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Blog Potomac Recap - Overview Part 2 of 3

This is part 2 of 3 in the recap of Network Solutions sponsored Blog Potomac held on 13th June 2008

Maggie Fox  CEO Social Media Group

The process for the traditional media agency is different for the online media agency. It is not about the “big idea” like “let’s do a blog”. It’s about who you want to talk to, what are they talking about and how can I join in on the conversation. Then you have to go inside. What is it about these tools that accomplish what you are trying to achieve for example, “improve customer support”.

There is the notion of “this is a campaign” with a finite budget and timeline. This is an ongoing process and you have to make sure that companies understand that otherwise the initiative will probably die on the vine.

There are metrics to measure effectiveness. There is the traditional “1 and 99 rule”. 1% will contribute and the other 99% are passive consumers. Then there are the metric tools to track site traffic and other things.

What are some examples where blogs are working internally? Very typically companies use blogs from a collaboration perspective, like IBM. They also use presence applications like Facebook to connect people. At IBM Spain, they used blogs to “flatten the dialog” where people can connect directly with executives. From a knowledge management perspective and just reading a white paper, you can connect with the person that actually wrote that and further connect with them.

Jeremy Pepper Pop! PR Jots

The basic question of social media is “why?”. With all the tools out there you need to ask the question “why should we”. If you have ever done things like participate on boards and forums you were doing social media 10 years ago. It back to one-to-one and it is about the audience. How are you communicating with your audience?

Within advertising agencies we wanted to talk to people who were enthusiastic about the products that a company sells. Selling internally you have to find the champions of what you are trying to do.

Taking control from the marketing department is challenging to find out what people are saying about the company and show people that we need to work together to get the right message out and have a full dialog. Start with the internal team the conversation that is going on outside the company. Blogging is one small component and you must see how it works within your organization. Depending on where your audience is that is where you actually engage with those platforms (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace).

10% of the pitches I get are within my area. There needs to be training within agencies so they understand that they don’t have to pitch everything and please learn how to write. Look at the blog and see if your pitch is on target.

Please look hard at your pitch, is it newsworthy? Otherwise it will never go anywhere.

The main problem is that people think this is a numbers game. How many followers on twitter or friends on Facebook can I get? This is wrong. If you don’t get a response the first time, they really don’t want to hear from you.

Lastly, have a strategy and review all of the tools to find the right strategy for your company because no two companies are alike.

NEXT TIME IN PART3

In part 3 we will continue the recap and cover the presentations by Frank Gruber, AOL’s Social Media & Web Product Development Expert, Author KD Paine and MyPrPro Principle Kami Huyse.

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