Insights

Social Media Goes Gonzo

In what’s going to be a first for me, I’m going to be hosting a social media blog carnival here on Tuesday 13th January 2009. The carnival will be in association with my good friend Kilroy_60, who runs an excellent read at Fear and Loathing – The Gonzo Papers.

For anyone who either hasn’t heard of blog carnivals, or taken part in one before, they’re pretty straightforward. The host (me) takes readers on a journey throughout the blogosphere, linking to blogs on a specific topic submitted by the carnival participants (you).

This is where the Social Media Goes Gonzo blog carnival comes in.

Entries are being accepted now. To enter, email me with a Subject Line of Gonzo Carnival Entry.

Entries should include…

Your name as you want it to appear in the post
The name of your blog
The blog URL
The title of the post
The post URL

Posts that qualify for entry include…

Your perspective on or experience with social media including blogging
Posts that deal with any social media site where you are or have been active
How you use social media for business or pleasure
Social media interactions you’ve had; the good, the bad and the ugly are acceptable

That should provide plenty of flexibility to select a post.

The rules for this carnival are…

Entries accepted from blogs only.
Only English language posts will be accepted.
No more than one post per blog.
No posts with titles that include profanity or pictures of a sexual nature.

We, of course, want the social media carnival to be sociable so we’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for you to play along.

To help make the social media blog carnival as big a success as possible, feel free to promote it by mentioning it yourself on your own blog – your participation in it, what it’s about, who can join in, discussing on Twitter, etc. Let me know if you do this by leaving a comment with a link to the post and I’ll make sure it’s highlighted.

If you have any questions about the carnival itself, just ask them in the comments section and I’ll answer them there, so that anyone can see if it answers a question they may have had.

Deadline for entries is 9 January at 11:59 pm. In addition to the social media carnival, the Gonzo Gratitude Carnival and the Gonzo Business Carnival are also on 13 January. Check them out and enter all three!

The Gonzo Blog Carnival Series is sponsored, as always, by For Your Success.

Look forward to seeing you here.

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The Client Isn’t Always Right

Years ago, I used to work in retail and one of the first things I was taught is that ?the customer?s always right.? I never completely went along with this view – probably why I didn?t last in retail long! Jump forward 10+ years to where I?m running my own business, and nothing?s changed, with the exception of ?client? taking over from ?customer?.

That?s not to say that I don?t hold my clients in high regard – I most certainly do, and will always go over and above the normal ?agreement? on a project and help maximize any promotional needs.

However, there also comes a time when you have to draw the line and make a stand – whether it?s client requests, client invoicing or similar. I?ll give you a couple of examples.

Clients often want something done yesterday. In this business, that?s understandable – after all, in PR the early bird truly does get the worm. Unfortunately, it can be easier said than done – sometimes you have to hold back and let others jump in first, and then come out with a kick-ass strategy that blows everyone else away.

The point is, if you?re not working on a project immediately for a client, there can often be ?complaints? that you?re not giving that client?s needs priority. Turn that around a second, though, to when you invoice your client and it can be a different kettle of fish. All of a sudden, the urgency has gone and your invoice isn?t high up on their priorities.

Now I?ll admit that so far, I?ve been pretty lucky with my clients. Most of mine either pay on time or before an invoice due date – yet I?ve still had a couple of instances where I?ve had to chase up an invoice and resort to the threat of legal action. It?s not something I want to do and I?m sure the client doesn?t really want to go down that route either.

Tip: Clients should show their provider the same courtesy and importance as the provider shows the client?s project.

Another example is when the client wants too much say in a project. Now before I go on, I just want to make it clear that I?m not saying a client should have little or no say in their own project – after all, it?s their product or service you?re promoting so their input is most definitely beneficial overall.

However, there?s a reason that a client has come to you in the first place – your expertise. You?ve obviously stood out amongst your contemporaries for a reason – so your advice and recommendations should count, right?

If you offer 5 media outlets that a client should go with, then you?ve recommended them for a reason – results. You haven?t recommended them for cost-effectiveness or amount of possible traffic your client may get – you?ve recommended them because they?re the best outlets for the particular piece of news your client wants to get out.

This works in other mediums as well – any recommendation you make for a client is based on your expertise in that field. Heck, any recommendation you make to business partners or your boss is based on your expertise in a given field – so why should that expertise and knowledge not be taken advantage of?

Tip: Your expertise and knowledge has been requested for a reason. Advise your client/boss/partner of this (politely) and let them know that if they want the best results, to trust your opinion.

As I said in my intro, I respect my clients and their needs and this post is by no means going against that. Most clients realize that while they may feel they know what?s best for their project, in reality their expertise is in the product or service itself.

When it comes to your part in it – whether it?s promotion, reviewing, selling, whatever – then that?s the time for the client to step back, offer their valuable input where it?s most effective, and leave the rest up to you. Trust me, it?s the way to get results.

Nominated in the Best Canadian Blog Awards

“Woot!” is all I can say. I’ve just found out that this blog is up for two awards in the Canadian Blog Awards.

The Canadian Blog Awards is an annual event on the Canadian Blogosphere in which Canadian Bloggers and Blog Readers vote to decide which blog is the best – either overall or within a category.

To be nominated for two awards is a huge honour, especially with the blog still being relatively new. Looking at the blogs that have been nominated, there are some wonderful reads there which makes it even more humbling to be a part of it.

The categories I’m nominated in are Best Blog for the blog itself, and Best Blog Post Series for my “Discussing Social Media with…” interviews. Round one voting starts today and runs until November 29, with just one vote per category allowed.

If you wish to vote for me in any of the categories, you can do so at the following links (with the title of the nomination in brackets):

Best Blog (Danny Brown: Social Media PR)
Best Blog Post Series (Danny Brown: Discussing Social Media with)

It’s a Crisis – Where Are You?

Financial Crisis / Finanzkrise — Image by alles-schlumpf via Flickr

One thing that’s irrefutable is that social media never sleeps. A good example of this is the recent Motrin video ad that upset a selection of mothers who felt it was demeaning. Cue an uproar on Twitter that was akin to the best viral marketing campaign and soon everyone was looking for the Motrin ad, and not for the right reasons.

What made the Motrin example particularly interesting is that for almost 48 hours there was no response from either the company or the ad agency responsible for the video.

While the Internet was ablaze with blog posts, forum discussions and Twitter conversations about Motrin and its agency, the silence from both was deafening. When Motrin eventually acted by removing the video, they also said that one thing they had learned from it all was how important it is to listen to what’s being said online.

I find this just a little scary, and yet sadly I’m not surprised. Too many companies are in the same boat as Motrin were – they’re not really listening to their audience. They haven’t connected with social media and it’s hurting them and their reputation.

As Motrin realized, once social media picks up on something it’s an instant result. Yet if they or their agency had had any kind of crisis control in place, they could have reacted to all the negativity coming out about them much more effectively.

Perhaps they do have a crisis control plan in place – yet evidently it didn’t include weekends. If someone had been monitoring their brand, the whole episode could have had a very different outcome. Instead, Motrin and the agency were left with a damage limitation exercise that, while it may not have been avoided, could have been easier to manage.

So what do we learn from this? For any business, large or small, listening is key. Your brand is your name and reputation and what makes you stand out from your competitors – you have to protect it fiercely.

I often hear the reason many companies are so slow to react to a crisis like this is because of the international time zones. I don’t think businesses can afford to let this be the case. As the Motrin example and others like it show, social media and conversations don’t take into account different timezones – why should businesses?

For large businesses that have have international offices, this weakens that argument even further. They of all people should be monitoring their brand worldwide. For smaller businesses it may not be so easy, but there are ways to stay on top of things.

For example, why not outsource on an “as needed” basis? There are many professional freelancers and virtual assistants worldwide who can act as your eyes and ears. If you can outsource to the main countries that your business deals with, surely that has to be worth the cost involved?

They can act on your behalf and come out with a company response, and depending on the severity of the crisis you can either deal with it the next day, or have someone from your company be on call to deal with it immediately.

By using tools like Google Alerts, Twitter monitoring software and other applications, your source will know as soon as something needs to be dealt with. They can then take the appropriate course of action. And because it’s on an “as needed” basis, there’s no extra expense except when it’s required.

It may not stop crises like the Motrin one from happening in the first place, but it would ensure that it was dealt with sooner rather than later. That’s got to be worth any business’s time, hasn’t it?

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Take Me To Your Leader

Most people have seen the classic sci-fi movie scene (take your pick from any made in the 1950’s) where an alien lands and says “Take me to your leader.” The next step is to take the alien to whoever leads the country – so, President of the United States, Prime Minister of Great Britain, that kind of thing.

I thought it might be interesting to swing that around a little. Put you in the place of the alien and offer you some of the blogs I read that I feel “lead” when it comes to not only social media, but pretty much anything. Just a way of sharing some blog love for people you might never come across otherwise, as well as the usual suspects.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Chris Brogan. Probably someone who’s on more people’s list of recommendations than anyone I know, but deservedly so. Offers fantastic insight into social media, as well as being a genuinely nice guy.
Mighty Red Pen. I make this one of the very first blogs I visit each morning. An often hilarious look at examples of really bad grammar.
PR-Squared. As a PR guy myself, perhaps I’m shooting myself in the foot by recommending a PR blog other than my own. But Shift Communication principal Todd Defren’s personal blog is always worth a read.
Children. Outstanding and touching blog aimed at protecting the rights of children worldwide.
Stuff White People Like. Some people have said that this blog is racist. Personally, I find it a pretty funny (and true) look at one particular part of the human race.
Daily Blog Tips. Excellent reference site for bloggers of all expertise. Offers tips on promoting your blog, formatting, and the always fun Blogging Idol contest.

These are just some of the blogs I read on a regular basis that I think you’d like. I’ll be sure to share more in the near future. How about you – any blogs that you feel are worth reading?

Footnote. The animal in the picture is a lemur. They are currently on the Endangered Species list. If you wish to help protect them, you can find more details at the World Animal Foundation.

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