Category Archives: social media

What do you want from the web?

I’m preparing training material for a client: “How your Web Presence Can Help You Build a Stronger Profile”.

The point of view I am taking is what it really means when your audience can do everything your organization can do online. Think about it: individuals possess the power of the printing press without the cost of printing and distribution. All they need to figure out is how to create content and attract audiences. That of course, is the hard part.

And yet, much of what goes online leaves me with a back to the future sort of feeling.

  • Facebook: Social (Connecting and sharing with your friends)
  • Youtube: TV (Broadcast yourself)
  • Flickr: Photo journalism (The eyes of the world)
  • Twitter: News (What’s happening?)
  • Podcasting: Radio (video) by everyone

That’s why the training program will focus on providing an understandable thought framework, and then demystify some of the voodoo – like SEO, UXD (yes, that means user experience design) – to empower my client to think smart and make good decisions as they strengthen their web presence, purposefully and without running off in all directions.

My basic message is that online marketing is about connecting with the right people where they are in ways that are meaningful to them. The enabling aspects are tried and true concepts:

Online channels are about dialogue and conversation; they work because of relevance to the audience and timeliness; and, most difficult of all in this engineered world they demand authenticity.

Social media and PR

Here’s a worthwhile article on social media relations and how and why current PR is missing the boat.
Opinion: Why social media relations is more important than good PR

I think the developments in all manner of media mean that anyone with a vested interest, in particular infrastructure, that allowed them to make money in another era – like 10 years ago – needs to rapidly retool. That retooling needs to take place at the business model level. And it requires new skills and expertise and a whole different mind set about risk and managing risks to a business.

The financial crisis and global recession isn’t so much the cause of the demise of so many businesses, from banks to department stores to media empires. It simply accelerated a trend that began in the 1990s.

Teaching clients about online presence

In the last few days I’ve lead two Q and A workshop sessions with completely different clients to help them understand how they can start to use the web for much more than, well, than having a web site.

Helping clients draw the connections between their own site and how to drive the right kinds of traffic to their site means that they can become a lot more effective in their marketing, relationship building or sales efforts.

It’s been interesting to speak about these issues to non-specialists – being understood seems to involve a lot of non-web metaphors that are grounded in people’s real lives. (Something about marketing speak that mystifies and obscures rather than enlightens sometimes.)

Anyhow, having done these two sessions I now have a ready-to-go, customizable workshop on how to think about integrating online channels and using anything from SEO to search marketing to facebook or myspace and other social networking fora, to lead generation and nurture to e-news to RSS and whatever else we will be able to do on line next. Since surely its greatest hallmark remains its “evolution.”