Danny Brown

podcaster - author - creator

Latest posts from Danny Brown

Enjoy the latest posts from Danny Brown, and feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments after the post.

All You Need is the Story

Creatives are often looking for the biggest bang for the buck.

Marketing; PR; advertising; a lot of the time these disciplines share the same questions – what cool way can we get our product in front of someone? How much budget can we allocate to this product launch? What celebrity can we get to promote us? What lifestyle magazine can we get to write about us?

All valid points, all part of the process. And there have been many examples of truly creative campaigns over the years.

But sometimes, if you really want to drive home your message, you don’t need the special effects. You don’t need the dramatic smoke machines. You don’t need the mini Hollywood budgets.

All you need is the story.

Who Owns Social Media? No-one Does

street fightThere’s a question mark over “who owns social media” when it comes to business.

Some say PR should own social media, since they’ve been dealing with the public faces of companies since time began. Some say marketing, as social media is the new email marketing is the new direct marketing is the new cold call marketing (but all wrapped up in a fuzzy warm cloak). Some say customer service; some say legal; some say sales. And so on, etc, delete where applicable…

You know who owns social media? No-one. Not an individual department. Not a niche. Not a job description. No-one.

Plenty (all) departments and sectors (should) own a piece of it.

Customer service should own the people-to-people side of it. Sales should own the business development side of it. Creative should own the strategy side of it. Legal should own the “keeping the shit off the fan” side of it. Every employee (ideally) should own some piece of it and help tell the company story. That’s the beauty of social media – everyone can have an impact.

But one single department owning social media? Sorry, personally I think that’s asking for trouble, not to mention limiting the potential of what it can offer you. Give me cross-department collaboration (over one department not collaborating and making everyone else cross) any time.

How about you?

Creative Commons License photo credit: ernop

See You at TEDx Ottawa on December 6

(From the TEDx Ottawa website): TED is an annual event where some of the world?s leading thinkers and doers are invited to share what they are most passionate about. ?TED? stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design ? three broad subject areas that are, collectively, shaping our future.

Past speakers include Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Paul Simon, Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Starck and Bono. TED was first held in Monterey, California, in 1984. In 2001, Chris Anderson?s Sapling Foundation acquired TED from its founder, Richard Saul Wurman.

So what is TEDx?

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx ? local, self-organized events that bring people together to share TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.

TEDx Ottawa Key Information and Dates

The event will be taking place on Sunday, Dec 6th starting at 10am and will span about six hours. It will consist of TEDtalk video presentations and a number of live speakers in addition to lots of time for hallway discussions.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Title: TEDx Ottawa
Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada
Link out: Click here
Start Time: 10:00
Date: 2009-12-06
End Time: 16:00

Shit is Still Shit No Matter How You Dress It

Charging BullOkay, that’s a pretty bold title, and it may put some folk off, but sometimes you have no other way of saying something without diluting it.

I was watching a conversation unfold on Twitter the other evening about public relations, and why a lot of the PR industry is in disarray.

While the “bloggers and journalists don’t like us” line was shared a few times, one of the points that came up a lot was that the industry is still seen by many as being one full of shillers.

Heck, the only industry that seems to get less favorable attention is that of social media consultants…

But to be fair, much of PR only has itself to blame (and I say this as someone with a PR background). I’ve come across way too many agency and corporate PR owners who think the sun shines out their arse. If something goes wrong, it’s often a case of blaming the intern or junior account executive. Then there are the senior executives that take the great ideas of the juniors, or interns, and pass it off as their own so they can climb the corporate ladder.

And don’t even get me started on the PR folk that still think spam is a cold meat for sandwiches, and it’s okay to throw regular regurgitated dross into your Inbox and try and pass it off as a pitch or contact. Seriously guys, I’m tempted to gather a month’s worth of junk mail and stuff it through your letterbox – it’s a similar effect.

Of course, not everyone is like this. You have great folks like Dave Fleet, Rachel Kay, Dave Mullen, Heather Whaling, Matt Batt , Arik Hanson and many more doing brilliant stuff for the PR industry. And then you have a generation-in-waiting with Sasha Muradali, Ryan Stephens, Lauren Fernandez, Stuart Foster and others leading the way for Gen Y.

But still the great work that these guys do is being diluted by the craptastic approach of others. So here’s an idea.

The next time you see a crappy PR pitch or email, challenge the sender. Ask why they sent it, and do they really think that passes as good PR. Same goes for a tweet, or blog post – question people. Don’t be aggressive about it; simply ask why they feel that approach works. Have alternative suggestions as well (nothing worse than criticizing and not having some kind of alternative).

Ask if they have any idea why you weren’t taken with the pitch. If they say, “Wrong subject matter” or similar, at least you know they’ve done their job a little bit when it comes to researching the target (you). If they have no idea why you’re disappointed, explain why and see if they can understand why your way might be better.

If it’s a junior or intern that’s sending out the various pieces of communication, find out who’s above them and challenge them – let’s not attach blame to innocent targets.

It might not change the PR industry immediately – heck, it might not change it at all. After all, like the post title mentions, shit is still shit no matter how you dress it up. And some folk just don’t take to new dress codes.

But if we can collectively change just one mindset and then work from there… Well, that’s got to be worth our time, no?

Creative Commons License photo credit: Christopher Chan

Be a Child

Children fear nothing. They may be scared of something, but it’s a different kind of fear.

They want to check out everything around them. They look at things differently from us. They see unique and new; we see “been there, done that”.

Children have that innocence that says everything has yet to be discovered. They don’t care about the safe, the boring – they want fresh and exciting. They see the world through the eyes of someone that doesn’t know the meaning of the words, “Too far” or “Some other time”.

Shouldn’t we all be like children? In life; in love; in business? Does our fear of real life stop us from overcoming everything that’s holding back our true success?

I think I’d like to be a child. How about you?

  • Note: This post originally appeared on my Posterous account. I?m still experimenting there and may remain using it, or move all posts here. In the meantime, I?ll be sharing the odd one here with you.