, shall we?

Defining Consultant

When I think of consultant, I think of the Accentures and pwc. They lure in the big clients with boatloads of money and have massively global teams operating in all corners of the world with big budgets.

 A consultant in marketing is considered to be a senior professional with years under their belt who commands high hourly rates and takes on projects with higher budgets. 

 In general, my view of consultants is oriented to trained professionals who know their stuff, who are experts in their respective fields. They take on strategic assignments often with longer-term work bumping shoulders with drivers of companies.

 Does that fit with your definition?

 

Defining Freelancer

The freelancer is someone not inclined to open his or her own business, firm, agency, or other.  They will typically not incorporate a company under S-Corp or LLC status. They will work under their personal social security number and pay 16 percent self-employment tax.

 The freelancer is usually available at a lower hourly rate and is considered to be more tactically inclined. They seek project and take direction from other supervisors. Their interest is less in running a business and more in the freedom of choice to pick up interesting gigs that pay the bills with a level of mobility. 

 Do you agree with those definitions?

 At the end of the day, you deliver high-quality work that demands equal compensation. When clients and prospects refuse to honor your expertise, then do you attempt to downplay your competency to continue to make a living?

 It’s an interesting dilemma…what would you do?

 

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Filed Under: Public Relations Tagged With: consulting, Freelancer, Marketing and Advertising, Self-employment, small business

The Blending Of PR With Marketing Is Its Death

05/23/2013 By Jayme Soulati

The with every aspect of social marketing, search, digital marketing, and plain old marketing has provided new opportunities for older, seasoned professionals to reinvent to keep up with the changes. I know this to be true, as I am one.

Sadly, this very blend may be the demise of PR as we know it.

In a recent conversation with a table of marketers IRL originating from the disciplines of search engine optimization turned digital; PR newbies turning digital; PR veterans turning digital/social marketing; and, old-hat marketers, the chatter surrounded the old vs. new of public relations.

The old teachings of the 4Ps stemming from advertising were unknown amongst the newest professionals. Those with search engine optimization  competency likened public relations to search marketing. In fact, they said “PR is SEM.” Another had no idea that media relations and publicity are just not the entire discipline.

Me? I merely shook my head in awe at the implications for my profession within this conversation. I walked away from that discussion with a sinking feeling for tomorrow. What will PR look like in 20 years? Based on what I heard, methinks the traditional public relations profession’s demise starts now.

The blending of the disciplines is removing every single barrier and silo from core competencies and making everyone look alike. Do young professionals and our sisters in marketing and brothers in SEO understand the value public relations professionals bring to the marketing mix?  Apparently not, and who’s at fault for that?

Off the top of my head, this list below is not inclusive by any stretch, but it’s meant to provide a look at what pure public relations professionals deliver in a traditional sense:

  • Spokesperson Training
  • Thought Leadership
  • Blogger Relations
  • Industry Analyst Relations
  •  Investor Relations/Stakeholder Communications
  •  Corporate Communications
  •  Internal/Employee Communications
  •  Events Planning/Execution
  •  Community Outreach

What shook me up from my in-the-flesh conversation was the correlation people made with PR and search engine marketing. That bridge is so far from the truth, and it made my heart stop to hear it.

I’m wondering if folks believe PR peeps are only good for stuffing key words into content to game traffic and organic search?

I am all for reinventing oneself in order to earn more revenue-making opportunities. What I’m not happy about is the future of public relations when those who lack traditional hindsight are teaching new professionals that public relations is search engine optimization is digital marketing.

By Jayme Soulati

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Filed Under: Public Relations Tagged With: Business, Digital marketing, marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Media Relations, Public Relations, Search engine marketing, Search engine optimization

Social Media Conferences: Go, Gather, Gab, Gush

04/23/2013 By Jayme Soulati

This is a short and simple shout out to all you social media peeps sitting at home or in the cube with lack of energy.

I encourage you to register right now for the New South Digital Marketing Conference.

This shindig takes place May 17, 2013 in Myrtle Beach, SC, and presenters the likes of Jay Baer (that guy gets around, doesn’t he?)  and…you better watch the video to see who else is speaking!

On a final note, social media conferences are #RockHot…you have to attend 1-2 annually to get the mojo up and at ’em!

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Filed Under: Blogging 101, Social Media Tagged With: Business, Facebook, Internet Marketing, Jay Baer, Marketing and Advertising, Social Media, Twitter, United States

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