Social Media Archives - Page 18 of 25

10 Tips Why To Appoint A Social Media Executor

11/19/2012 By Jayme Soulati

Fatality and happenstance are occurring faster than furious these days. What does that mean for we in social media who are engaged more than frequently every single day of the year?

If you blog that means you have at least the Big Five channels on which you engage. You then have a second-tier list of additional apps and channels on which you’re building community, too (e.g. Instagram, GoodReads, Zemanta).

Should ever your unexpected demise occur, have you thought of how your online community should receive this news in an appropriate fashion? There is a grapevine on the Interwebz.

When our colleague, Trey, left this world of his own volition several years ago, it was horrifying to us all, and the gossip mill was alive and too well with untruths. No one took control of his blog or channels to set the record straight.

It is our responsibility to pave our pathway to the future with golden bricks; leave a legacy that keeps people speaking about you in high regard. What that means is we should not leave too many loose ends; this includes our online persona, brand identity and the many core communities we’ve established, grown and now nurture.

This entire post came to me last night, out of the blue. I have done no research to ensure what I write below is accurate; these are my own ideas. If you have others to share instead or in addition, please do. Perhaps there are services and apps people can use, too.

10 Tips Managing/Being A Social Media Executor

1. Look around your community. Is there anyone you really trust and have also had privilege of meeting IRL? Do you engage with them weekly, and is that relationship solid? Pick someone and broach this conversation. Ask them if they would be your social media executor.

2. Give them the log in information to your blog. Provide a set of instructions and expectations, as well. You should give them the name of your estate executor (at this time) so as to expect a phone call (hopefully not for decades).

3. In your will (do you have a will, peeps?), add this person’s name and contact information so the executor of your estate can reach them immediately and share the news with factual information.

4. Write The Final Post and add it to your blog dashboard in DRAFT form only. Ignore it!

5. When your social media executor gets the news, have them publish “The Final Post.” I’d also suggest the social media executor add an addendum to the post.

6. Write a draft blog post entitled, “NEVER POST THIS; for Social Media Executor.” In this piece, you will share the log in information for all the social media channels on which you engage.

7. The social media executor will communicate with the estate executor and plan how to announce on each channel that the owner of this identity will no longer be posting.

8. Give communities the opportunity to express their sentiment on that person’s channel. The social media executor will know how to communicate with each community and allow people the opportunity to share and ask questions.

This step is so critical, but maybe that’s my view and others may not agree.

9. Write down your expectation about how you’d like people to know such news. If you want to abruptly close channels with no intermittent period, then say so.

10. Have the social media executor close accounts as appropriate after communicating with the family and/or estate executor.

(Quick P.S.: The title is awkward as the 10 items are more “about” how, whether to appoint, how to be one and so there wasn’t a great way to express; hopefully you got the gist!)

‘I’m making a digital will’: Don’t let your online assets die with you

Does Public Relations Drive Marketing?

10/21/2012 By Jayme Soulati

(This post originally appeared March 10, 2010.)

Public relations drives marketing. There. I stated my firm belief in a public forum in which I’ll either get eaten alive or get nods of agreement. For many years, I’ve tested this theory in front of a variety of marketing colleagues from all shapes and sizes of companies. Some agree; and one in particular outright scoffed in my face.

To back up any theorem, research is required. Off to the manual library I went in search of public relations teachings to see what academics had to say. To my delight, a book written in 1998(!) provided wonderful support points. (Of course, we in PR can spin any statement to advantage, eh?)

The first chapter of Value-Added Public Relations, the Secret Weapon of Integrated Marketing by Thomas L. Harris, leader in marketing public relations and past-president of venerable Golin/Harris, yielded a goldmine.

I remember that decade well in my Chicago agency life. Public relations was a serious competitor for marketing attention, and the C suite had begun to invite us to the table. The tech bubble was big and getting bigger, and public relations rode the wave. Mr. Harris noted “Integrated marketing communications (IMC) puts public relations squarely among the powerful disciplines.”

Those of us working in the field knew we had special talent, and clients loved our offering that was beyond tactical services.

Our thorough ability to research a space and conduct competitive analysis from the perspective of messaging content and positioning beat marketing and advertising hands down.
Our strategic counsel aligned against business goals was an approach usually expected out of industry consultants or analysts.
Our knowledge of the media and how to create news while preparing a thought leader for the occasion was nothing a marketer or advertiser could do.
Our messaging crafted for external audiences as authoritative, credible and fact-based was developed for marketing and sales teams to use in their communications channels, too.

Said Mr. Harris, “Credibility is key, and of all the components of integrated marketing, public relations alone possesses a priceless ingredient that is essential to every IMC program – its ability to lend credibility to the product message.”

I recall the firm where I worked offered integrated marketing communications; however, it was pie in the sky. So many agencies were protecting turf lest another grab billings; camaraderie was thin.

In Mr. Harris’s book, he quotes other public relations heavyweights, including the long-time CEO of Hill & Knowlton. “Robert Dilenschneider, editor of Dartnell’s Public Relations Handbook, is convinced that the new marketing mix puts to work jointly the tools of marketing and of public relations and that public relations ‘is the glue that holds the whole thing together.’”

I don’t disagree that public relations and marketing work well integrated. Mr. Harris speaks to the “new” concept of integration 12 years ago. Have we succeeded? Not really. There are too many siloed organizations generating leads for sales teams without benefit of strategic input from public relations. There are too many public relations practitioners concentrating only on media relations (regardless of traditional or social) without regard for the holistic inside-out perspective.

A prescient statement by Mr. Harris could have been spoken today; it directly relates to the current social media position in which we’re working and breathing:

“The integrated marketing communications process begins with the consumer. It requires that marketers radically shift from thinking “inside out” (what we have to sell, what we have to say) to “outside in” (what consumers tell us about themselves, their needs, wants and lifestyles).”

Because public relations is primarily focused on the outside-in, and marketers are shifting in that direction encouraged by social media, Mr. Harris provides a solid support point to my theorem – public relations drives marketing. Add to that public relations practitioners’ continuous creativity to differentiate tactics that resonate against strategies to attain objectives, and I’m sold.

Let the fireworks begin!

(Sunday, October 21, 2012 — Editor’s Note — Public relations is getting such short shrift these days; every blogger in the profession has taken up the cry for higher quality in what we do. In 2011, for the entire year, we combined forces to rally the troops to draw attention to our lot. Then, something happened…we tired of the fact that PRSA had re-labeled the profession something entirely unexciting and unfresh; we just let it go. A lot has happened since I penned this in spring 2010; I blend with marketing more now than ever. As a B-to-B social media marketer with core PR, I integrate disciplines to deliver a high-powered deliverable. I’m convinced this happens with maturity and seasoning. I still firmly believe what I wrote…there are ideas and concepts and creative insight from the outside that help drive marketing innovation on the inside. Call it malarkey, if you will; at the end of the day, we’re all on the same team.)

Who Knows The Future of Blogging?

10/01/2012 By Jayme Soulati

There is no one I admire more than Mark W. Schaefer, and we launched on Twitter at the same time…how’s that for forever ‘raderie?

Yet, since his blog post over the summer about what’s new and exciting in blogging and his disillusion about what to expect, the blogosphere is still awash with posts, podcasts and conversation pro and con on the topic.

Last week, Jon Buscall (another dear friend and colleague I met on Mark’s blog back in the day), president of Jontus Media in Sweden, invited me to be his guest for the third time on his podcast. (He’s a phenom in podcasting, you know, and also has an amazing marketing firm in Stockholm).

I have to bring our conversation from audio to my blog and try to help Jon get a better answer. We skirted the issue very well, and Jon wrapped up the show still seeking a spot-on solution for the future of blogging. I think I let him down because my crystal ball predicts that the future of blogging depends on the blogger! That’s you and me.

So, let me try to recap what I circled with Jon about right here:

Mark’s cred is off the chain. As a leader on the Interwebz, it’s his wont to rustle feathers, be a provocateur, and toss about theory that needs proving. When someone of Mark’s caliber suggests there’s nothing new ahead for blogging and the future of blogging looks dim, what does that do for we bloggers ramping up growth plans?

Exactly…the lights go out and passions dim, too.

My Take on Blogging

If you listened to any of my podcasts with Jon, you may hear my encouragement and excitement about this channel, also called owned media.
Blogging gives each of us the opportunity to control a message, share insight, show personality, build community, influence a brand, and sell.
After 12 months of straight blogging three times a week, things begin to happen; trust me, I am speaking from experience. No one should derail the blogging journey unless they just want to take a break and come back, like Mark Harai and Paul Roberts (who just returned last week).
I’m not going to amplify my own echo chamber; I’ve written so much on blogging already…my archives are rich with passionate content about blogging.

My answer about the future of blogging is this — stay the course, put in your time, find your voice, build community, and become an expert. What your future is depends on you. Comparing yourself to another bloggers’ journey is like apple and oranges, but it bears no fruit.

More Fast Company Social Media Cover Story Disappointment

08/16/2012 By Jayme Soulati

Credit: Jayme Soulati

By now, you’ve seen the Fast Company cover story, with tongue in cheek and not in check, about social media being “kinda” sexy. It’s the tonality and a few other things in question for me. If you’re late to the party; it’s not too late to see it here.

I wrote about this Monday and wasn’t happy or unsurprised that PR is getting short shrift at the mahogany table (said Barrett Rossie in blog comments) by others in the digital space AND Fast Company.

What gave me pause when reading the story start to finish was the entire tonality of the piece as well as one word choice in particular by a Fast Company staff writer, I presume (there are no bylines for the featured tips and secrets).

In comments Monday, Geoff Reiner, of Clarity for The Boss, and I were chatting about the disappointment with that kind of sub-quality wording, IMHO.

People who read Red Head Writing know and expect her to use this language in all of her post, something I’d never do and gasp upon reading a blog like the link provided. If you don’t like it, “her house, her rules,” as she always shares.

While it doesn’t sit well with me ALL the time (I’ve been known to use the f-bomb for emphasis in an adjectival sense), what bothered me about Fast Company was my stupid expectation, the props I ALWAYS give that publication, and subsequent let down as a result.

Fast Company Poor Editing

Here’s the passage; you can be the editorial judge:

“So how does a brand be intimate with a person? It’s a major mindfucker. Brands want Facebook ads to look more like the rest of their stuff; to put this new thing in an old shape.” (Fast Company, Insider’s Secret No. 2, Facebook to Ad Creatives: Help! Please!, September 2012)

So, the crux of the matter is the following, and Jenn Whinnem also raised a great point about journos and bloggers related to respectability and credibility:

Should nationally published magazines be upheld to greater standards than professional bloggers? Is the tone of this cover piece the way Fast Company itself gets invited to the table as a content marketer/blogger (thanks Ralph Dopping for that thought)?

I laud this publication every week in blog posts because I relish its content for its ability to generate blog fodder and mojo for me as a professional blogger. This cover piece on social media, although providing great inspiration for many a blogger, isn’t what I had in mind.

What say you?

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