Often times the attraction to an agency is the multiple clients, the variety of industries, the camaraderie of other communications professionals and even the swank office. Agency PR pros are talking to media daily and don’t typically have politics to deal with since they don’t directly work for the companies they represent.

If you are considering leaving time sheets in the past, for stability, security and routine make sure the switch it is a fit for you and an answer to what you are trying to leave behind. The pros of working in-house does typically include better health benefits, more opportunity for advancement and fewer barriers to implement new PR programs.

“In-house, you are constantly building off of the previous work you have done, have a far deeper level of exposure, a greater variety of tasks and a more vested personal interested in the success of the organization,” says to Tim Whitman, Senior Manager of Corporate Communications, Application Security, Inc.

But also think of the negatives of in-house communications such as a supervisor who is not really sure what it is that you do, fewer tools to help do your job and the lack of working in a communications team for idea exchanges.

PR pros that come from agency background are sometimes better prepared to make the transition to an in-house practitioner. “I gained experience/exposure by working on multiple accounts, on multiple account teams, reporting to multiple managers, all with tight deadlines,” says Mark LoCastro, Public Relations Manager. “The skills I’ve acquired at an agency are invaluable for my in-house role.”

When considering making the switch from agency to in-house communications contemplate the following:

• Have an understanding if the company you are considering joining a good fit, not only from a business prospective and what you want to be doing, but organizationally as well.
• Analyze if the company personality matches yours.
• Interview your potential colleagues as much as they are interviewing you.
• At an agency you do not get to choose the clients you work on so switching in-house offers that unique opportunity. Be sure the company mission and subject matter interest you.
• Know what your upward mobility opportunities look like.

“I encourage people to move in-house, provided the environment is one they have reason to believe will engage their energy and their intellect,” says Joshua M. Peck, Senior Manager, Duane Morris LLP. “I believe that working with one company deepens one’s relationship with the work and makes one more effective to develop and shape messaging.”

• 10 February 2012 : Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong
• 9 February 2012 : 5 Ways that Bloggers Are Like the Cool Kids in High School
• 8 February 2012 : Drop the Salesman Mentality
• 7 February 2012 : Giant PR Lessons from the Super Bowl Champions
• 6 February 2012 : Video: Job Interview Conversations That Should Be Had

As he notes, and all PR pros know, we have been and are in the midst of a major shift in the way businesses communicate with their target audiences, and vice versa.

He analogizes the similarities to the 1600s race to discover the new world, placing the major US-founded global technology companies in the roles of world-conquering European countries; “the ocean is the internet and computers and software are the ships…”

This change in the strategies and tactics employed to communicate spreads beyond PR/business, and this shift is evident in daily global news – political unrest, calls for government restructuring, economic debates, etc.

The post includes an important observation: the TV and film industries are currently reverting to remakes and reinventions. The art of creating is laking.

[Proper and strategic] Communication is essential for creation, invention, preparation and success.

There is a growing number of businesses whose mission is to build communities to discuss relevant and/or their product(s)/service(s). Keeping the conversation engaging, interactive, interesting, and relevant is key.

As will.i.am notes:

“today..

to have a business…

you need to go where the people are…

people have the power to kill brands or make them a success…”

Rather than attempting to overthrow that power, allow it to be used in your advantage. Provide a platform/space for conversations about you/your business, and make sure to contribute, empower, manage and expand those discussions.

“in the intersection of people and companys in a conversation is where COMMERCE is found.”

Make it a point to build those communities and conversations, and keep it up.

You’ll love the result.
-

 Kelly is a traveler, New York native, public relations and social media professional, avid music lover, techie, and psychologist. She is passionate about enabling meaningful conversations and connections via the social web, believes that learning is lifelong and enjoys discovering new tactics to create and sustain brand identity and influence and maintain advocates.

• 10 February 2012 : Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong
• 9 February 2012 : 5 Ways that Bloggers Are Like the Cool Kids in High School
• 8 February 2012 : Drop the Salesman Mentality
• 7 February 2012 : Giant PR Lessons from the Super Bowl Champions
• 6 February 2012 : Video: Job Interview Conversations That Should Be Had

But I disagree with the position that larger agencies are “catching up.” With acquisition-based growth, perhaps it’s more accurate to say they’re buying up. 

At Visceral, we don’t see ourselves leading or following in this race because to us, there is no race. We are not competitors. Thinking otherwise is merely engaging in the comparison of different fruit.

We base this assertion on the 3 Cs of Culture, Cost and Clients.

Culture

When a Big Agency acquires a smaller agency, it’s akin to a professional sports organization buying talent, rather than developing it organically. This is hugely important for a number of reasons, not the least of which is because digital – despite many agencies best efforts at integration – is not only a business area, it’s a culture. And integrating this culture is not a simple plug and play model. Culture is developed and nurtured – not bought and sold.

Many small firms are built by people who’ve left a Big Agency to start a business operated through the guise of their specific take on culture – our own company included. While larger agencies are often older, and carry with them legacy corporate cultures that have been ingrained in their employees for decades.

Our entire team matriculated from large agency PR. Each of us left for our own reasons, but among the most compelling was to take the good lessons we learned at these firms and build a business with our own cultural vision – a vision that we could have not instilled in our previous big agencies without years of work and a movement of people behind us. Culture is not a buzzword, it’s promise to our employees, and by extension a promise to our clients.

Cost

We definitely eschew silos, but we don’t just say this to support sales. Silos are expensive and inefficient – two things a small agency can’t afford. How many people out there working at Big Agencies have been in a client meeting where five senior strategists showed up, asked for the billing code, provided minimal value, and then left?

Because we’re leaner, we need to be more efficient.

Our rates are also approximately half of what staff members with our respective experience might charge at a Big Agency. That’s not cheap – that’s cost effective. And a lot of companies out there, especially in this economic climate, need cost-effective solutions. Every dollar counts.

Clients

The agency world is not one size fits all.  Eschewing silos, and being nimble are, and for the foreseeable future will continue to be, huge selling points – especially for organizations that do not have communications budgets to pay often astronomic agency rates.

It’s rewarding to work on projects that make the world a better place, and to do so at a price structure in line with the budgets these clients have to work with – which is why our primary focus is working with nonprofits and cause organizations.

Few Big Agencies have cost structures – combined with an honest and supported internal approach – for providing comprehensive counsel and tactical execution for nonprofits and cause organizations. The priority is utilization – being billable. If you’re not making your numbers – nonprofit work be damned – you’re going to get a visit from senior leadership, guaranteed.

These points, which were politely swept aside in the article, are crucial to our model, collectively, as small firms. They are the reason we are and will continue to be compelling to a number of clients who need savvy digital counsel that doesn’t cost a mint.

For small firms, not only does the future “not look bleak” – it in fact looks pretty damn bright.

Will Sullivan is Visceral’s chief strategist and head of client services. He has more than ten years of digital, media, and content-development experience. Will works directly with clients on a variety of projects including digital communications planning, content strategy and production, interactive application development, comprehensive website redesigns and online marketing campaigns.

The fact is, there exists only a handful of brands that can expect to create a Twitter or Facebook account and see a mass exodus of people follow right away. For the other 99.999% of the companies not named Apple, the “if you build it, they will come” mentality is completely false. Unfortunately, many organizations interpret this to mean they don’t belong in the game of social networking and abandon all their efforts before they have a chance to ramp up.

Any group can find success utilizing social media with the right strategy as long as the metrics of success are correctly defined. Those metrics vary depending on the brand, which is why the very first step prior to proactive engagement should be due diligence. Understanding where one’s online audience exists will define the appropriate venues they should be engaging in. For example, if a brand’s research finds most of its target audience is engaging on niche message boards, it only makes sense that the brand insert itself into those conversations. From there, the brand can build relationships that will then begin to populate their Facebook page or own official message board.

It’s also important to stress that social media is not free. Sure, creating an account on a social network has no monetary cost, but the time it takes to properly utilize that account comes with a cost, as does the most often overlooked area of constructing a presence: advertising. Sure, one can always take the organic-only approach of building up a base of followers, but I’ve yet to find any medium-to-large organization that has the patience it takes to build a following of dedicated brand ambassadors this way, which is why social advertising such as through Facebook ads is so important in informing people that you’re “in the game.” The smaller or more niche a brand is, the more important a role advertising plays in growing one’s following.

I also find a large amount of organizations that have decided to connect with their audience through social media making the same mistake of not fully integrating it into their marketing mix. It’s simple really – if you want people to believe that your social networks are important, you need to show your audience that they are important. This includes placing links to your social profiles on your website, advertisements, email signatures and any other communications with your audience. It also means sending out a blast to your email list with a link to your profiles. Trust me, this is not spamming your list – if we care enough to sign up for your email list, we’re very likely to follow you on Twitter or “like” you on Facebook.

Social media does not and cannot function in a silo, and this must be understood if it’s to be properly utilized. Many customers will want to connect with an organization to simply stay current on news and announcement while many will wish to use it for customer service. Some may even wish to use it for investor relations purposes. The fact is, the users will try to define how a brand’s social presence is utilized and if the brand is not prepared to meet those needs, it’s going to have a very hard time of making meaningful connections that allow them to truly tap into the power of social media.

Tim Baker is the Vice President, Digital Strategies for FD. He has over a decade of experience in building digital marketing and branding strategies for clients across the world. You can find him on Twitter at @IamTimBaker.

Thus, The Atlantic’s fantastic “Media Diet” series is a godsend to those of us who are fascinated by media and can’t get enough of it.

But while “Media Diet” gives you the dish on what famous writers, playwrights, pundits and others read each day, I’m much more interested in what industry colleagues are reading. Part of my job at PRSA is to be keenly aware of industry and business news.

As you can imagine, I read a lot. And most of my reading is shaped around my work and general business interests. For some, it’s probably kind of boring (unless you really like reading about PR and marketing). But it works for me.

Below is my “media diet.” Take a quick look and let me know how it shapes up against yours. I would really love to know of any good trades, blogs or Twitter feeds you follow that you think are must-readers for the PR, marketing and ad biz.

Trade Media

PRWeek (both U.S. and UK editions), AdAge, Adweek, PRNewser, MediaPost and MarketingWeek are indispensable. The headlines of each comprise at least the first hour or so of every workday. Of course, I also keep up with the other PR trades (PRNews, Ragan’s PRDaily, Bulldog Reporter, among others), as well as the excellent PRMoment (a UK trade that is gaining some ground). Oh yeah, I can’t forget the Brian Morrissey edited Digiday, which is running some great pieces on the intersection of tech and digital marketing.

I also find the PR and marketing coverage in the UK’s The Independent and The Guardian to be excellent and far better than most of the U.S. coverage of those sectors. It’s a damn shame major American newspapers have been dropping their ad/marketing columns in recent years, especially as U.S. ad and PR spending continues to rise.

Business Media

I start most days reading the business/marketplace sections of The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal. (I catch up on The New York Times online throughout the day and evening.) Beyond that, I’ll take in BusinessWeek, the Economist and Crain’s New York Business for perspective on American, global and New York City business, respectively.

I also find Harvard Business Review and HBR.org fantastic for a fast-paced, strategic business perspective. Technology Review is fast becoming a favorite (it has a new business section tying tech with business trends that is well worth a read), and MIT’s Sloan Management Review offers some smart management insight.

General Media

I honestly don’t read a lot of “general media.” I wish I did because it would likely give me a better perspective of how business and industry news ties into broader consumer trends. But I just often don’t have the time. Something to work toward, I guess.

Twitter Feeds & Blogs

Where do I start? So much good content, so little time. I’m going to leave out a lot of great blogs and Twitter feeds, but if I had to take any three with me on a deserted island, here are my picks: @KenWheaton is great for witty ad-industry and general life commentary and comedy; “WOMMA Word” offers some spot-on reductive insight of word-of-mouth marketing and social media; and Todd Defren’s “PR Squared” always opens my eyes to a new angle in PR and social media that I hadn’t considered.

So that’s my “media diet.” What’s yours?

(CC) Image courtesy theritters

The social aspect of  communications is one of the many reasons I was attracted to working in public relations.  It’s also one of the many reasons why I love Twitter.  I’ve attended many tweets up and happy hours simply to meet some of my favorite people.  Heck, I even drove with Kate and TJ to visit some fabulous friends in Boston who at the time I only knew via Twitter.

It wasn’t until recently that I noticed an excessive amount of “word vomit,” the act of putting one’s foot in thy mouth, at these tweet ups and happy hours that made me second guess the information I divulge when first meeting someone.  We may talk to each other every day but do we really trust each other?  How much word vomit is just too much before others start judging?  When networking or socializing with new friends here are some topics you may want to exclude:

• Politics/Religion. We work in communications so chances are we have an opinion and have no problem voicing it.  These are topics I would keep behind doors until you really know someone.  Often times conversations that involve politics result in a heavy debate.  Unfortunately too many people like to debate without letting bygones be bygones.

• Why you hate your job. Are you having  a bad day?  Did you only get four hours of sleep?  Stop.  We have *all* been there.  It’s exhausting to listen to someone complain about their day.  If you have to a) don’t use names and b) ask for ways your colleagues can help resolve the problem.  At least that’s a constructive conversation.  (Note: be careful who and what you talk about.  You never know who will find out.)

I’m sure there are other topics that we should avoid when meeting for the first time, so I encourage you to add them below.  If you find yourself in a sticky situation and you don’t like where the conversation is going here are topics that can help:

• Hobbies. Are you in a band?  Do you love Elvis Presley (I do)?  If we’ve connected on social networks chances are it was due to common interests.  Everyone likes to talk about things they’re passionate about.

• Pop culture. We’re in PR.  We need to know about pop culture and everyone loves to gossip.  Just don’t do it about people you really know.  Famous people are fair game.

• Your bucket list. So many people today are creating their bucket lists.  It’s amazing to find out the little and big things people want to do before they die.  Chances are you’ll find out new and exciting adventures you’d like to try too.

So friends, how did you survive an awkward conversation at a tweet up or meeting your social media buddy for the first time?  Please share your advice below!

• 10 February 2012 : Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong
• 9 February 2012 : 5 Ways that Bloggers Are Like the Cool Kids in High School
• 8 February 2012 : Drop the Salesman Mentality
• 7 February 2012 : Giant PR Lessons from the Super Bowl Champions
• 6 February 2012 : Video: Job Interview Conversations That Should Be Had

The importance of trade press and niche outlets is hard to argue against. For every TechCrunch, there  is a Commercial Construction & Renovation Magazine. Keeping this in mind, I was intrigued when I saw a tweet from somebody that I respect that he was compiling a media list for an upcoming announcement.

So, I called up Allen Stern, who is the founder of Cloud Contacts, which scans, transcribes and connects your business cards on social networks, email services and CRM systems about how he approaches PR. What makes Allen’s perspective valuable is he is also the founder and editor of Center Networks, a news blog that focuses on start ups and Web apps.

Know where your paying customers are

The top piece of advice Allen shared was to make sure you know where your paying customer base is getting its information. He said that while he has been featured in the major tech blogs, they don’t generate new customers. In fact, one site’s feature on him is his top referrer, but he can only track one (yes, one) paying customer to that coverage. Instead, it was a passing mention on another site that catered to his ideal customer base that has driven the most customers.

When you are thinking about where to go (with news), think about ‘Where are your customers? Getting featured on TechCrunch if you have a food product might not make as much sense as getting on 10 different food blogs.

Allen Stern

This same idea applies to the role a company’s executives play in its communications strategy, he said. The most impact a CEO can have on a company is to be out making deals and networking. The current trend of communications plans are to have the top executives speaking to customers through a blog. But the reality is that for most small and medium-sized businesses, deals still happen in person.

Allen took this to heart, moving to Austin earlier this year so that he could more easily travel to events outside of the tech echo chamber. Instead, he is making an effort to attend industry conferences such as BlogWorld (disclosure: I am speaking there. Join me!) or real estate conferences.

Pitching the pitch man

Of course I had to ask Allen how he approaches PR for CloudContacts after receiving thousands of pitches over the year. So he shared his top three tips with me:

• Due diligence. Make sure you are researching the outlets on your pitch list. While this may sound like PR 101, Stern says he still gets numerous pitches that start out with “I see that you write about Twitter, so I thought you’d be interested in…” But he said he never writes about Twitter.
• Make your pitch interesting. Stern said if you are pitching him for the first time, don’t send a note and attach a press release. Instead, send a short 5-6 bullet point mail with links to more information.
• Stay at it. Be persistent. Don’t be afraid to follow up on a pitch, especially if it’s the first time working with him, Allen said.

As the silos around communications continue to break down, being able to tell a story is essential. Being able to get that story in front of the right people is even more important. How will you share your stories?

• 10 February 2012 : Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong
• 9 February 2012 : 5 Ways that Bloggers Are Like the Cool Kids in High School
• 8 February 2012 : Drop the Salesman Mentality
• 7 February 2012 : Giant PR Lessons from the Super Bowl Champions
• 6 February 2012 : Video: Job Interview Conversations That Should Be Had

We welcome your thoughts on the evolving role of community managers in the comments below.

Should community managers be forward-facing managers of a company’s online customer service, or should their roles evolve into more of a strategic position? In other words, are community managers anything more than glorified customer service reps?

DB: To me, customer service is strategic positioning (or has the capacity to be as much). Your main point of contact with any business during the lifetime of any relationship is via customer service. Marketing might grab your eyeballs, and sales might turn them into fitted lenses, but it’s the customer service reps that brand your company. A consumer’s experience with them is the experience with the brand; get that wrong and you get the experience wrong. Essentially, customer service is marketing, sales, PR and community management rolled into one; without the sexy titles.

KT: This is a tough one to answer, mostly because I think in certain regards, you could say that all PR and communications professionals act as customer service professionals at some point. But, I do believe that the role of community manager needs to shift more toward one of being a strategic planner and developer of beneficial long-term relationships with brand advocates and partners for a company, rather than being a digital liaison for the brand and placating online problems.

DB: Any company that thinks their community (and therefore, their community manager) has no value is probably a crap company to begin with. Swap the word community for any part of that company—customers, clients, employees, stakeholders, shareholders, investors. Every facet of a company is essentially its community; all that’s different is the wording. If you have people that are skilled in enhancing the relationships between all facets—and that can be internal or external—then you sure as hell better start respecting them and looking after them.

KT: The evolution of the PR and communications profession has seen many offshoots (publicist, spokesperson, etc.) struggle to earn their respect as strategic planners for companies primarily because early on, these positions were viewed by many as a means to keep the public away from executives and to keep information from them (the classic “gatekeeper”). From what I have seen, most community managers do a great job of not being anything like this, but they also seem to have the reverse problem: some community managers are viewed by executives as being too cozy and too personal with customers and brand advocates, to the point where they begin to lose some objectivity about how to help a company grow. When that happens, community managers lose their strategic value to a company.

How does the communications/PR profession help to keep the community manager role from evolving into a “jack of all trades” position that is lightly regarded among upper management? In essence, how do we ensure community managers are viewed as strategic planners for a company’s online engagement, rather than the people who solely rectify users’ problems?

KT: To me, this question is at the heart of what almost every communications professional—and yes, I believe community managers fall under the umbrella of communications professionals—faces at some point in their career. For community managers to thrive and to be viewed as valuable strategic assets by a company’s executive team, the role of the manager can’t be solely placating issues people have on a company’s website, blog, message board, etc. The position has to turn into a strategic development position, one that has broad oversight over developing long-term beneficial digital/online/social media relationships with clients, brand advocates, customers and potential partners. Far more than simply keeping everyone happy, management needs to give community managers the freedom to help build the business.

DB: The first thing the industry needs to do is take community manager roles seriously. Don’t plan your strategy or campaign and then say, “Oh, we’ll use a community manager for some of the online stuff,” and then bring them in once the campaign has been planned. Start from the beginning; include your community manager from the start and use their expertise and input. They do this for a living—you don’t. You want online success? Use the folks that can actually deliver it, as opposed to fumbling along and getting excited because someone shared your news on Facebook. Whoopee-do—what next, sport? How do you turn that exposure into a return for your client? A community manager will show you, and then some. You wouldn’t ask your intern to run your $10 million Gucci account; your client is Gucci, your community manager is your $10 million superstar account director.

Do companies even need community managers, or can their customer service and PR teams combine to offer best of both worlds?

DB: It depends. Is the PR or customer service person adept at online communications? Do they have the skill sets to communicate in the language and nuances of Twitter, Facebook, blog comments, forums, etc? There’s a ton of examples available where a PR agency has taken control and completely screwed up (look at the recent Nestle/Facebook debacle). So, unless the agency and the customer service team have the skills to properly manage a community, then no. Or at least not until you’re up to speed and completely comfortable in that realm.

KT: Given the evolving role that public relations is taking on within many companies, as those of us in the profession continue to show our merits for truly understanding and engaging with all brand partners—customers, partners, clients, etc.—my feeling is that a truly good PR team, one that fully understands how digital communications, blogger relations and social media work, can successfully handle a company’s community engagement efforts. Of course, the flip side of this argument is what we addressed above in that some people view the role of the community manager as a jack-of-all-trades. And if that’s the case, in my opinion, PR practitioners begin to lose some of the value in the eyes of executives that we have fought so hard to retain.

At what point does community management separate from brand advocacy? Does it, or should your community manager be your loudest voice?

KT: From my perspective and experience, the person who should be the loudest voice for your company and brand is your CEO, or whomever is truly leading the company. From a public-awareness perspective, the CEO/company leader sets the tone for everything that the brand emulates, including the brand’s online community. Having a community manager serve as the loudest or most public voice only serves to muddle the company’s message, as it appears that the company is being led by a traditional executive team on the non-digital side, and then when it comes to what takes place within the company’s online efforts, consumers may be confused that the brand is being led by someone else. That can be taken care of, however, if it is explicitly clear throughout all communications that the community manager is serving as a liaison for the brand. But I’m not sure I’m seeing enough of that explicit differentiation, which I think leads to issues down the line.

DB: I’d disagree on the CEO being your loudest voice. Just because they lead the firm doesn’t mean they’re right for leading the public face (think back to BP). And many CEO’s have absolutely no idea how to deal with this “new world” of communication—you’re really going to trust them to not screw up and make the brand look like an idiot? Even the best PR briefing can’t silence an ill-advised comment from a CEO. To me, brand advocacy and community management are two very different beasts. Brand advocacy is purely dealing with the positives, and can be employees, customers, clients or simply folks that like your brand. Community management is dealing with both positive and negative, and turning into a positive (or at least neutral and showing your side). That doesn’t necessarily mean that a community manager needs to be your loudest voice—but they will be the ones dealing with all the other voices, while the CEO goes fishing. So, who would you trust?

KT: Great point re: BP. I’ll be curious to see how this issue plays out in the years to come as more CEOs and key company executives continue to become more social media and digitally savvy, and some may even come from the digital PR/community manager side. I think we’re going to see a better blending of community management, brand advocacy and CEO/executive communications in the future where the ‘loudest voice’ becomes a blending of several voices, all on-message with each other, and all acting as broad brand advocates.

• 10 February 2012 : Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong
• 9 February 2012 : 5 Ways that Bloggers Are Like the Cool Kids in High School
• 8 February 2012 : Drop the Salesman Mentality
• 7 February 2012 : Giant PR Lessons from the Super Bowl Champions
• 6 February 2012 : Video: Job Interview Conversations That Should Be Had

Jeff:

While Tom Humbarger makes some good points for guidelines for corporate Tweeting under getting started and being honest, human, responsive and nice, I do think he misses the boat in his section on getting the message out.

For starters, you shouldn’t set a set number of Tweets that you post each day. This limits you and if you have a plethora of relative information one day it’s OK to have Twitterrhea once in a while. Limiting also cuts into your time communicating with existing customers and potential new ones. While I agree that you should set time aside for Tweeting – you also need to strike while the iron is hot. Didn’t Ben Franklin say that the early bird catches the worm?

Monitoring the social presence for a company, I always get bothered when I see things like, “Use HootSuite’s to schedule your tweets,” especially when it’s a post that also touts being human.  No matter how busy you are, really care and make time to Tweet. Automating things might be good once and a while, but to me automation is cold, dry and robotic. Social media is conversational, so have a conversation. While it doesn’t always have to be about you, it does have to be about your customers and how you give back to them.

So to close, I’d like to offer three tips for businesses looking to get into social media.

Listen – it’s OK, social media may not be for your business. Before you engage see what’s being said. Is there an audience? How can you help customers? How can you fill a void in the space? Once you have answers…

Think – about how you are positioning yourself. Don’t be the creepy guy at the cocktail party. Ease your way into conversations. Offer insight and converse first – sell second. Be sure when you do that it is a soft sell. Something that we use for this soft sell is: Hello @jeffespo, if you want to give us a try, please visit www.vistaprint.com/twitter for great deals.

Engage – it’s all about building a community. Your customers will tell you when you are doing well and when you, well suck. Listen to them, take the feedback and put it into action. Customers appreciate you taking their suggestions into action.

Now all that is left to do is rinse and repeat.

Kate:

Agreed that there is no perfect number of tweets per day, but Tom begins his post talking about how many companies debuting their social media presence don’t even know where to begin. So when those who don’t even know a RT vs. an @, a numeric measurement is probably something they need to slow their pulse when nervous.

And side note…this is so true: “most users will ignore you if you have few tweets or haven’t been tweeting for very long).” Too often accounts with very little action look like spammers to me.

Not a fan of scheduling tweets myself (never have and most likely couldn’t do it if you asked me), but we need to remember that we have our existing day jobs. The client status report can’t wait because you were finding an article to tweet according to your methodical schedule requirements. Plus, I’ve seen one too many companies overreact and think they are “striking while the iron is hot” when they are prematurely responding to unhappy or dissatisfied customers without any communications plan in place ultimately sticking their corporate foot in their social-media-happy mouth.

Lastly, social media is all about community, but to add to my previous point about reacting to fellow SM users, you can’t take every last person’s complaint about your company or tactics to heart. Some people just like to hear themselves talk (erm…watch themselves type). Remember what your company’s mission statement is and enforce your social media policies all the while keeping an open ear/eye to legitimate, constructive feedback.

Now you can rinse and repeat.

• 10 February 2012 : Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong
• 9 February 2012 : 5 Ways that Bloggers Are Like the Cool Kids in High School
• 8 February 2012 : Drop the Salesman Mentality
• 7 February 2012 : Giant PR Lessons from the Super Bowl Champions
• 6 February 2012 : Video: Job Interview Conversations That Should Be Had

We spend a lot of time discussing tactics to reach bloggers and other influentials, the latest tools for our arsenal and how to make our campaigns more successful. What we lose sight of sometimes is the art behind what we do. So, I want to spend some time talking about how to make ourselves better. How we can better tell a story. How we can be a better artist.

It starts with creativity

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet some luminaries in the creative space such as John King, the mind behind the Beastie Boys “Paul’s Boutique” and the Fight Club soundtrack and DJ Spooky, an electronic music mastermind and digital media creator. During the time I wasn’t slack-jawed at the mental firepower around me, I spent some time thinking about the creative processes.

If we approach public relations as an art, it changes the perspective necessary to approach each task. Think about how you write a press release. Open Microsoft Word, start writing, check Twitter, type a few more words, check email, respond to emails, realize you committed to have a draft in 20 minutes, repeat…

This isn’t how most artists create. It’s OK to embrace your inner artist and get creative. We are routinely challenged to “think outside the box,” but how do we do it?

Embrace your process

Maybe it’s music. Maybe it’s taking a walk to the coffee shop, whatever it is that puts you in your zone should be done. But you should keep doing it. I’ve found that turning off some of the other distractions around me helps me to zone in and accomplish a task. And I think as PR people, we need to establish a creative process to put ourselves in the zone.

I’m not going to give you a “Top 6 ways to be creative!” post because it won’t help anybody. Nobody told Van Gogh when to paint. Nobody told John King when to dig in his record bins. Nobody tells M. Night Shyamalan when to cut a scene. And I can’t tell you how to be more creative.

My point is that being an artist is all about doing what works best for you. Finding your muse to keep you focused and producing content that represents your talents and abilities. Being creative is what we do. PR is our art. The word is our medium. Content is our canvas. Being able to weave a story in a pitch document or create a video that showcases our clients’ world-changing products is art.

Now, tell me what is your muse…

• 10 February 2012 : Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong
• 9 February 2012 : 5 Ways that Bloggers Are Like the Cool Kids in High School
• 8 February 2012 : Drop the Salesman Mentality
• 7 February 2012 : Giant PR Lessons from the Super Bowl Champions
• 6 February 2012 : Video: Job Interview Conversations That Should Be Had