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
Any brand can play – but most will not succeed in a big way
Call it the long tail applied to social media marketing – but only a few programs will be wildly successful. And I know that goals and metrics are all self determined and highly subjecive. This I can tell you with great conviction, the following three qualities will determine your brand's success to a large degree in SMM.
1. Buy in from the top
If your top management doesn't buy in, there is no hope. I'd say move on! You'll always be playing a justification game. If they don't get it, its still okay as long as they buy in and trust you to plan, execute and measure.
2. Content opportunities
People bond over content that is shared. Or shared values. If you have ample content opportunities and the ability to mobilize a grass roots team to go out and capture it – you have a higher chance of succeeding. Photos, music, stories and videos will accelerate the conversations.
3. High involvement brand
Some brands just don't have constituents/stakeholders/audiences that are that involved. Look at Starbucks – they have a highly involved audience, and they engage deeply across multiple channels. Locally, we work with a restaurant grop called YATS, here in Indianapolis. People are highly engaged with YATS across multiple pl atforms. No matter how good a marketer you are, you can't create that. Thats got to come from the inside of the company – from its product (Apple) or its service (Zappo's).
But with these three, you can reach for the stars! What do you think? Did I miss something?
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.
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.
