Posts Tagged blog
Walk the talk
Posted by John Weet in Social media on May 25, 2010
I would have thought that it was a pre-requisite for a company that positions themselves as social media experts that they should walk the talk. I received a “Hi, John Weet. xxxxx is now following your tweets on twitter” email this morning.
I clicked through to their twitter account and saw nothing to tell me who they were. It was a company account and there was no clue in the name. The profile wasn’t filled in and the last tweet was made via facebook 7 weeks previously. I also scanned down at the tweets they had made to see if they were saying anything that I wanted to listen to. There wasn’t much of value to me.
Normally I would have exited at this stag but I was intrigued. They have 4,839 followers so a lot of people are following them. They had no easy link on their profile so I had to type in the link that appeared on their background.
The link took me straight to their blog, the latest blog entry was dated 8months previously. None of the blog entries were categorised or tagged.
In the head of their home page they have a graphic that says.
“does your brand need a voice online? What is a social network? I want to start a blog? Are you looking for a way to connect with your consumers in this digitally connected world? We can help”
Looking at the “About” page you can see that they are positioning themselves as an online communications agency.
So let’s say that i stumble upon their web presence and decide that I want this company who have a relatively inactive twitter account, and who have a very inactive blog to help me out with social media. Ideally I would like to meet up with them for a chat so let’s go to their contact page and see where they are based. Oh… all I get is an email address. I have no clue where they are.
So what lessons can we learn from this. Some lessons will apply to all and others to those trying to set themselves up as social media experts.
1) Write a profile on your twitter page. If people don’t know who you are and where you are coming from why would they follow you (I could be wrong on this one as the company in question has almost ten times the followers I do)
2) If you want people to go to your space on the web once they have been to your twitter page, then make it easy for them. Put your blog URL in your profile and not just on your background.
3) If you have a blog and you are offering your services to others to help set theirs up then keep yours current
4) If you are offering your services to people then make sure they know where you are based. I know it’s not essential in our modern connected world but some people do like face-to-face meetings and they look for local companies.
Please comment if you think there are any more lessons to be learned.
When will PR professionals get up to speed on social media?
Posted by John Weet in Public Relations, Social media on July 25, 2009
I was on a domestic flight today and used the time to catch up on some reading. I was reading a CIPR profile magazine from earlier this year in which they were reporting on the CIPR marketing communications seminar. A show of hands revealed that less than 20 percent of the people there were up to speed digitally. I’m not surprised but I am also a little shocked.
I am shocked that more PR professionals are not getting up to speed. I admit that I am a little scared that I will get left behind in this revolution and that I won’t be able to offer a full range of services to my clients when they ask for it, or even worse that they won’t ask me they will just go somewhere else. If I am scared then why aren’t more people?
Here in the Wessex region of the UK the local CIPR group are trying to do our bit. We arranged a social media fast facts workshop this week. The event was based on Pecha Kucha where each presenter gets 20 slides to present his topic, but here was the challenge, each slide changed automatically after 20 seconds, whether you had finished or not. This really did make for a fast paced and fun event.
We had six speakers who were, in order of appearance:-
Tom Chapman of Headstream presenting a case study on Samsung football.
Heather Yaxley of Greenbanana presenting blogging.
Yours truly presenting twitter
Darren Lilleker of Bournemouth University presenting how politicians are using social media
Dan Kerins of the Southampton daily echo on how they are engaging with their publics through social media
and finally Luke Williams of social tech solutions on Evaluation, Metrics and ROI of social media.
The event was hosted by Five by Five digital in Southampton and was well attended by 33 people. But, with a total CIPR membership in our region of 300 this is still only 10 per cent. If the 20 percent figure from earlier on is correct and if we were to assume that all people who attended were new to the subject then that still leaves 70 percent of our membership who may not be engaged. I know the maths is simplistic and relies on assumptions but it is still a large number that are not engaged in social media. What are thy going to do if a client or boss asks them about it?
If they want to offer a full integrated campaign then they will soon have to show that they have at least considered social media. they may consider that some of this stuff is a flash in the pan and will have a limited life but what they do need to remember, as Luke Williams told our group on Wednesday is, that the tools may fade and die but the concept will remain. The public are used to instant communications and it is unlikely they will ever settle for anything less. PR professionals will need to get up to speed at some point or risk losing clients and / or a job. This may sound like scaremongering but I believe it to be a fact.
All slides from the event are available here
Just started getting spam comments on my blog…
Posted by John Weet in Social media on May 30, 2009
I’ve had a blog for a while now but have only just started getting spammed. Why is that? Does this mean that my blog is more visible now so should I be pleased? Or is there another reason for it? How do these people choose a blog to target? Is there any way I can block this from happening other than highlighting them as spam when I get them.
Playing catch up on social media
Posted by John Weet in Social media on March 30, 2009
I am playing catch up on social media. Having come into PR later in life than many (after a succesful career in engineering) I have spent the last seven years trying to get to grips with traditional PR tools and techniques let alone trying to get up to speed on social media.
I did begin to see the writing on the wall though several years ago and realised that if I am to survive in this industry I need to get engaged. I created an entry on Face book, much to the dismay of my kids. I signed up for a FlickR account and dabbled with a blog, although this was really just a means for me to rant and get things off my chest. I joined LinkedIn and also signed up for Plaxo. But that was it. I couldn’t find the time to make sense of them and to understand what they could do for me and what they could do for my clients.
I have found the time now and I understand them better, I am becoming an evangelist and spout about social media to anyone who will listen, but I do recognise that I am not an early adopter, I know I am behind the curve. As Heather Yaxley points out in her Greenbanana blog some PR people have been around this arena for years. I haven’t, I am a new boy and am certainly a long way from being an expert, but then again, who could be an expert in this field when it is constantly changing and when there is so much more out there to learn.
As an example, I came across YouAre the other day, I haven’t found the time to review it fully yet but it looks like another Micro Blogging site like Twitter, and more besides. From what I can see this started up last year and has yet to hit the mainstream (I stand to be corrected on this). As a PR professional I do owe it to myself to keep on top of sites like this, and all the others that get lumped together under the social media umbrella. If I don’t keep current then in these changing times I will get left behind.
Even though I am playing catch up I will still act as an evangelist. I am enthusiastic about the subject and I hope that my enthusiasm will rub off on my peers because what I do recognise is that, even though I am behind the curve there are many more PR professionals behind me. I will encourage them at every opportunity to get engaged and if in the process I can share what I am learning, and learn from them also, then this will in the end benefit us all.