Social Media Best Practices

This morning, after returning from a BusinessWire event, I spent some time catching up on the news and reading my favorite blogs. A lot of the conversation in the PR world these days has to do with the mainstreaming of social networks and the impact they are having on traditional forms of communications. More and more companies are implementing programs that incorporate a social media component. And, increasingly, agencies are documenting their best practices and promoting their success stories.

One of the most succinct primers on the granular steps needed to develop social media content is the subject of my buddy Geoff Livingston's Now is Gone blog today. The main takeaway I have is that the basics of PR haven't changed at all- you must still learn about your audience before you open your mouth. It's ready, aim, fire- not the other way around...

Media Down, Marketing Up

Today, I started off by reading the Wall Street Journal and found a link to this story in AdAge, "Media Work Force Sinks to 15-Year Low." It begins:

U.S. media employment in December fell to a 15-year low (886,900), slammed by the slumping newspaper industry. But employment in advertising/marketing-services -- agencies and other firms that provide marketing and communications services to marketers -- broke a record in November (769,000). Marketing consulting powered that growth.

Here's the reason behind the disparity: Marketers still invest in marketing, but they have options far beyond paid media: digital initiatives, direct marketing, promotions and events, just to name a few. That creates more opportunities for consultants to help define strategies.

Agencies also have adapted, expanding beyond simply creating and placing ads. Indeed, Ad Age DataCenter research has shown that U.S. marketing-communications agencies collectively in 2005 for the first time generated less than half of their revenue from traditional media and media planning/buying.

We've all been hearing about the struggles of traditional media, especially media, but I didn't have any idea that the agency world was a growth industry.

Ten Years Since Harray Carey

Just a quick post on this President's Day to point out that today is the ten year anniversary of the passing of Harry Caray. I was raised in a suburb of Chicago where Harry was a near deity. People mostly think of Harry as the famous announcer for the Cubs, but he was first an announcer for the White Sox, which was my childhood team.

Here is some video of Harry singing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" at the old Comiskey Park.

Marketers are talking a lot now about authenticity and brands. Harry Carey was a real as you can get and his trademark glasses were an almost perfect brand for him. So much so, that when I see those odd shaped glasses, I immediately think of him, Chicago, and a fun, happy-go-lucky attitude that he personified.

Can you see a man like this becoming an announcer for a mass media outlet these days? Ummm, no. But he had a special, uncommon quality that drew Chicagoans to him. Rest in peace, Harry, rest in peace.

Where are the Cool Mobile Apps?

A lot of action in the mobility space this week, most likely prompted by the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. I've written before about mobile phones, pda's and applications on this blog before, mostly from the perspective of a enthusiastic consumer of mobile technology. However, a couple of data points today make me but on my business thinking cap.

1. This blog post by Tom Yager at InfoWorld ("The mobile app god rush"). Tom writes about the opportunities and roadblocks to developing mobile applications with slick GUI's, super fast response times and integration with the mainstream developer community. I love my PocketPC, but I have to put up with a fairly serious step down in prettiness when I view a web site, play a game, or view a spreadsheet. I can voice activate my phone using Microsoft Voice, but the feature isn't integrated into each and every application.

2. My colleague, Chris Parente, posted today about a new report on trends in mobile TV users. He says,

Here’s that survey I hinted at in the post last week and released today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. M:Metrics and Tellabs surveyed 34,000 mobile TV users in Europe and the U.S. last year. Here’s the verdict:

The Good: The market grew 36%, and is estimated to be a $270M opportunity

The Bad: Former users grew 68%, faster than the market growth. Too many people don’t like the experience and are dropping.

I think this backs up Tom's point that the user experience on broadband mobile devices isn't quite good enough and needs improvement. The question, as always, is when are the carriers going to open up their platforms to small, innovative application developers. As Tom mentions, Adobe Flash is ubiquitous on PC's but is tied down in agreements with carriers. He writes (my emphasis added),

Adobe had a shot at defining an even more appealing common ground with Flash, but it made a strategic decision that brings up the second roadblock to rich mobile apps. Adobe could have made a business of making sure that either the full Flash Player, or the embeddable content player called Flash Lite, runs on everything that moves, just as the desktop Flash Player does now. Flash Player drives sales of Adobe dev tools and back-end servers. Imagine extending that model to millions of devices, and allowing every Flash developer -- and there are so many -- to target phones. Instead of taking Flash to mobile developers and users, Adobe brought the best of Flash to wireless operators who will keep it under lock and key. Must-have features such as widgets and customizable home screens done up in Flash will exist on phones but only as created by wireless operators, who are likely to bill you for your maps and weather just as they charge for ring tones now. Even Apple saw the folly of putting developers at the bottom of the mobile food chain.

I see a slow process as the carriers slowly evolve and respond to the changing market. It's going to be frustrating for me and other consumers, however. You would think that they would make mobile apps not only easy to use but make them cool to look at too.

TMI?

I just read a great blog post by Kyle Flaherty at Engage In PR. He isn't the only one talking about it, but his post struck a cord with me. There is vast amounts of information being generated from social media (blogs, twitters, events, wikis). It's overly time consuming to read and interact with it all.

We here are Strategic place a lot of emphasis on work-live balance for our staff. We feel strongly that we best serve our clients by not burning out the employees with 90 workweeks and back breaking scope creep. We are not a "smile and dial" agency that spams reporters with context-less emails. We focus hiring staff with long experience and a deep understanding of technology markets and putting them into a position whereby they can leverage their knowledge to provide the highest level counsel and most efficient execution for our clients.

However, the growth of social media implies that, not only is there more information outlets to monitor, but you have to interact with them in a meaningful, value added way. And...you must generated your own information and communicate it clearly.

Oh, and do your job too. Oh and maintain relationships with family and friends.

All this implies to me, at least, that there has to be a diminishing return to social media, as people's attention is limited after a certain level of interaction is achieved. Where that point is located is different for each person...but it's definitely there.