Steve Downes, head of social media, Juice Digital, Manchester
As social media marketing is moving inexorably into the mainstream, more and more ‘specialist’ agencies are springing up. And more and more traditional agencies are adding social media marketing to their list of client services. A good thing too. In my opinion, an effective social media marketing [...]
That’s for all MPs or PPCs.
In fact let’s change that. I’ll pay each of you a tenner if you come and listen.
And why’s that? It’s because YOU JUST DON’T GET IT and it’s driving me mad!
Now I know you all have been told that Obama only won the US presidency because he had a FaceBook [...]
I once had a punch up in a Manchester bar with an eminent publisher and businessman (you know who you are). Yes, I know it’s not big and it’s not clever. But, to be fair to us both, it was 20 plus years ago when our testosterone was raging and yes, of course, it did [...]
For as long as I can remember, ‘agency people’ have been put in convenient, clichéd boxes to enable recruiters and employers to categorise and filter the individuals they’re after. This goes something like:
The suits. Generally the account managers who liaise between the client and the agency. Also encompasses those involved in strategy, planning and new [...]
What is the digital switchover?
The digital switchover is the process of turning off the UK’s use of ineffective analogue marketing tactics and replacing it with a digital marketing strategy.
Why is it happening?
The digital switchover is a sensible policy. It will mean that every company and brand will be able to receive digital marketing services through [...]
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 [...]
The vast majority of corporate websites, for example, have zero ‘personality’. Why should I engage with you rather than your equally knowledgeable competitor? Telling me about your passions would have more effect than changing the corporate typeface.
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.