Social Media is the Playground at Recess

Matt - Your instincts are right. Consistency and value are two of the keys to successful blogging. If I posted once a month, would you consider subscribing to my blog? Probably not. If you didn't find some sort of value in what I wrote, would you consider subscribing? I highly doubt it.

I'd say you should strive for 2-3 posts per week on the business blog if you want to give it the best shot at getting some traction. And, as you noted, don't make it a regurgitation of your "news room" where you just post press releases with some hyperlinks.

I love Frogger! That's old school stuff. I'll meet you by the swings at 12:15. :)

Nice work, Danny. David is (in my opinion) one of the strong influencers in PR on Twitter. I always appreciate David's perspective on the convergence of social media and PR. To his point about having a goal and strategy, I just finished one for my team as we are slowly populating our new blog (not yet "live"). I was hesitant to have my team on the "playground" as a business (not on a personal level) because I wanted to make very clear that we weren't there to sell our services but to learn from and assist others so we could be better playmates:).

To Arik's point, we have yet to launch our blog because I wanted to be very clear with the team that we were not going to do it halfway as we would be better of not launching it at all.

Do others agree that you're better of not launching a blog unless you're going to actively blog and add value to others reading it? Common sense already provides me with this answer, but I would love to hear from others on this topic.

BTW - You can find me playing Frogger by the swingset at recess:)

Danny - first, thanks for the opportunity to share some thoughts here. It's appreciated!

Ari - I would say that not every PR agency automatically needs to be on Twitter just because others are there. Of course, I think Twitter has a lot of marketing professionals using its tools and agencies have a common interest with other marketers, so it probably makes sense for most of them to participate.

The idea is that you need a strategic reason to be there - a goal. And the goal needs to be achievable based on the place you're showing up? To continue the playground analogy, if you head to the slides because there's a large crowd there, but your goal is to swing from the monkey bars, then you're going to be disappointed.

For PR agencies and Twitter - Are people there who share a common interest with your agency? Check. What is your goal for using Twitter? If you're a large agency and your goal is to win 10 new $500,000+ accounts, I think you may miss that goal. But if your goal is to raise your agency's profile among the marketing community and to use Twitter as a recruiting tool to connect with PR folks you'd like to bring to your agency, then those are worthwhile, achievable goals.

Using that logic, David (which I agree with, having heard it many times and being a practitioner to others), would you concur that every PR agency may not necessarily need to be on Twitter? Just because every PR agency does something, doesn't mean your agency must too, right? It's about the clients and the context; if neither ask for it, then why?

I could not agree more. Our best social media efforts come from real people within our company engaging on blogs, forums and in communities where they are passionate and active members. One of the best things a company can do is identify and encourage employees (and executives!) to participate in communities that map to their true and genuine interests. Inevitably, a professional connection will emerge. Although it won't be immediate, when the professional link is drawn, it will be much more powerful, because it will be in the context of a real conversation, not just a product plug.

Leave it to David to inject a dose of thoughtfulness and big-picture thinking into the social media/brand conversation. He tends to do that :) Brands need to be very careful not to make the same mistakes they made 10+ years ago when it wasn't social media that was the cat's meow, it was Web sites. Some rushed in, only to have to reformulate and revamp years later. With social media and Web 2.0 tools, the winners will be those that, as David states, take a thoughtful approach and closely tie their plans to their organization's existing marketing and PR goals and strategies.

Matt - Your instincts are right. Consistency and value are two of the keys to successful blogging. If I posted once a month, would you consider subscribing to my blog? Probably not. If you didn't find some sort of value in what I wrote, would you consider subscribing? I highly doubt it.

I'd say you should strive for 2-3 posts per week on the business blog if you want to give it the best shot at getting some traction. And, as you noted, don't make it a regurgitation of your "news room" where you just post press releases with some hyperlinks.

I love Frogger! That's old school stuff. I'll meet you by the swings at 12:15. :)

Nice work, Danny. David is (in my opinion) one of the strong influencers in PR on Twitter. I always appreciate David's perspective on the convergence of social media and PR. To his point about having a goal and strategy, I just finished one for my team as we are slowly populating our new blog (not yet "live"). I was hesitant to have my team on the "playground" as a business (not on a personal level) because I wanted to make very clear that we weren't there to sell our services but to learn from and assist others so we could be better playmates:).

To Arik's point, we have yet to launch our blog because I wanted to be very clear with the team that we were not going to do it halfway as we would be better of not launching it at all.

Do others agree that you're better of not launching a blog unless you're going to actively blog and add value to others reading it? Common sense already provides me with this answer, but I would love to hear from others on this topic.

BTW - You can find me playing Frogger by the swingset at recess:)

Danny - first, thanks for the opportunity to share some thoughts here. It's appreciated!

Ari - I would say that not every PR agency automatically needs to be on Twitter just because others are there. Of course, I think Twitter has a lot of marketing professionals using its tools and agencies have a common interest with other marketers, so it probably makes sense for most of them to participate.

The idea is that you need a strategic reason to be there - a goal. And the goal needs to be achievable based on the place you're showing up? To continue the playground analogy, if you head to the slides because there's a large crowd there, but your goal is to swing from the monkey bars, then you're going to be disappointed.

For PR agencies and Twitter - Are people there who share a common interest with your agency? Check. What is your goal for using Twitter? If you're a large agency and your goal is to win 10 new $500,000+ accounts, I think you may miss that goal. But if your goal is to raise your agency's profile among the marketing community and to use Twitter as a recruiting tool to connect with PR folks you'd like to bring to your agency, then those are worthwhile, achievable goals.

Using that logic, David (which I agree with, having heard it many times and being a practitioner to others), would you concur that every PR agency may not necessarily need to be on Twitter? Just because every PR agency does something, doesn't mean your agency must too, right? It's about the clients and the context; if neither ask for it, then why?

I could not agree more. Our best social media efforts come from real people within our company engaging on blogs, forums and in communities where they are passionate and active members. One of the best things a company can do is identify and encourage employees (and executives!) to participate in communities that map to their true and genuine interests. Inevitably, a professional connection will emerge. Although it won't be immediate, when the professional link is drawn, it will be much more powerful, because it will be in the context of a real conversation, not just a product plug.

This is why a thoughtful communications strategy is imperative for brands to engage with others on the playground. Donu00e2u0080u0099t start a Facebook page because everyone else is doing it. Donu00e2u0080u0099t create a YouTube channel because you read an article in Adweek.
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Leave it to David to inject a dose of thoughtfulness and big-picture thinking into the social media/brand conversation. He tends to do that :) Brands need to be very careful not to make the same mistakes they made 10+ years ago when it wasn't social media that was the cat's meow, it was Web sites. Some rushed in, only to have to reformulate and revamp years later. With social media and Web 2.0 tools, the winners will be those that, as David states, take a thoughtful approach and closely tie their plans to their organization's existing marketing and PR goals and strategies.

Too many companies jump into the social media space without being fully prepared for it. In this guest post, David Mullen looks at how to work around this.
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Too many companies jump into the social media space without being fully prepared for it. In this guest post, David Mullen looks at how to work around this.
via uberVU