There is a common dream (nightmare?) that many people have. You find yourself in a public place and then you realise you are naked. You panic and try and cover yourself or run away. Freudians have a field day with it.
I’ve realised that this is how many brand managers feel when contemplating social media or [...]
Juice Digital has created an online network of media, marketing and public relations professionals intent on staying up-to-date in Digital PR and creating best practice.
I remember being miffed when all these new so-called experts appeared. Oi! I was here first. Who are these bloody Tony Parsons and Julie Birchill – what do they know? Where were they when Nick Kent and Charles Shaar Murray were changing the face of music journalism?
I see a similar reaction from some of the early-adopters in digital marketing. A mild resentment towards the new kids on the block (not the band, that is). And a snootiness to old ‘new media’. A fashionable sneer at Facebook here, a condescending shake of the head at the Skittles experiment there. Now that’s only natural human behaviour but, if unrecognised, it can lead to tunnel vision.
The term ‘expert’ in social media is anomalous. Unless you have founded something like Facebook, confine yourself to being a master. However, Digital PR professionals increasingly need to become digitally literate. Ideas and content are still king but you need digital skillsets to maximise their effectiveness.
There’s no point to your online presence if no-one can engage with you. And there’s no point getting customer feedback if you don’t respond, quickly. Don’t be afraid of negative comments – they’re an opportunity to react, respond and turn a negative into a positive.
Someone recently asked the question “All these million searches for things….where did we used to go to get these answers?” When did you last pop into the library to do some research rather than Googling it? BG - before Google
Should companies and brands establish their own community networks or develop an area in an established social network like Facebook or LinkedIn?
Think about the purpose of an email and always have a call-to-action: make it obvious what you want a satisfied reader to do and make it easy for them with a single click.
Just another occasion on which the information was fun and contextual and brought a smile to my face. Great branding.
We meet a few in-house marketing teams who get the importance of using Web technology to understand and link with the customer but their lives are still difficult: the world is still set up for the old way of doing things.