Is social media easy street?

My boss at my current internship at JDPR asked me a question today that I thought I’d pose to you:

Is social media–the blogging, the monitoring, the analytics–really cheaper than other forms of marketing/PR or is it just a new way of using a lot of man power and a lot of time?

I have heard a lot of comments lately, in the blogosphere and face-to-face, from people who seem to think social media is the fix for their marketing woes, and they do not seem to realize that strategy and time are as much a part of it as with any other medium. What do you think? Is social media easy street? Or, does maximizing its potential mean hard work by people who know what they’re doing just like traditional methods?

Movement vs. Marketing?

“They say that marketing and PR is built on relationships. Unfortunately there are plenty of BAD relationships out there. The ones that are beneficial for both sides (and last through thick and thin) are the relationships that you invest yourself in.” –Spike Jones of Brains on Fire, Greenville, SC

I read this post by Spike Jones yesterday and haven’t been able to get it out of my head ever since. To sum it up here, Spike argues that the “answer” for you and your company is not the-most-amazingest-ever-made Super Bowl ad or the-longest-ever-made-infomercial (give the man points for picking on two things that have never made logical sense to me) but instead to inspire a movement, a long-term and mutually enriching experience for the people (and don’t forget that it IS people you want to be dealing with) you’re trying to reach.

Marketing is only as good long-term as the cause behind it. I think this concept is SO vital for nonproft/activist groups to grasp. Yes, you can come up with the most of-the-moment branding, and yes, you can jump on the band-wagon of whatever is the latest and greatest medium of reaching your audience. But…ultimately…you’d better have something to say. You’d better inspire someone that your cause is one worth sticking by for the long-haul. You’d better think beyond the marketing/PR campaign you have in the works right now. Because–you can never predict when the economy is going to freak out everyone living in your country. And you can never predict which new technology will be the coolest next month. The only thing you’ve got a handle on is your message. Your mission. Your vision.

So, craft it wisely.

Anyone have any good examples of an organization, for-profit or not, that has this kind of on-going, good relationship with its people?

Spot-on use of Facebook for Online PR

I recently went to dinner at Thaicoon Ricefire and Sushi Bar in Greenville, SC for a friend’s birthday (interesting and irrelevant side-note: friend got sick after about half an hour leaving me having dinner with 5 perfect strangers, all Furman University students, which made for an entertaining evening of conversation that stopped cold and restarted about every 7 minutes).

The owner, Bobby, is a very friendly guy who came around to talk to every guest and stopped to sit   at our table for a while and discuss all manner of randomness. He realized that the majority of his regular  customers were Furman students and that Facebook was the best way to connect with them. So, as he lingered at our table, he encouraged us all to add him as a friend on Facebook by the name Bobby Thaicoon. Each week he randomly goes down his list of friends and picks 8 or 10 to receive a free meal if they come in the following Sunday. And you know what? Every Monday he has 20 or 30 new Facebook friends (undoubtly the amis of those who received free food, these are college students we’re talking about here).

His strategy is brilliant, beyond just marketing. He meets you face to face first, talks to you about life, asks you how your food is, and is an entertaining conversationalist. He’s using Facebook correctly–as a way to connect with people he has already pursued relationship with. The students love him, and they definitely love free food. So, I give Bobby’s tactics an A+. He’s drawing in large numbers of customers by reaching them where they are. And the food is awesome, too

Practice Creativity

In the last week or so I’ve found myself in a number of conversations that ultimately turned into a ping-pong match of idea-swapping and action-suggesting (just made that word up). I’ve always been an avid brainstormer. I love the struggle of finding creative solutions. Several ideas I discussed with TJ were actually implemented a few days later by an organization we’re a part of when it reached out to its volunteers to gain some feedback. I can’t lie, I loved seeing that email show up in my inbox working the public relations strategies I had suggested.

I think I could get addicted to this creativity stuff. New media promotes it. The people behind the golden wall are afraid of it. Our education system has forgotten about it. But the work world demands it.

Then, I think to myself: “How do I become one of those people who has the right idea at the right time?” Waiting for the ever-elusive “inspiration” in crunch time just won’t work. The people I know whom I considered most creative are not creative just sporadically or occasionally–they are habitually and predictably brilliant.

So this is what I came up with: I’m going to practice. You can’t have creativity without creating something. It’s the fundamental action. Solve problems. Write down those crazy ideas that usually flit away to neverland. Put them to use for free for someone who is willing to hear you out. Listen, really listen, to the most creative teachers, speakers, planners, and leaders I know. Creative people surround themselves with other creative people; it’s sort of a way to keep inspiration near by. What it comes down to is truly engaging the mind then acting in some way. What you come up with might surprise you.

A Little PR Practice for this Newbie

Saturday night I was able to represent Mocha Club at CMT’s Jason Aldean and Lady Antebellum concert at Littlejohn Colliseum here in Clemson, SC. I’ve mentioned it a lot lately, but Mocha Club is a program that is redefining “the coffee break,” asking members to give up the cost of 2 mochas a month to support different projects in Africa. Lady Antebellum is one of the celebrity sponsors of the organization.

I was officially the PR rep for the evening–I was responsible for pitching the program, answering questions and running the product table. Hundreds of people stopped by the table or at least slowed down to glance at the pictures and displays. At the end of the night, we had 5 new members sign up (which the MC director told me was actually pretty good since their usual circuit is more acoustic/coffee shop music rather than country). But I found myself wishing I could measure the amount of exposure the table had generated.

My thought was that the large display could have featured a website with a specific URL to let the MC staff know if it had led people to later check out the organization on their own. I would have also had informational stickers or hand-outs to give to everyone who was interested. A lot of people considered joining or said they’d think about it later. It would have been nice to put something in their hands to help them recall later, something that also had a specific URL to designate it was the source of their search for information. Also, the online sign ups should ask the question, “When did you first hear about Mocha Club?”

The concerts are a great tool because they get the name out there and (hopefully) get people thinking. The band spends a few minutes letting people know why they support MC and where the table. The number of people who stopped by after the band talked was a lot higher than before. So, I also learned to never underestimate the power of celebrity endorsement!