One of my most vivid memories of high school English was when the teacher would ask us to "diagram a sentence." I learned that there are three logical steps: Know the rules; Identify the parts; and Reconstruct and create the sentence. By following these rules, over and over, it became possible to see words, and their various constructions, as building blocks from which creativity could flow. In considering this, it occurred to me that the strategic approach to communication requires the same basic steps. Step 1: Know the read more...
Social Media Influencers: You Don’t Have to Be Popular to Be Influential
Yesterday I was answering some questions from a graduate student and I got a question that I commonly get from my non-blogging friends and other skeptics: To what extent do you think consumers are influenced by what they see or read on social media sites? It is a good question, but unfortunately, I think it is the wrong one. The truth is that you don't have to read blogs or participate in social media networking at all in order to be influenced by it. In fact, if you look at Pew Internet Research you will find that only a very tiny read more...
Social Media Only Matters When It’s Personal
Sometimes as public relations professionals and marketers, we forget the very real human relations aspect that is the real magic of social media tools. The phrase, "the conversation" has become overused, but the truth is that people are having little conversations every day. I am a big proponent of measuring results and looking for a great business case for incorporating social media into a campaign. But this last week reminded me at a personal level that social media facilitates building a network. A network that read more...
Simplicity is a Virtue: PR Could Use More of It
If you read blogs, you might go away thinking that you have a lot to learn about methodology, strategy, approach, tactical implementation and evaluation. When done well, public relations is a very complex craft. The Cold Facts Senior PR and Marketing professionals all around the world sit around tables and strategize a grand vision of a campaign that is most often implemented by junior level professionals (who are rarely asked for input). Afterward, executives pat themselves on the back for a "job well done." Nothing against executives, it is just a fact of life. When I catch myself feeling smug, I always read more...
The Ecosystem of Influence: One-Size-Fits-All Measurement Schemes Never Work
How do you measure the influence of an online content creator? It's the holy grail of measurement. If a marketer could just identify this magic formula and apply it, than everything else would fall in line. The problem is that influence is a lot like a recession, you can't really identify that it was happening until it is over. It's not easy to measure in real-time. In a new whitepaper by Jonny Bentwood, a PR consultant for Edelman, read more...
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