Many industry members are attending the NewComm Forum this April 22-25th in Sonoma County, CA. One of Now Is Gone’s primary sources Communications Overtone’s Kami Huyse has kindly asked me to join here one pre-conference workshop on the 22nd as well as main conference session on the 24th. Here’s what you can expect…

Pre-Conference Session: Tuesday, April 22 - 1:00 - 4:30 pm: Building Integrated Social Media Campaigns: How to Leverage New Media in Existing Communication Plans

Social media is often approached as a separate discipline than traditional public relations and marketing. However, while effectively engaging in social media requires a shift in strategy, it shouldn’t be considered in isolation from the strategic communications or marketing plan. This half-day seminar is designed to give participants what they need to start incorporating social media into their public relations and marketing plans today. Attendees will learn a three-step process that will allow them to include social media tactics as they research, plan, implement and measure their overall communication strategy. They will also learn how to appropriately engage online communities and create programs that are designed to find the alignment between organizational and constituent goals. Participants will:

-Learn to incorporate social media into their overall strategic communications plans
-Leave with resources to start engaging in social media immediately
-Have a clear understanding of how to measure success

This should be interesting because integrating social media into a larger marketing plan only makes sense, yet many folks still struggle with how to engage in social media correctly. We are already modifying several of our past processes to deliver something completely new for NewComm Forum pre-con attendees.

On Thursday morning, April 24 at 10 a.m Kami and I pick up the beat again for, “Building Your Brand with Conversational Media.”

Millions of people are creating content on social networks as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. In today’s world, quick and portable micro content is king. Moreover, stakeholders are demanding that companies interact with them in real time. Communicators, from the independent to agencies to corporate communications departments, are increasingly under pressure to help their clients and companies navigate this new era and remain relevant. In this seminar, learn about the online culture and how to engage with it through a logical three-step process. Hear how other companies have used social media to position themselves as thought leaders in their field. You will:

• Learn about the latest social media tools and techniques
• Take away a three-step process to begin engage right away
• Understand how micro content will help you to position your brand
• Hear about case studies that you can apply to your own business needs

Another three-step process, hmmm. Really this session will have a lot to do with WOM, and third party credibility.

Bonus Miles

I will be in the Bay Area for most of the week and am actively trying to arrange a Tweet-up in SF of some sorts on the 21st or 23rd. If anyone would like to get together during this time, please let me know! Social media always gets great when it becomes an in person thing. Heck, I may even wrangle Kami into it!

Often, social media is referred to as “the conversation.” But on tomorrow’s Buzz Bin post, I argue that in actuality for companies conversation is not the end result. Instead it’s just a process to create engagement with stakeholders. Engagement creates strong relationships, in turn yielding measurable results for companies in social worlds (see K.D. Paine for more on this).

In my opinion there are four ways to create engagement with stakeholders using social media tools.

1) Co-creation: The customization of socially enabled product platforms by customers which creates engagement. Customers are excited because they get to build a unique and better business product that suits their needs. Examples: Google front page, Mini Coopers (image is Bobasonic’s custom Cooper), Build a Bear, etc. This can extend to the brick and mortar world, too. Think Harley Davidsons and the vast amount of customization these bikes enjoy. The key is to create a platform that customers and other stakeholders can play with…

2) Collaboration: Think Wikis (and other collaborative tools like text, chat and emai). These are designed to help people involved in a common task achieve their goals.Wikipedia is the classic example, but other forms include implementations at Adobe Systems, Intel, Microsoft and the FBI. WIkis are really hot for internal corporate environments, and make for a great tools to engage internal stakeholders in larger discussions about business.

3) Conversation: The most talked about form of engagement (pun intended), this embodies blogging and true social networking. Conversations from a corporate standpoint in these realms include corporate blogging, applications for social networks, community forums, even social advertising. Participation in the conversation works better in these environments rather than the tired old one-way approach to communications. Many think the term conversation has become a cliche, or overused, but smart people know that conversation is simply a two-way dialogue.

4) Crowdsourcing: This is a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an open call. Social technologies are great for catalyzing these types of environments, particularly for product development. Nokia’s Mosh, Dell’s Idea Storm, and MyStarbucks are the most visible corporate examples I have seen. Here’s another example featuring Livebooks. Also, Rohit had an interesting version of crowdsourcing interviews to launch his book.

So, go forth and engage!

A long overdue round up of recent reviews.  Here are snippets from the  five that have surfaced over the past month: 

MarketMe.com’s Brandi Cummings (February 28, 2008) said, “As I said, most of my reading lately has been about new media so I was not entirely optimistic that Now Is Gone was going to impart knowledge that I had not already gained elsewhere. I was wrong to feel that way. “

Web 2.0 Developer (March 20, 2008): “Perhaps there’s an additional audience for this book that wasn’t originally intended; web-heads who want to learn about PR.”

Engage in PR’s Kyle Flaherty (March 20, 2008) adds, “The book not only takes the reader through the detailed steps of what new media entails and what to be prepared for, but Geoff describes how to properly establish a blogging strategy, interact with social networks and even pitching new media outlets.”

The Corporate Communication Blog’s Chris Turner (March 25, 2008): “But here’s the challenge, while there are brilliant minds like Solis and Livingston (and others in my blog role) leading the charge for change, entrenched traditional cultures don’t change that quickly, even if they wanted to. Some organizations show rays of hope, but the majority - especially in larger organizations - maintain the status quo, showing no signs of changing to embrace social media, and probably more accurately not even knowing it exists.”

Allan Cox, author of Your Inner CEO (March 25, 2008) said, “The book is a quick read, yet it carefully explains a great deal of information from a pro who knows how to build successful PR 2.0 marketing campaigns. Don’t read this book alone. Read it with your colleagues and discuss it together.”

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the book, including our new Amazon reviews, too.

We try to feature social media marketing case studies on Now Is Gone.  Though this list is far from comprehensive for all the great work being done out there, it continues to reaffirm the power of this medium.  We’ve recently updated the Case Studies Page (see tab in the masthead) with these case studies:

Have a social media marketing case study? Want us to feature it on Now Is Gone? Email your link to geoff [at] livingstonbuzz [dot] com, and we’ll write it up and include it in this list.

You can have a social media strategy and the best IT in the world, but without passion your social media future is lost. In fact, the future of your company is lost. On this blog, you hear from communicators; now hear from one of your own in the business community.

Gary Vaynerchuk, host of Wine Library TV, talks about more than just wine.

“God gave you two ears and only one mouth for a reason.”

I admit, I heard that more times than I would care to mention. But the truth behind the sentiment applies to Social Media (and the marketing thereof.) I’m willing to bet that more than 90% of the discussion about new media tools centers around the various means of pushing or publishing your message. In reality, the biggest value we derive comes from listening.

I have a friend who uses 18 different tools to monitor conversations in the blogworld alone. They range from simple Google News Alerts to arcane engines with names that probably will be forgotten. I won’t bore you with a list, because ultimately you are the one who has to decide at what level and depth you want to pay attention to the discussion.

Instead, I am going to shill for a great little tool that helps you stay on top of conversations in progress. (I mean “shill” strictly in the amateur sense. I get no money, and I don’t know the people behind it, so it’s a clean endorsement.) It’s called “Commentful,” available as a service from Blogflux.

Commentful works best in Firefox, where a plugin automates everything. Whenever I come across a comment stream I want to track, I just right-click on Add to Commentful. The url is added to my watchlist, and I get an alert at the bottom of the browser anytime there is an update in those comment streams. I tend to track all threads where I have left a comment, and even track a few where I don’t. The beauty (for me) is getting a heads-up within minutes of a new comment.

If you’re like me (a communicator with a deep crisis communications streak) you’ll see the value instantly. If not, you can still impress those in the conversation with your attention to detail and promptness to respond. Many times, it’s not just what you say, but when you say it.

Otherwise know as Participation is Marketing.

Today’s PR and marketing professionals really seem  bent on botching social media. Whether its blindly pitching bloggers or simply publishing a blog without any regards for how that effort fits into a community, the attempts to fit social media into one-way models don’t work! All in all, it’s a general push mentality that companies can’t seem to get over. 

In a one way, mass communications world outbound controlled communications can work. In a two-way fractured media environment, companies need to understand that they are not the center of a customer’s world. Far from it. In fact, a customer probably couldn’t give a damn about Company X UNLESS it’s an active member of their community, a member who understands them and tries to resolve particular needs. Companies must become part of the larger whole.

Getting a blog out there is great. But so what?  It’s not special anymore.  People that say folks will flock to your site are operating off old marketing information from last year. 

How are people going to find out about it unless you are participating in the larger discussion?  Which social networks do you play in? Why will they care without relevant context to their problems. Ditto for blogger pitches.  Don’t treat bloggers like media!!!! Why bother unless you really know what the blogger wants, writes about and cares about? 

Consider the traffic sources for the Buzz Bin over the past year. Note that ten of the top twenty referrers by far are social networks rather than other bloggers (thanks to Pam Sorensen and Kami Huyse who are the only two bloggers in my top twenty referral list).   Community first works! Especially if the content is geared for them.

Do your homework, and participate! Then you will attract people to your social media. Corporate social media becomes what is called in advertising a capture mechanism or call to action.  On the Buzz Bin the very first call to action is the RSS subscription button on the right. And the #1 source is Google Organic, or repeat visits from RSS readers who have subscribed to the blog.

By interesting parties in your larger network on relevant issues, blog posts, white papers, podcasts, videos, webinars, events (note a mix of 1.0 tools in here), etc., become more compelling. Community members are more inclined to engage and subscribe. A social marketer pulls customer interest through attraction rather than demand it by pushing.

Yet this push attitude prevails throughout the industry. Consider Richard Edelman’s comments 10 days ago:

That means we must help clients provide their own original content and enhance the dialogue with credible and creative material. We need to continue to convince clients about the importance of including bloggers in the outreach to media, of allowing their own executives to speak spontaneously, because there is a clear dialectic between control and credibility.

Edelman runs one of  the largest PR companies in the world.  His attitude reflects his company’s approach and probably 90% of the industry. 

What we as an industry must come to understand is that two-way media forms are different.  To succeed as a PR pro or marketer, participation needs to happen.  Social media has its own unique nuances that inherently social because of two-way communication.  This change is as big as when TV introduced video to the media environment in the 50s. So much of Now Is Gone revolves around this concept. My only regret is we didn’t reinforce it with more social network discussion. 

Stop playing by the old rules, and learn the game.

Ike is correct; Talk is cheap. Marketing Lauren Vargas is much different than marketing client brands. You must get out there and get your hands dirty. As Lori Dolginoff of Johnson and Johnson discovered earlier this week, you don’t always come back smelling like roses after delving into the blogosphere! Susan Getgood, Marketing Roadmaps, does a brilliant job outlining the Camp Baby Blogstorm.

Even in the midst of this blogstorm, Johnson and Johnson has a great opportunity to strengthen blogger relations by their actions now and through Camp Baby. Practicing Blogger Relations Tips as depicted by Todd Defren assists in gaining the blogger’s ear, but fostering a deeper relationship requires more effort and authenticity. Remember you are building long term relationships. Do you use canned responses in conversation with your own friends and family?

I am a huge fan of the movie Office Space. Do you recall the Jump to Conclusions mat? Use your head… and your heart. Don’t jump to conclusions about your blogosphere community because they are just as fast to pass judgment.

Do a Google search for “Social Media” today and you get 66,200,000 hits.

“Social Media Marketing” nets you 24,000,000

“Social Media Expert” gets you even more: 86,600,000.

That should tell you something.

If you’re reading this, and looking at what social media can do for your outreach or your business, then you need to be careful.  Ask some tough questions.  Ask for case studies.  Ask for evidence.  Ask for proof of experience.  Because there are a lot of people talking about getting results in social media, and the ones who show up the highest in the Google searches might just be better at marketing themselves than they are any clients.

It’s hard to outshine someone who has 40 hours a week to promote themselves.

(Ike Pigott regularly writes at Occam’s RazR) 

Cross-posted on The Buzz Bin.

The Wall Street Journal listed Now Is Gone as a resource today for “… companies [trying to] build buzz even when marketing budgets are small.” Thanks to Scott Monty for including Now Is Gone in his interview.

Other resources listed by Scott:

• MarketingProfs Daily Fix
• Web Strategy by Jeremiah
• What’s Next Blog by B.L. Ochman
• PR Squared’s Jedi Training for PR 2.0 Tactics
• For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report
• “The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media” by Paul Gillin
• “The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly” by David Meerman Scott