Chris Brogan talks about the importance of practicing what you preach
I had a chance to chat with my new friend, Chris Brogan, at Blog Indiana (a killer event btw) a couple of weeks ago. I've been frustrated with many of my colleagues in marketing broadly as they preach to clients, but don't practice what they preach. Its a different world. You didn't need to make ads for yourself 30 years ago – your client work sold your work. With PR, you don't need to get placements or stories for yourself. But social is different, you've got walk the walk. "Eating your own dog food", as Chris says, is critical. Watch the video or read the list to get the gems from our conversation on how to practice what you preach.
- You've got to embed it in your lifestyle
- The response time is minutes
- Personal interactions can teach you how to use the tools
- Get in deep – don't skim the surface – it wont work
- Use it in the appropriate place
- Social world people – get out with the humans – you can't do it from a laptop
- Have a process in place
- Convergence works – traditional and social media
- You have to understand how humans interact
- Listen to the people who support you, to the people who you compete with, everybody around you.
- Show love to the people that love you – social media karma
- Integrate your approach – SMS, email, social, and more
- Remember to build trust
- Collect your conversations where your business is happening
- Be there before the sale – let people get to know your company in a human way
Practice what you preach views from Philadelphia
Earlier this week, I wrote a post about the importance of practicing what preach, and why its so hard for so many agencies, PR firms, and social media people to get with "eating their own dog food". Here's the view from Philly, recorded while I was speaking at SMC Philly on "the corporate mullet".
The first interview was with Beth Harte, The
Harte of Marketing, about her views on the importance of practicing what
you preach. It's easy to give other people advice but the old saying
"the cobler's kid has no shoes" doesn't work. If you're in the biz. You
better practice what you preach.
Next, I interviewed Eileen O'Brien, BIll Lublin and Gloria
Bell (also in Philadelphia) – all of whom have impressive experience sets with
Social Media/PR and more – on the importance of practicing what you
preach.
An interview with Neil Berman, President, Delivra
Neil Berman, President of Delivra, says there are lots of reasons to use email as part of your marketing mix. 5 to be precise. They're instant, affordable, dynamic, measurable, and best of all, its easy!
I started thinking more about this the other day when I saw this on chart of the day:
According to AddToAny
,
a company that provides Web publishers tools to let their users share
content, more people use Facebook to share links than any other service
– including, to our surprise, email.
Now, if you read the original article closely:
Interestingly, if you combine all of Yahoo’s
properties – Delicious, Yahoo Bookmarks, Yahoo Buzz, and Yahoo
Messenger – it accounts for 14.4 percent of sharing, making it second
on the list. Less surprising, MySpace has fallen well down the ranks with just 5 percent of shares. Other notables include Digg at 4.4 percent, Bebo at 3.1 percent, and LinkedIn at a mere 0.4 percent.
Either way, the way I look at it – email is still accounting for 11% of the way that content/information is being shared. This raises an important question for some of you that insist that social is king. Isn't email the original social? Shouldn't you be using email?
Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz | Blip.fm
Why aren't more agencies, PR firms, social media people/agencies practicing what they preach?
Let's start this locally.
Kyle Lacy posed this question in recent post entitled "the failing marketing and PR world"
"I am becoming increasingly concerned with the lack of blog writing by public relations, marketing, and advertising firms in the city of Indianapolis and abroad. The simple fact that a communications company is not in-tune with the changing landscape of the consumer driven world is troubling… to say the least."
Rodger Johnson, on the Hooiser PRSA blog in this post entitled, "How are you using social media for your clients"
While there are a few agencies experimenting with social media, I've talked with one agency owner about his effort, I don't see many of us embracing social media as tools of engagement. I wonder why that is?
In her characteristic candid style, Elizabeth Friedland responded:
Our clients are paying us to make their brands better but utilizing EVERY strategic tool at our disposal — not just social media. They're not paying us to try to launch ourselves into the social media "digiratti."
To which, Gus Pearcy, said (wow Gus – I'm not even going to start with those loaded remarks)
PR is not about the method; it's about the results. Why is Lacy so sure that PR firms are not using social media? Firms work for a client. The strategy is not something to brag about. It's like revealing the secret behind sawing the lady in half. It's clever, but it's no longer magic.
My man, Chuck Ghose jumps in with the answer I find most appealing:
The best way to learn a game is to play it. If I were hiring an agency, I'd like to see how they are using it to grow their own business. I think it would provide insight into their potential strategy for clients.
And, in his own poignant style, Robby Slaughter says:
As for Kyle Lacy's original post, I think his concern is that if you look around, many—if not most—people who wear the PR hat are not really leveraging social media. In fact most of the people in this thread seem to think social media is just another tool in the PR toolbox.
But again, from the outside, it looks like a sea change. Social media appears to be a fundamental shift to re-engage individual empowerment over the conversation
Great conversation, everybody. But, frankly I'm disappointed in the lack of answers to the real question: Why aren't you practicing what you preach?
Some questions about all the random commentary around why more firms aren't practicing what they preach?
Does transparency prevent you from doing your job? When did keeping clients thinking you perform magic ever result in sustainable relationships. Smart clients know how you do it. They work with you because you add value and you have a relationship. Sure keep a few tricks up your sleeve. Ken Honeywell, Well Done Marketing founder and overall bad ass, said it best "clients and agencies deserve each other". There are people that do it well – clearly. Hetrick Communications, Trendy Minds, Brainstorm, and many more do a great job practicing what they preach. Clearly, if anyone should specialize in social media – its PR firms. I'd love to see more discussion and some real answers.
Last point: Say you want to get in shape at your gym and you decide to get a personal trainer. Would you hire the over-weight (yes I said it), unhealthy, chain smokin' personal trainer because he or she's got a lot of great clients and awards? Sorry, maybe I'm not that open minded. Credibility matters. EAT YOUR OWN DOG FOOD (Thanks Brad Ward for clueing me into this Chris Brogan quote).
Bring it. It's a discussion. Keep it focused 
. The question is why you aren't practicing what you preach.
Indianapolis’ Scofield Editorial captures vendor client relationship dark side
If you live in the marketing, PR, social media, website, or any related field – you can feel this Youtube video. The metaphors are spot on. The virality was presumably driven purely by word of mouth – I’d say email, facebook, and twitter. Its very clever. Here’s a quick look at some of the results:
- Comments: 1,079
- Favourites: 7718
- Ratings: 3.053
- Average rating: 4.91
Consider that this video is B to B, and the 1,013,255 views are more impressive. Also interesting is that the most popular demographic is male 35-64 broadly. Nice job, Scofield Editorial – I’d say they deserve an award for great Indianapolis social media usage! Content is king! I’d be interested to see how they’ve used the virality to generate additional business.
MJ Fans upload moonwalking videos
I saw Pete Cashmore's tweet and followed the link. Transfixed I watched videos of people on this site moonwalk in one direction almost seamlessly for hundreds of meters. So what's the story – Studio Brussel aka Stu Bru, a Belgian readi station has created this website called the "Eternal Moonwalk". Fans from all across the globe – of all ages, both genders, a variety of age groups – have filmed themselves and uploaded videos of themselves (in some cases animations – home made, videos from Second Life, and more – all in honor of the "the king of Pop". To keep the flow, all videos are in the same direction and hands and feet are visible. All kinds of moonwalkers you have to see it to believe it. You'd think that the fact that people have plan something, execute it, shoot video and upload it would be a barrier to entry – but obvioulsy not!
Note: 697 m of moonwalking at the time of this screenshot!!
My friend Mark Juleen has been saying this for months – "social media ain't new" – whether its websites or email or itunes – its been around for a while. This site is about shared values – a love for Michael Jackson's dancing. I can remember being 15 years old – wearing a glove, white socks and jacket and shades – and moonwalking at a party on Woodland Terrace with my pals from La Martiniere for Boys.
As Pete says and I paraphrase – come on baby – ain't you gonna moonwalk for the whole world to see! BTW there are some MJ remixes on my profile at Blip.fm
