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I am a fan of Kami Huyse, so when she forms a strong opinion on something, I give it serious consideration (or more often, I'll just blindly follow her lead; it is easier). Kami recently blogged about the benefits of accreditation for PR pros, and on this front I'll politely disagree.

PLEASE NOTE that I have tons of respect for many, many folks who did go through the trouble of getting their APR credentials. I also want to say that I agree with Kami (and Scott Baradell, and Richard Edelman) that PR has a PR problem.

But I don't think that accreditation will improve the perception of PR pros --- does a law degree convince us that lawyers are honest? More importantly I think that:

• Accreditation only legitimizes one organization's (the PRSA) view of what is entailed by "Public Relations." In this dawning era of new media, the PR person's role is (thankfully!) more fluid and unknown than ever. This fluidity is an opportunity, one that would be quashed by force-fitting PR pros into the required learning & roles defined by a standards body. (I also think that the "institutional thinking" of the PRSA has made the organization woefully slow to consider the ramifications of the 2.0 phenomenon, but, that's fodder for another post.)

• Mandatory accreditation would raise unnecessary barriers to young people interested in "trying out" the PR profession. Lots of new graduates are ambitious about their career path, but not necessarily eager to think about studying for a huge exam that will need to be taken 5 years later to prove that they "get it." We need to motivate more entrants, if anything: I'd rather grease the skids than raise unnecessary barriers. (Besides, anyone got any stats on how gaining your APR credential impacts your salary or employment prospects?)

I look across the landscape of my own agency, which employs 75-odd (truly odd) PR people nationwide, all of 'em stars that I admire. None have "APR" affixed to their business cards, yet there's not a single one whom I wouldn't trust to give solid PR counsel to a client. I think it is up to each agency to train its people to show "competency in the knowledge, skills and abilities required to practice public relations effectively in today's business arena."

Tags: public+relations, pr, prsa, kami+huyse

Posted by Todd Defren at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (4)

Let's say you run a PR agency.

You have two newbiz pitches coming up.

One is a hot start-up in a hot space, with big expectations.

The other is an established "name brand" company with some tough challenges, but, realistic ambitions.

Winning either one will help your firm's overall reputation.

Winning the start-up will help set-you-up for more hot leads in that hot space --- with prospects who have similarly outsized expectations.

Meanwhile, winning the established company's business could not only boost revenues more substantially, but, could also assure other big companies that your agency is capable of handling their needs, and, could earn you bragging rights to a "turnaround" tale, if you are successful.

Which one do you want?

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

What do you think of my new "About Me" idea? --- rather than link to a bio page, I'm directing folks to my LinkedIn profile. Why? To integrate my "dual lives."

I run a PR firm; that is my professional life --- after my family, the agency is my true passion: our work, our staff, our clients, are the lifeblood of my reputation.

I am also a blogger. It is my hobby. In addition to meeting scores of interesting people, the simple act of capturing and communicating some of my business/PR philosophies in a public forum (and trying to be consistently relevant & interesting, to boot) has reinvigorated my interest in the trade.

While the agency is my "professional persona," this blog is my "true voice." They complement one another; both are important; both impact my professional reputation ... but they aren't always meant to be mixed.

I don't think I am the only blogger to wonder about this gray area: I see a need for a place to tell my "total" story; a place online that can integrate all the diverse fragments of my work, the sum of which = my professional reputation.

I think LinkedIn is a good spot for that: it allows people to provide their employment history, with endorsements from colleagues about their work across each career milestone. It provides for web and blog links. It gives folks a sense for how "well-connected" you are, i.e., how much time you invest in the important work of relationship-building.

You could do something similar with a Squidoo lens, but, Squidoo is not known as a place for professional advancement; it's more jack-of-all-trades. Meanwhile, critically, LinkedIn allows you to create and cultivate business relationships with friends and friends-of-friends, if you put the time in to building and nurturing your connections. (It would be great if you could combine the customization options of Squidoo with the professionalism and networking functions of LinkedIn!)

The LinkedIn profile could be like a permalink for your career. That idea won't work for all bloggers, but I can't think of why it would be a bad thing for a PR blogger.

Tags: linkedin, squidoo, public+relations, blogs, marketing

Posted by Todd Defren at 03:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy recently posted on "5 Rules of Social Media Optimization" and his effort was further riffed on by folks like Jeremiah Owyang and Lee Odden.

With nearly 2 weeks now passed (sorry, Rohit!), I would not try to add further value in the form of additional "rules" to consider for Social Media Optimization. I'd be out of my depth compared to Rohit, Jeremiah and Lee, anyway. But, I was struck by how "simple" many of these rules sounded --- not simple as in, "Anyone could think of that!" but simple in terms of deployment.

It shouldn't be all that hard to "increase linkability", "make tagging and bookmarking easy", "encourage the mashup", etc., yet, as I was explaining these concepts to a colleague, she sighed and reminded me that many of our clients have (her words), "lame-ass websites and cruddy online pressrooms."

In other words, the majority of companies still aren't doing the basic stuff very well.

Still, as a "Bleeding Edger" myself, far be it from me to suggest that this lack of savvy is a deal-breaker for SMO. Actually, I think that SMO may become one of the leading reasons that corporations adopt Social Media's tenets and tools. Why?

Even though many websites are still "lame-ass," the Corporate Marketer is now awake to the fact that SEARCH is the key to successful dealflow online. They now spend Big Money on SEO and SEM. Thus, if SMO is positioned as yet-another-way to guarantee that the greatest number of eyeballs find their corporate site, I think most marketers will embrace and allocate budget to SMO principles. In the process, they may even discover that "del.icio.us is not a porn site", "Technorati is not a gadget blog" and "Second Life is not about your midlife crisis." If the work of Social Media Optimization leads clients to such basic revelations, things will get really interesting.

Tags: rohit+bhargava, ogilvy, smo, social+media+optimization, social+media, pr2.0, public+relations, marketing, lee+odden, jeremiah+owyang

Posted by Todd Defren at 01:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

A former client of ours recently contacted me, mourning their lower-than-usual placement on the Gartner Magic Quadrant report for their industry. The marketer had spent bazillions of dollars with GartnerGroup (GG) over the years, because they felt, as too many clients do, that being a paying client might ensure --- if not a better placement --- then at least a fair hearing. They ran out of luck, this year (and I predict that this ranking fiasco will torpedo the company's "analyst relations" budget for 2007).

I wrote about the infamous Quadrant reports way-back-when (apologies for the formatting, if you're brave enough to click the link). Nothing's changed, when it comes to these reports' influence.

But I wonder if it will start to change in the dawning PR 2.0 era, as marketers get savvy about fighting back vs. "lower-left quadrant" results.

For example, I suggested to this former client that they might consider:

• Blogging about the report, and where they think the GG analysts got it wrong. Follow-on posts might also offer up notes, PowerPoint slides, etc., from meetings that the former client had had with the analysts, i.e., give readers an insider's view of the "sucking-up" process.
• Buy a URL like www.quadrantcomplaints.com or www.gartnergrievances.com and invite other "slighted" companies to air their dirty laundry re: Gartner's processes in an open forum. I can only imagine the firestorm that this might whip up! The combined voices of all those jilted "Lower Lefters" might actually wield some power --- by asking legitimate questions and/or by identifying troublesome trends...
• Issue a formal response to Gartner's opinion on the company website. Then, pour some money into Google keyword buys for phrases like "magic quadrant", "Gartner", etc., so anyone who did a search would see an ad from a disgruntled GG client that could link to the company's formal grievances. That's not the kind of linklove that GG would appreciate...but this former client has nothing left to lose.

You're certainly free to argue that these ideas are whiney and unprofessional. Maybe so. But I can't help but think that these total-transparency approaches are ultimately good for the industry.

In the PR 1.0 era, those who wielded influence were able to bully others into quiescence. In the new period now dawning, the democratization of media not only empowers the li'l guy, it also disenfranchises the powerful. For mainstream media & industry analysts to sustain their power, they will need to be able to thrive in a world continuously disinfected by the sunlight of the blogosphere.

Tags: gartner+group, pr2.0, public+relations, marketing, magic+quadrant

Posted by Todd Defren at 12:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A few people in the past few days informed me that their comments at PR Squared had not been published. I looked into this and yep, there they were --- along with many others --- stuck in the Movable Type spam filter. Urrgh!

Your comments should have all been published, and I now know that I must spend an extra 439 hours per week scrolling through the $%&#@'ing spam filter to find and publish legit comments. I hate spammers. What an annoyance.

While I am apologizing, I also want to throw out a "mea culpa" re: being a poor conversationalist. I know this whole blogging thang is, in large part, about dialogue. Thus far I have been pretty good about seeding the ground (via several posts per week) but, not so good at "cultivating" the conversation (by responding to your comments). Just so darned busy lately, folks, please do not take it personally! I love it when a new comment comes through and hope you won't take my lack of responsiveness as a sign of disinterest. I'll try to get better.

Posted by Todd Defren at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I wrote this piece about "PR 2.0" on behalf of our clients at Cymfony. Your feedback, participation, edits and comments much appreciated.

Once the broader community has had a stab at it, it will be finalized as the next installment of Cymfony's "Influence 2.0" e-book. (If ya hate the term "PR 2.0," for example, here's your chance to scrub it away!)

The first chapter of the e-book became available in mid-June, when Cymfony refashioned its image and blog as "Influence 2.0." Got a good reception, but, more feedback and volunteer editors are always most welcome, as the project progresses.

Chapter 3 of the e-book is slated to cover "Businesses at the forefront of Influence 2.0." Who would be YOUR nominees?

p.s. - For you Second Life advocates, there's even a li'l something in this chapter for you!

p.p.s. - Yeah, I know --- I've flogged SHIFT clients twice this week. Sorry. But this is the stuff I'm doin', y'know?

Tags: cymfony, pr+2.0, social+media, public+relations, marketing, pr

Posted by Todd Defren at 05:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

When Vocus bought PRWeb, I suggested that the acquisition would take PRWeb "out of contention" in terms of its long-term viability as a competitor to PRNewswire and BusinessWire.

I based this opinion on a) a terrible customer experience with Vocus (I just don't trust a word they say anymore), and, b) the fact that PRWeb, a low-cost service, would find its mission (audience, objectives, etc.) at-odds with Vocus, a premium service.

I'd like to note, as I try to often do, that this was just an opinion, just mine, and, for the record, my opinions have been wrong before.

In any case, below, PRWeb CEO David McInnis responds (and I'll respond to his note below, as well):

Todd, I would be careful to rule us out of the mix. If you look back at our service offering I think you will see that we have been doing the social media thing before it was even being talked about in any other forum online. I would really like to work with you on refining your spec because I feel that it has a few flaws. At any rate, of course Vocus would use PRN for distribution. PRWeb has never claimed to be a platform for disclosure releases. In fact we go out of our way to tell people so. We have been about direct-to-consumer, rss and search engine visibility since we began. To characterize PRWeb as something we never purported to be is unfair. I sense that you are working closely with PRN based off comments by Armon, which is fine, but it should probably be disclosed sometime.

I have read your post and disagree with you assumption that it will take PRN or BW to make the SMPR format work. I think they will be late to the game. I question the ability of the format to work in disclosure type services. It would require a segregation of their platform. I am pressed for time right now but I will try to post more on this to my blog in the near future.

We are already working on the next thing to follow the whole SEO and social media formats. Folks who focus too much attention in these areas are going to miss the next important innovations. If there is one thing that we are good at doing here at PRWeb, it is moving the cheese.

OK, good stuff, David, and thank you for taking the time to check in. I definitely acknowledge that PRWeb made great strides in its space so far, and of all the wire services is the most aggressive and forward-thinking. And, I'd love to speak with you live (our offline game of vmail tag fell off --- let's play again?), just as I have been speaking with execs from both PRN and BusinessWire (and disclosed as much on this blog and at the Social Media News Release Google Group). Lastly, I apologize if I ever mischaracterized PRWeb's proposition or capabilities.

But, I still need convincing re: whether PRN and BW are "necessary" (or not) to push adoption of the Social Media News Release. The FORTUNE 1000 look to these services for news distribution, and they have deep hooks into many legitimate news/content distribution outlets. They may not be necessary, but, their embrace of Social Media will hasten its widespread adoption as a viable marketing method more than anything else.

Again, just one fella's opinion, and I am open to debating it all. (Meanwhile, if it's not too late and fwiw, sincerely: congratulations on the acquisition!)

Tags: david+mcinnis, prweb, hrelease, social+media, press+release, pr+2.0

Posted by Todd Defren at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today our new client, Novell, put out a Social Media News Release. As you know, Novell is a billion-dollar company whose flagging fortunes have begun to re-ignite thanks to their innovation and focus on enterprise-grade Linux solutions.

Check out the release. Anything you'd want to view, nab, comment on, or re-post is there for the grabbing, including everything from broadcast-quality video advertisements, to product box shots, etc.

There are tons of quotes from partners, customers, analysts and execs: a journalist or blogger can cut&paste any that fit their need. A writer from AdWeek might just want the quote about the new advertising campaign, while an eWeek reporter may want the H-P executive's quote...

There are links to Novell executives' blogs. There are del.icio.us links. Where new Novell programs are announced, links are included that direct readers to sites containing more in-depth information...

Traditionalists will complain that this release would print out to 7-odd pages. To which I say, "Yeah? So?"

It's ONLINE. The bytes are itty-bitty and the benefits --- providing content that fits any need, and a context-rich news experience created via the use of hyperlinks and custom del.icio.us sites --- far outweigh the "length" issue.

Will this format catch on with other big companies? It depends, in part, on y-o-u. Check out the release, link to it, savage it, love it, just react to it. If the Social Media community rallies around these pioneering efforts, more and more CMO-types will take notice and dip their toes into the Social Media pool.

Tags: novell, suse, linux, open+source, public+relations, pr, pr+2.0, social+media, press+release

Posted by Todd Defren at 03:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Used the airplane ride to S.F. to catch-up on some biz reading last week, and I was inspired in three ways:

1. By the current state of the global technology industry, as suggested by the "31 Best Business Ideas in the World" cover story in Business 2.0 (August) ...
2. By the futuristic visions of the super-geniuses at work on quantum computing advances (FORTUNE, Aug. 7) ...
3. And, by the current state of the hardcopy magazine industry. The FORTUNE and Business 2.0 issues, as well as the latest edition of WIRED (with its cheeky Stephen Colbert cover), held me enthralled from Boston to Topeka.

PR folks are optimists by nature. You can't "spin" a thing if you don't have a "glass-is-half-full" world view to begin with, eh? Yet, riding JetBlue, with its DirecTV access to CNN, FOX, et al., I looked up (rosy-cheeked, inspired) from my reading ... and grew increasingly depressed at the state of the world.

Do you find yourself fearing that our brilliant future (as a country, as a people, as a species) might tank, due to the various & complex challenges we face? Global climate change + an over-reliance on fuels supplied from increasingly unstable countries + unsolvable Middle Eastern hatreds + rising Anti-Americanism + increasing American bellicosity + deepening income gaps worldwide ... Wotta mess.

Do you find yourself hoping, desperately, that we don't screw it all up? As a PR person, do you paradoxically find yourself tuning out the real news, in order to pitch a sweetened version of your clients' news?

Trying to sort through the optimism from my reading and the depression from watching the TV, I found myself thinking that mankind is literally in a race. Not between Good & Evil as much as between Hope & Despair, Opportunity vs. Futility.

I hope the optimists win.

Posted by Todd Defren at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's a thought that I first raised in response to Mike Manuel's "Lipstick on a Pig" post, in which he wondered aloud about the "tag it and they will come" aspect of Social Media...

What if a large corporation put out a Social Media News Release, complete with a "Digg This" button, and then the (misguided) CEO mandated that EVERY employee digg it? Imagine if IBM CEO Sam Palmisano did that. Their news would shoot to #1 on Digg in about 14 milliseconds.

Would that be bad?

I think, clearly, it would be seen as manipulative (at least) and a big-time warning to all Social Media mavens that this all-comers-welcome mentality also lends itself to abuse, down the road.

The good news, as I noted in my comment at Media Guerilla, is that Palmisano would be roundly panned by the 'Net community for such a bone-headed move, which would put a chill on such maneuvers.

I am predicting that just such a bone-headed move will happen, before the year is out.

Tags: public+relations, pr, marketing, pr+2.0, digg, social+media, mike+manuel, media+guerilla

Posted by Todd Defren at 07:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

When people have asked me about Steve Rubel (of the wickedly popular Micropersuasion blog), I have said:

• "I don't know him personally" (when I was in a rush).
• "I find his blog to be more about Technology than PR" (when I was feeling cranky).
• "I wish he'd linked to (or at least commented on) the Social Media News Release template, or the PR 2.0 Essentials Guide we put out, but I think he is pretty busy; and also, his job at Edelman might preclude that kind of linklove" (when I was feeling thoughtful --- or petty, let's be honest).

All of which may have led the person I was talking to to think that I didn't care for Micropersuasion all that much, nor read it loyally. 

But I gotta hand it to Steve.  Not only is he astoundingly prolific, but he comes out with some real gems.  I felt a tingle run up my spine when I read his recent post about del.icio.us pitching, for example.  His simple link to the toread service changed my surfing habits.  And that video he posted earlier this year about the guy who mocked the airline attendants' canned safety speeches was not only hilarious but was my first real hint at the future power & influence of Consumer Generated Media. 

Which is why I do read Micropersuasion, every dang day.  You should, too.  Steve's blog may, indeed, be more often about 2.0 issues and technology than about the day-to-day practice of Public Relations... but that's okay by me.  The line between the two has never been more blurry, more interesting, or more worth our careful scrutiny.

Hat-tip, Mr. Rubel.

UPDATE:  Linklove from Steve for our PR 2.0 Essentials Guide (thanks!), and, he proves with this post that he's no slouch when he does think about how "2.0" will impact PR practices.

Tags: micropersuasion

Posted by Todd Defren at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

I've noted before --- here, and at spots like the New Media Release Google Group --- that I've been talking with C-level executives from the two newswire service "biggies," PRNewswire (PRN) and BusinessWire (BW), about the Social Media News Release template we put out in May.

Since that fateful debut, PRN and BW have been pretty quiet, publicly, about their capabilities and future plans --- which has led many bleeding-edgers to wonder if they were part of an Old Guard mentality that could and should be smashed on our way to Social Media nirvana.

I don't buy it. I think we need BW and PRN to embrace and succeed with Social Media. Why?

• These are the premier distribution engines for corporate news content. They lend a stamp of credibility to news fodder. I mean no offense to smaller services like PRWeb or MarketWire, or to the companies that use these services, but, most media outlets and Wall Street types look to PRN and BW for their news.
• These services have direct hooks into numerous outlets like the Associated Press, Yahoo! Finance, et cetera, ad infinitum. News that goes out via BW and PRN is more likely to be picked up in the mainstream media.
• These wire services have invested heavily in technology & communications standards that are required of publicly-traded companies by federal regulations. A FORTUNE 1000 marketing exec may love the Social Media News Release --- but any materiel news must go out via the Wall Street protocols supported by BW and PRN.
• ...And if FORTUNE 1000 companies do not ultimately adopt the Social Media News Release, then it will likely never become more than a niche endeavor by a handful of hippy-dippy PR pros (like me).

Since releasing that template, I've humbly assigned myself a role as one of many who might help steward the future of the Social Media News Release. For what it's worth, my gut tells me that PRN and BW are committed to supporting Social Media, sooner rather than later; I think their efforts in the near-term will be looked back on as having been critical to the success of the "PR 2.0" movement.

UPDATE: I just saw at Brian Solis's place, via NewPR, that Vocus has acquired PRWeb. The plot thickens. My guess, though, is that this takes PRWeb out of play. It will become less important, not more so. (Best example? Vocus put out the news via PRNewswire!)

Speaking of NewPR, all PR-Squared posts now come with an "Add to NewPR" link. Please feel free to gimme a vote.

Tags: social+media, press+release, public+relations, pr+2.0, hrelease

Posted by Todd Defren at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I'll be in San Francisco (I left my heart there, somewhere), August 9-ish until August 25-ish.

In addition to client meetings and pitches, I am looking forward to many interesting meetings, like the Social Media Club's inaugural get-together, an informal gabfest of several Bay Area agency principals, a sit-down with New Millenium PR's Andrea Weckerle, etc., etc.

If you're around, visiting or full-time (lucky dog), and wanna gab about Social Media while grabbing a coffee, let me know. There are at least 3 Starbucks within spittin' distance of our S.F. office downtown. I'll also be spending plenty of time in the East Bay and can get together with you there, if, like me, you have found that suburbia also has its charms.

Blogging duties will likely be back-burnered for the time being... although every time I say that, I seem to have 50 new ideas!

Posted by Todd Defren at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I love boomerangs.  I love "boomerang employees."  I really, really love "boomerang clients."

Boomerang employees worked with us for a while --- long enough to become valued contributors --- but then for any number of reasons sought out "greener pastures" ... And soon realized that SHIFT was as kick-ass a place to work as I'd been saying all along.  Boomerang employees send a not-so-subtle message to our other staffers that they've truly found a good place to cultivate a career.

Boomerang clients were once prospects who reviewed our team but still chose another agency, the first time around.  Six to 12+ months later, they come back and acknowledge --- to varying degrees, depending on how big their egos and/or problems are --- that they probably should have chosen our gang in the first place.  No lie, there are about 7-or-so clients now on our roster who qualify as boomerangs.  (We've even had clients hand us our walking papers --- again, wooed to so-called "greener pastures" --- only to come back 6-12 months later to see if their old team was still available.)

Boomerang clients also send a powerful message to our staff:  We Do Good Work Here.  It's motivating to win (or re-acquire) an account that you felt you ought to have won the first time around.  It makes you work even harder for that client, to truly prove to them that SHIFT was always the right choice.

Always try to make a good impression.  Lose, and win, with grace.  Never burn a bridge. 

Words to live by.

Posted by Todd Defren at 01:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Watch this.  Not as hilarious as all those Colbert videos that are flying around (nice catch, Scott), but, well, hilarious to a New Media zealot like moi.

Favorite line: "Disintermediation! ... whatever that means."

Hat-tip to Sally Falkow.

Posted by Todd Defren at 05:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Originally posted in August 2005...

Creating a cadre of conversationistas is a relatively simple matter of re-thinking the responsibilities of our existing Account Services personnel, and making sure they have the technology tools and training they need to be effective in a Long Tail (i.e., fragmented and tierless) media environment.

Okay, maybe that sounds hard. Let's take it step by step.

In the traditional agency, account teams have a hierarchical structure (VP, Acct Mgr, and so on). Each management layer handles a major function (strategy, media outreach, research, and so on). Each team handles 1 - 4 clients. Is there room for some flexibility in this model? To create conversationistas you do not need to change this model but you do need to allow it to bend a little. You need to align your OUTSIDE clients with the INSIDE interests of agency staff.

Example: You win a new client; they manufacture bicycles of all sorts. The account (and budget) only require 4 account pros. A couple of these assigned staffers are into cycling; their research and credibility helped win the account.

But in an agency of 100 people, there are at least 10 more people who are heavy into cycling in its various permutations (mountain, road, spinning, etc.). In the current model, these extra 10 would-be evangelists are barely if ever tapped for assistance. In a Long Tail-savvy agency, however, the bicycling manufacturer's inside account manager asks these 10 people to actively evangelize for the client, in their spare moments. No rush, no deadlines, no pressure.

Here's a script for an agency veep to approach 1 of those 10 additional agency employees who are into bikes... "You like cycling, right? Mountain biking? Cool. Here's a list of 25 blogs that I think are pretty well-read. I found them on Technorati. Do you know of a few more? Great: do me a favor and subscribe (via RSS reader) to these 25+ blogs, and whenever you feel like participating - only when you are genuinely interested in the topic - please feel free to do so."

"Here's a list of our client's key messages; when it makes sense to drop their name and some of these themes, that would be wonderful - but, only when it makes sense in the context of what's going on in the blog. This is not about 'hits' or 'sales,' it's about being a part of the dialogue. Don't try to hide the fact that you are a PR rep. We're not looking to trick anyone. In fact, please go out of your way to solicit opinions from the outside community, and let people know that we'll report on their ideas and complaints to the bike manufacturer as often as possible."

Even the busiest account exec can find 15 minutes a week to participate in forums in which they'd like to hang-out, anyway. You're not "stealing" resources from other account teams, you are creating an ad-hoc group of cross-teamed enthusiasts.

It is a guerilla concept but only in the sense that it is based on convenience and interest, rather than on stealth. The RSS reader enables surgical strikes: when the reader pops up a post that piques the interest of one of the agency's evangelists, they can respond and move-on within 10 minutes, without breaking stride on their other client work.

At Technorati, as of this writing (August 2005) there are 78,739 blog posts containing the word "cycling." Probably a majority of these posts are inane and unworthy of follow-up. But if 1/10th are of-interest, that's still almot 8,000 posts to review and perhaps respond to!

In our example, though, we now have 14 conversationistas to tap into (the 4 dedicated team members plus 10 evangelists from across the agency): so each of those 14 staffers need look at about 550 posts. Keep in mind, that's just to get caught up on the state of "cycling" in the blogosphere. Once the account gets rolling, the RSS feeders will do a good job of filtering new posts as they happen, and the onerous task of culling through (and maybe responding to) 550 posts will soon go to 1-5 posts a day, per person.

Easy as pie, for a conversationista!

Posted by Todd Defren at 10:51 AM | Permalink